This is a gritty Western set in Los Angeles. The writing is brilliant, and it's a gripping cat-and-mouse game that explores violence experienced and perpetrated by women.

This was the first time I have read Ivy Pochoda and will absolutely read another of her books!

What I loved:
1. The writing is stunning - descriptive, rich and full.
2. I loved the scenes in LA - I felt like I was there with the characters!
3. Was a book I would not normally have read!

What I wished were different:
1. It was a little abstract for me :)
2. Characters were so complex that we could have done with fewer and more! Dios - we needed more of her story and what was going through her mind. The police detective - wasn't needed for the story.

Thank you to Net Galley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for a chance to read and review!

This is a novel about women's rage and violence and victimhood captioned as a thriller. It's a crime novel more than a thriller. It wan't for me. I listened to this on audio and read part of it on kindle and my suggestion is that if you want to read this book, pick a print version and not the audio.

3 stars from me. I wanted to love this like so many of the other readers did. It was truly beautiful writing. It's raw and gritty and visceral. It's tough subject matter handled in a brutally honest way. But the writing is deeper than the story. There is a lot of subtext and abstract thinking that I think was supposed to be pulled from this, and I just don't do well with those type of books. My brain is far too simple to want to engage. I will say though, that this had one of the best quotes I've read in a long time that really strikes a chord and others have pointed out in their own reviews: Inside we all rage the same. It's how we let it out that differs. That's some heavy stuff there!! I think many will enjoy this, so I recommend you pick it up!

Sing Her Down tells the story of Florida and Dios, two inmates in an Arizona prison. The story follows them as they navigate the world on the outside and what draws them together. This was the most unique book I have read in a long time and a synopsis really doesn't do it justice.

This book explores the themes of culpability, ownership of consequences, and knowing yourself in a very unique way. The characters of Florida and Dios couldn't have been more different and more the same at the same time. This book was raw and gritty. The prose was lyrical and beautiful. This was the first book that mentioned COVID as part of the narrative that I didn't hate. Ivy Pochoda knows exactly what she is doing and I love it.

An epic modern Western… Cormac McCarthy but with women (I know, McCarthy doesn’t write female characters, which is perhaps why the author wanted to write this book?)

Pochoda has a gift for prose. There was a lot of interesting imagery about apocalyptic and biblical things.

Sing Her Down follows two women who were incarcerated together in Arizona. They’re both released together early, and in the setting of the pandemic one follows the other to Los Angeles for a guns-blazing-style showdown.

You’re told in the first chapter how the book will end, which is always an interesting move but in this case is supposed to add to the inevitability of the story. The first chapter is basically just a copy of the movie Queen and Slim, but then it gets better and more original. I wouldn’t say it’s a fun read, but the writer is obviously very talented.

Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux/MCD on May 23, 2023

Sing Her Down isn’t quite Thelma and Louise, but it echoes the theme of two outlaw women celebrating their freedom from men. The story differs in that the women are not friends. They start the novel in prison, both having chosen an outlaw path before they meet. Like the women in the iconic movie, however, they embark on a crime spree that is more impulsive than planned. They commit crimes they can’t outrun.

Florence Baum is known in prison as Florida. She comes from California money. She was on a lark with her boyfriend when, seeking vengeance against people who ripped them off, he threw a Molotov cocktail that started a fire and killed two people. She drove the getaway car — her Jaguar — and was convicted as an accomplice to murder.

Diana Diosmary Sandoval is known as Dios. She views female empowerment as having the strength to dominate or kill the people who bother you. An inmate named Kace who narrates an occasional chapter calls Dios’ philosophy “fucked up feminist nonsense.” Kace has conversations with dead people so her perspective might not be entirely reliable.

The Arizona prison where they’re serving time decides to grant early releases to suitable inmates to protect them from COVID-19. Florida gets one and promptly violates parole by catching a bus to California. Dios gets an improbable release and joins Florida on the bus. Dios apparently knew where Florida would be staying immediately after her release and followed her. How Dios got out of prison is a mystery, given her history of violent conduct as an inmate.

Florida can’t get away from Dios. They leave the bus at separate times but Dios finds Florida again. For much of the novel, why Dios is pursuing Florida — why Dios is encouraging Florida to commit violent acts — is another mystery. People are sometimes driven to behave in ways that are not easily understood.

Florida is an archetype. She represents those who instigate trouble and refuse to take responsibility for its consequences. Florida blames a boyfriend for beating the father of her friend Ronna. She blames a boyfriend for the murders that sent her to prison. Florida is the kind of person who (both literally and metaphorically) lights the match and blames someone else for starting the fire. America is full of Floridas.

Dios recognizes Florida’s true nature — “always the accomplice and never the perp” —and challenges her to own her violence. Either Dios or Florida killed an inmate named Tina, but they can’t agree about who committed the crime. The reader learns what might be the truth when Tina chats with Kace from beyond the grave.

When Dios exited the bus to resume her search for Florida, she left a body behind. Detective Lobos enters the plot in search of the bus passenger’s murderer. Lobos’ partner can’t believe a woman would cut a larger man’s throat. Lobos believes he undervalues the ability of women to be violent. Lobos muses about all the terms applied to violent women (femme fatales, black widows) that “soften their crimes — to make a sport or light of what they did, to make men able to consider that women can kill.”

Lobos faults herself for not being more violent. She searches for her ex-husband’s face in the faces of the homeless. Even as a cop, she became a domestic violence victim as her husband’s mental health deteriorated. She reviled herself for her weakness. She wants one more chance to stand up to him. She understands how rage can build, how women can kill. She sees the murder on the bus as a statement, “a demonstration of power by someone who wants to be seen.” Perhaps she sees herself that way.

While much of the novel focuses on Florida, Lobos will join the reader in understanding that Dios is more intriguing. While Dios seems to be feral, she doesn’t reveal the fullness of her personality until late in the novel. Sing Her Down is an interesting read because neither Florida nor Dios are exactly the person they initially appear to be.

The plot is atmospheric in both its classic presentation of prison cafeteria fights and its transition to LA noir. Los Angeles in lockdown, the National Guard enforcing a nightly curfew, advances the theme of “a sick city getting sicker.” The unhoused have abandoned their shelters and camps, “creating their own ruins.” Lobos and Florida don’t realize it, but they are connected by the city’s landscape, by the motion they perceive in its murals and its rippling tent cities.

The story ends with a message about the difference between strength and weakness. Violence is not strength. Walking away is not always weakness. Sometimes walking away requires the strength to put the past in the past, to walk in the direction of the future.

The chapters that feature Kace narrating her conversations with dead people are apparently intended to add a cohesive structure to the novel. The novel begins with Kace telling the reader about certain events that will occur in the story, events that might be reflected in a mural. Kace added little of value to the story. Is she really attuned to dead people or is she just crazy? Perhaps the reader is meant to decide that question, but I decided that Kace was annoying. Kace does provide important information that she gleans from Tina’s ghost, but that information could have been conveyed without filtering it through a crazed medium. That’s a relatively small complaint, but the story would have been just as effective without giving Kace a narrative voice.

Kace’s reservations about “feminist nonsense” aside, Ivy Pochoda has something meaningful to say about the choices women make in a world that is too often controlled by violent men. The ending differs from Thelma and Louise, but it’s almost as surprising and similar in its sad inevitability.

RECOMMENDED

WOW, what did I just read? Ivy Pochoda’s new novel, Sing Her Down, is a powerful and somewhat dark read. I fell into this one head first, cringing while turning to the next page...I am not familiar with this author, but definitely will be looking into other books by this one! Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with an ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Happy Friday!! Coming at you with a review of SING HER DOWN by @ladymissivy. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publisher @macmillan.audio for the audio-ARC.

Ok this is my second Pochoda reading experience and I am a big fan. She has the ability to portray the lives of women from many different perspectives but is particularly adept at sharing a sneak peek into the lives of characters on the edge of society.

In this story, Florence aka Florida is serving a prison sentence in Arizona. When her sentence is commuted 6 months before it's end date during the pandemic, she thinks this will be her chance to set things right. But in the bus ride to her freedom she realizes another prisoner, Dios was also released at the same time and is on the same bus. Dios, who is the only prisoner that knows her secrets. When Dios catches up with Florida after she tries to escape her off the bus, Florida is dragged into a downward spiral that will leave her reeling, paranoid and in a while lot more trouble than she had planned.

Written in the beginning of the COVID pandemic this book was an edge of your seat gritty thriller that had me looking over my own shoulder. The inner thoughts of the two main characters along with the Detective searching for them revealed grave faults, secrets and vulnerabilities. It felt like Dios was literally and figuratively haunting Florida and weedling her way into her thoughts. I could feel the underlying sense of dread and the sweaty mix of fear and the Arizona sun.

Brilliant writing and another story by Pochoda that has me questioning my own judgements and stereotypes of those around me.

Definitely give this one a try if you like gritty thrillers, character studies and the HEAT! Just came out last month and is on shelves now!

I am headed up to the mountains this weekend to escape the heat a bit after begging for the sun for months. 🤣 How about you?

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#bibliophile #booknerd #bookstagram #thriller #femaleexperience #ivypochoda #singherdown #netgalley #macmillanaudio

Ivy Pochoda is one of the best authors writing now and her characters jump off the page and sit next to you and keep nudging you as you read their story. Unbelievably believable study of women, violence and circumstances. Towards the last third, I began to read slower, only a few pages an hour to keep me in their world. Highly recommended.

I had no expectations going into this other than knowing it was billed as a Killing Eve meets Western situation, and it over-delivered! I thought Florida and Rios were fantastically written, but the real star here is the number of varying female voices we get, owning this story. I felt like we were always headed to a Western-style shootout (and I guess we were), but the how of getting there was just as important and probably more important than the why. This is a very smart book, and the prose is perfectly pitched. I'm not sure I'd call this a Western, but I loved the use of language and setting. My favorite character was the cop (who knew?) but I could definitely see the challenges of being a Florence with a Florida alongside.

"Four stars! I would hand this to someone who likes gritty darkness, or wants to explore why and how women can become killers- I do think Pochoda raises more questions than she answers, but I enjoyed the ride.

I loved this book, but I also have some mixed feelings about the characters and how we're led to feel about them. This story follows Florida and Dios, two women who are released early from an Arizona prison because of overcrowding during the pandemic. Following the state's failure to follow through on it's promises to take care of her during her quarantine, Florida leaves Arizona, breaking her parole. Dios, entranced by Florida and intent on revealing her to be the violent criminal that she knows her to be, follows her. Through a series of violent events, the two draw the attention of an LA cop, Detective Lobos, who begins tracking them.

I loved the prose and the imagery of a pandemic deserted LA. There were so many incredible allusions to classic Western imagery without being campy. I also loved the pointed exploration of violent female rage. I wish we had a little more time with Dios. My main problem with this book is the way the author doesn't really interrogate the way some kinds of female rage and violence, mainly the state sponsored ones, are upheld, whereas others are punished. Likewise, she doesn't really delve into the prison industrial complex and its failings that sparked the "cat and mouse" game at the center of the book.

I still really enjoyed this book, and Ivy Pochoda is clearly a very gifted author, but the above points really gnawed at me. 3.5 stars rounded to 4.

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, MCD for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While this book started off very slow, the more I read, the more intense and interesting it became.
Two really dysfunctional women released from prison early, going back and forth with some of each or their backstory and the female detective who gets involved tracking them with her own dysfunctions. Also some other female prisoners and their storied thrown in.
Thank you to Netgalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux MCD and the Author Ivy Pochoda for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

I love her writing style and have enjoyed previous books. This book is no different. Such a unique voice, and I loved the dual timelines.

I love a good western but I wouldn’t consider this book a western at all. Although it does happen in western towns and they do have a showdown doesn’t know where resembles the western but having said that I had first found it hard to get into although I did love the second half of the book with the detective I just would be lying if I said I enjoyed the whole book because I did not. I have sympathy for those down on their lock but not everyone is there due to happenstance and summer there due to their own bad choices neglectful ways an irresponsible decisions having said that I would still give the book 3 stars the riding is great the characters are interesting and I would love to see the Miral. If you love Gritty books about women then you’ll love “sing her down” they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions in this book is a great example of that. I received it from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

My Thoughts:

We follow Two women that have been just released from prison early due to covid. But Florida soon learn after getting on the bus to leave that another inmate Dios is on that same bus. Dios's fixation with Florida turns into a dangerous obsession, and a deadly cat-and-mouse chase ensues from Arizona to the desolate streets of Los Angeles. What happens next is really Raw and Raging violence. Thank You @netgalley for letting me read this great book. This was my first Ivy Pochoda book and Wow what a writer I just added Ivy Pochoda to my list of favorites

Sing Her Down by Ivy Pochoda was original and spell-bounding. Great prose, well-developed characters, and intricately placed plot points. I enjoyed the project of this book as well as the slow burn of this literacy work. Pochoda is a master storyteller and an amazing writer. The flow of the prose was just beautiful.

I received a review copy of this book from the author/publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This is a good book, though it is very dark, gritty and violent. Florida (Florence) a former rich girl that had it all, has ended up in prison, charged as an accomplice to arson, but she's getting out, COVID is running rampant and the prison authorities have decided to release certain prisoners that are deemed to be low risk. Florida's cell mate, a real bad lady, Dios, is also released for the same reason. Dios is not liked by the majority of the prison population, and the day before she's to be released, several of the prisoners lay a heck of a beating on her, but she doesn't fight back and is released. Florida and Dios are sent to a motel to wait out a 2 week quarantine, though they aren't together. They are supposed to receive prepared meals daily and when Florida doesn't receive one for a couple of days, she goes looking for something to eat, instead ends up on a bus to LA, and Dios happens to be on the same bus. Things always seem to go off the rails when Dios is around. In a separate arc, LAPD Detective Lobos who has her own demons, mostly her violent ex hubby that she has a restraining order against. Florida, Dios and Detective Lobos meet on a lonely LA road for a showdown where this story comes to an end. A good book but with some very dark themes, though I would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

A searing page-turner of a novel. A completely immersive story that examines the brutal politics inside a women’s penitentiary in Arizona, set against a mid-Covid landscape. This is my first Ivy Pochoda novel, and one that prompted me to explore her backlist! Brilliant!

Lately, I’ve been in a western frame of mind. So when I read the description of — and advance praise for — Sing Her Down as a gritty, modern, feminist western, I requested an eGalley from Net Galley to check it out. I was unfamiliar with Pochoda’s earlier work, but Sing Her Down certainly seemed like something I would enjoy. You probably sense a ‘but’ coming and that’s fair. What I want to say is that, for me at least, the advance categorizing of the novel as a western never really clicked. The story starts with two women, Florida (Florence Baum) and Dios (Diosmary Sandoval), in prison, and both are subsequently released due to overcrowding at the height of Covid-19 precautions. (Many of the nation’s responses to the epidemic—abandoned cities, people sequestered at home, masking, and social distancing—play a large part in the setting of Sing Her Down.) This is the first novel I’ve read where Covid-19 plays such an overt role in the plot. The nationwide isolation is mirrored in microcosm by Florida and Dios, as the ex-cons never really connect with anyone even after escaping the confines of the prison, and mostly remain locked in their own obsessions and internal conflicts. For example, Dios stalks Florida throughout the story, obsessed with the woman who came from wealthy and refuses to acknowledge her penchant for violence; meanwhile, Florida seeks to separate herself from the other woman at every turn. Undaunted, Dios pursues Florida like an exterior conscience. Dios’ motivation is never clear, other than possibly trying to expose a kindred spirit.

In my reading experience, Sing Her Down is more a character study of these two women, along with Lobos, the police detective determined to track them down after a murder on a bus links back to the two ex-cons. As a character study, the story is strong, the violence unapologetic, the prose hard, knife-edged, and unflinching, never compromised by sentimentality, befitting its flawed subjects. Yet, the post-prison plot remains relatively thin, lacking sufficient conflict between the principles to read as a page-turning thriller—though it skirts the edges of thrillerdom a few times! For large parts of the story, the conflict remains internal, with the lead characters tormented by self-doubt and their dark pasts, freighted with physical and sexual abuse and exploitation. In summation, the story delivered something other than what its marketing message promised. Since this isn’t quite the novel I expected, I find myself in the days since completing it trying to forget the advance hype and weigh the novel on its own merits.