This book was a really hard listen and there were several parts that made me so angry I almost wanted to stop, but I kept going.
Karuna is a 16 year old girl living with her overbearing and overprotective mother, her father having just left. That summer her mother sends her to the local community center for help with school to keep her out of trouble and instead Karuna finds herself in the worst kind of trouble a 16 year old girl can get in- pregnant. Her mother becomes even more overbearing and overprotective and ultimately locks Karuna in their apartment for one hundred days as a way to keep her and her unborn (and then newborn) baby safe.
In some ways this is very much a coming of age book. Karuna goes from an uninformed girl to a more mature teenager in a matter of weeks as she learns what it means to be a mother. Seeing the way her mother treated her was very hard and watching no one believe Karuna was even harder. The fact that it made me feel as much as I did is a true testament to the writing and I look forward to reading more of Alice Pung’s backlist books in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for an advanced copy of this. I’m sorry it took so long for me to read it. One Hundred Days hit the shelves October 17, 2023.

Good book and I loved the characters in it. So many good things to say about this one. Definitely needs to be added to your to be read pile.

Reading this book after just giving birth, enraged me to no end with Karuna's mom! One Hundred Days tackles the mother/daughter relationship dynamics when you only have each other to rely upon. While the mother is this book is pushy and overbearing, you find out there is a reason for it. You truly never know you parents when pieces of them are kept hidden.

While "One Hundred Days" is certainly good from a technical standpoint, I cannot say that I enjoyed or liked it, as this is perhaps one of the most emotionally exhausting books I have ever read.

Mar's emotional manipulation and warped reasoning were endless and relentless throughout the book, making it a bleak, exhausting read despite the complex characters, Pung's adept character study of Karuna, and the depiction of how adults and people with power almost always let young people and those seeking help down. The small, all-too-brief moments of joy or light and the constant barrage of frustrating development and plot loops make the resolution too little and too late for me, though realistic.

There will definitely be people who enjoy or relate to this novel and find it maybe even an essential read, but the book is just not for me.

This book was unusual, and I'm not sure I always understood where the characters were coming from. the relationship between mother and daughter feels mentally abusive, but there are glimmers that maybe cultural differences make it feel this way. I had a hard time connecting with these characters. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

This book deals with love and control between a daughter and mother. The daughter is pregnant and the mother wants total control. The daughter is trying to rebel and get her freedom. The mother does not want her to keep the child but the girl fights hard and wins the battle. Both ladies are extremely hard headed and stubborn. A very interesting and intense read.

This is my first Alice Pung book and I am sorry I hadn't read any of her books sooner! I enjoyed the narrative format of One Hundred Days with the story being told through Karuna's journal entries to her child. The relationship between Karuna and her mother is just so compelling. Her mother is for sure, very emotionally abuse to Karuna, but you get to know her mom more and understand why is she the way she is. And as Karuna says, the problem with her mom is she cares TOO much. I liked seeing their relationship evolve and take a turn for the better. Definitely recommending this one for purchase.

I cannot even remember the last time I was immediately enthralled by the voice of an author's writing the way I was by Alice Pung's in ONE HUNDRED DAYS. It's so compelling. Just from the opening pages I knew I would love the story. The protagonist is a teenage girl who is trapped in a room for the last 100 days of her pregnancy by her mother. Thus, this story explores the dysfunction of their relationship and can definitely be triggering for some readers. Just as some familial relationships can be super complicated, so is the relationship between the mother and daughter. This is a novel I will definitely recommend to others, and I can't wait to read what else Pung publishes in the future.

This is book is a perfect example why it is great to follow literary releases in the UK, Canada, and this case, Australia. This book was originally published in Australia in 2021 and has received generally good reviews. I wish I knew about it sooner because this was a very solid book for me. I struggle to say that I had a good time because the subject matter was very raw and emotional, but I think it was really good. The way that Alice Pung writes about a strained mother/daughter dynamic was masterfully done, to the point of making me very uncomfortable. That is not at all a criticism, in fact, I feel like it shows a great level of talent. That being said, the level of abuse the mother inflicts on Karuna, especially in the verbal and emotional form, could be very triggering for some readers.

This book follows our 16yo main character, Karuna, who is pregnant and is writing her story to her unborn child as she is confined to a tiny apartment by her mother during the last 100 days of her pregnancy. I don't want to give much more than that away but what I loved most about this book was the evolution of their relationship. It showed me that victims and abusers can sometimes be blind to the existence of abuse and how the eventual realization of it can change everything, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

Great book and I am going to look into Pung's previous book Unpolished Gems.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperVia for the advanced ebook.

I love a good family drama story and one that focuses on mother/daughter relationship is the best kind. The relationship itself in life is complicated and lovely--this book captures all of that in one story. It is beautiful.

This was such a smart book! I’ll always love books about complex mother daughter relationships and this one delivered on that front!

the copy describes this as "tense and claustrophobic" and...yes. exactly that. difficult to read. for me (a white American) definitely a "window" book and maybe for readers for whom this is more of a "mirror" book (first generation Asian Australians) this will be more...appealing? not sure tbh.

I thought this book was okay, I didn't find the main characters likable which made it difficult for me to feel invested in their stories.

One Hundred Days was a great novel, from the perspective of a teen girl. I thought the narrative voice was well done, and a really interesting read about the relationship with the mother.

After getting pregnant, sixteen-year-old Karuna finds herself trapped in her mother's Melbourne public housing apartment for a hundred days, awaiting the birth of her child. To fill the endless hours, Karuna writes to her unborn child, determined to tell the truth—of her dreams, independence, lust, and defiance. As the birth approaches, Karuna finds her mother's overprotection verging on control. Can mother and daughter find their way back to love?

I was cautious going into yet another book about complex immigrant mother-daughter relationships, but I was pleasantly surprised by ONE HUNDRED DAYS. I appreciate Pung's exploration of how love manifests, sometimes through food, overprotection, and other times via controlling behaviors verging on inappropriate.

While ONE HUNDRED DAYS explores similar tropes of racism, poverty, and generational differences, I love that it also examines Karuna's desires by giving her a distinct voice. Her musings on friendship, love, and literature somehow give Karuna a precocious feel, and ONE HUNDRED DAYS doesn't read as YA as I was expecting it to be for a 16-year-old MC.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this lit-fic set in Australia. If you've read HOLDING PATTERN (Jenny Xie) and wanted more resolution, consider picking up ONE HUNDRED DAYS.

The magic of this novel is in the way its voice reveals more that what the narrator conveys. Trapped at home, our pregnant teenage protagonist cannot see much beyond her mother’s atrocious behavior, but Pung’s narrative subterfuge allows a deeper glimpse to patient readers. I included this title in my fall reading guide (link included)

Melbourne in the 80s but I felt this book could be in any town during modern times
Mum is an excruciatingly difficult person, yet the book is often filled with humor even when she is abusing her young daughter.
This is a story about a very oppressive and claustrophobic atmosphere. It’s an uncomfortable read that can be very triggering.
It’s also a story about redemption.
I enjoyed this book.

Karuna a rebellious teen girl ends up pregnant and her superstitious overbearing mother has plenty to say. Backstory…mother is Chinese who moved to Australia from the Philippines after agreeing to marry a man based on a picture and he wasn’t who she expected. After a few years they go their separate ways.
This book, and I’m sad to say, is very realistic on mother/daughter dynamics in different cultures. The writing is unique, where the whole book is written from Karuna to her daughter, recalling her memories and stories leading up to her arrival.
Overall sad and depressing no real light at the end of the tunnel but I have to appreciate the truth in the story. Thank you to NetGalley & HarperCollins Publishers for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Via for the eARC.

This book was..... a challenge. It was really difficult to read and grapple with the mother/daughter dynamic which continued to shift throughout. I struggle with how to best rate this book because I have not stopped thinking about the story, but it was hard to read.

Honestly…intended to give this fewer stars, but upon reflection it was well written. It’s just that the abuse suffered by this teenager is pretty extreme, and really isn’t excused by or atoned for adequately in the very late and quiet reckoning that happens in the book, so it feels like being made an unwilling accomplice to crimes. Admittedly, the setting seems to be sometime in the 80s (I don’t remember if it was explicitly stated-?), and a lot of the things many of us experienced then would count as abuse today, so maybe that’s not a fair complaint to hold against this author, but I still would have appreciated more catharsis for the length of suffering.
From my distress tho lol it’s clear it was evocative, and I’m glad of the final revelations the mc had.

Thanks to NetGalley for my copy!