“Invisible Woman” is a mashup of a feminist literary fiction & a psychological thriller. It’s thought provoking, exciting, and a little heart breaking.

In this story, Joni’s screenwriting career is nearly non-existent while her husband Paul’s career as a film producer is skyrocketing. Someone in their social circle is caught up in a scandal centered around the “Me Too” movement in Hollywood, and Joni becomes wrapped up in trying to put the pieces of the story together. Simultaneously, she fills her lonely days with reading Highsmith novels and begins having trouble separating her life from the murderous themes in the stories she’s reading.

This novel examines many complex aspects of womanhood and motherhood, and gender dynamics in the film industry all while taking you on a wild a mysterious ride. My only critiques are that certain elements of the plot felt predictable which made it less of a “page turner”, and some of the characters actions seemed illogical & frustrating. But overall, this was a great read.

Thank you to Netgalley & Dreamscape Media for granting me access to the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

The name of this book is perfect. So many women have given up their careers to be the primary caregivers for their children and partners that they do in fact become invisible. Joni was a success in her own right in the film industry, but gave up everything to be the best mother and supportive wife she could be. When they relocate from her beloved home she is not happy, but plays the dutiful wife, while her discontent grows. When some heinous secrets come to light, one being that her powerful husband has made sure to put a kibosh on any projects she may have wanted, she see red, but then finds out another truly despicable truth about him and she knows she has some difficult, but necessary decisions to make for herself and the rest of her life. Getting even comes in so many forms, some legal and some not so much. When all is said and done, she does in fact get her life back, reconnect with her former BFF and unexpectedly exacts the perfect revenge. Dark, creepy and very surprising, but she gets her life back. The ending was surprising to me and that doesn’t happen too often. An enjoyable, but dark listen with good narration. I will certainly be own the lookout for more from this author.

Invisible Woman is a #MeToo era book focusing on an older female protagonist who has been keeping a dark secret for decades. Thrown out of the entertainment industry after barely starting, Joni Ackerman has remained adjacent to the industry through her famous husband. After raising a family for many years, they have just left California for Brooklyn and a scandal is hitting the entertainment industry. And of course, it's connected to the secret Joni has been keeping.

This book moves quickly if predictably and I enjoyed the even pacing and the fresh and rare perspective of an older woman. If you liked Thursday Murder Club and enjoy feminist fiction, I think this is one to pick up!

This was a dark and twisty story that sucked me in right from the start. Joni and Val are friends who have a secret and Val's part of the secret is deeper than Joni knows. Paul, Joni's husband and high-power Hollywood producer doesn't want Joni to reconnect with Val in the wake of the opening of an old rape case. When the two do connect, things start getting weird and dangerous for all parties involved and deadly for some...

This book has a lot of great elements - secrets, lies, deep-seeded friendships and a #MeToo vibe, and while I couldn't stop listening and wanted to know how it would all shake out, I didn't love this one. It was a quick listen and the narration was great, but I wanted more and it became predictable. It's an easy-listen story of revenge that will keep your attention though - so don't count it out, it just wasn't a homerun for me.

A MeToo mixed-genre novel/suspense (in audiobook format). Joni is a filmmaker who left Hollywood to raise her children, while her husband climbed the ranks in television. The story kicks off with Joni’s husband’s old friend being outed in the MeToo movement as the perpetrator in Harvey Weinstein/Kavanaugh-style assaults. While this seems like the beginning of a drama or women’s fiction, it leaps into a suspense/mystery/unreliable narrator story. The reader is let in on most instrumental twists early on, but the main character Joni is not. It was hard to understand Joni’s actions throughout the book because they just seemed so unreasonable or selfish (e.g., making her friend Val’s assault 20 years ago about her and insisting Val go public, talking to a police officer without a lawyer, drinking to excess, just to name a few). While a twist is set up to explain some of her character traits that led to these pretty unfathomable choices, it didn’t really land and come together. Overall, I think the author wanted this book to be a lot of things and that led it to fall flat for me,

The narrator for the audiobook is pretty good, but it was hard to tell the difference between the voices used for Joni and Val, which led to some confusion in the listening experience.

**Thanks to NetGalley for an advance audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️ REVIEW ⭐️

#InvisibleWoman by @katia.lief
🎧 Audiobook set to release on April 9th 🎧

Thank you to @netgalley and @dreamscape_media for allowing me to listen to this audiobook ahead of release.

Synopsis: “Joni Ackerman’s decision to raise children, 25 years ago, came with a steep cost. She was then a pioneering filmmaker, one of the few women to break into the all-male Hollywood club of feature film directors. But she and her husband Paul had always wanted a family, and his ascending career at a premier television network provided a safety net. Now they’ve recently transplanted to Brooklyn so that Paul can launch a major East Coast production studio, when a scandal rocks the film industry and forces Joni to revisit a secret from long ago involving her friend Val.

Joni is adamant that the time has come to tell the story, but Val and Paul are reluctant, for different reasons. As the marriage frays and the friends spar about whether to speak up, Joni’s struggles with isolation in a new city and old resentments about the sacrifices she made on her family’s behalf start to boil over. She takes solace, of sorts, in the novels of Patricia Highsmith—particularly the masterpiece Strangers on a Train, with its duplicitous characters and their murderous impulses—until the lines between reality and fantasy become blurred.

Invisible Woman is at once a literary thriller about the lies we tell each other (and ourselves) and a powerful psychological examination of the complexities of friendship, marriage, and motherhood.“

My thoughts: I have been on an audiobook kick lately, and this read held my interest and was a quick one. I liked the narrators voice, and felt it was a good match to represent the main character, Joni. I enjoyed the feminist themes throughout the story; however, some of the story line (ie Joni’s pursuit to convert her VHS home videos to digital format, and her odd interactions with the business owner, who happened to be going out of business) left me a little confused and seemed far fetched in use to reveal small details of the main plot. In some ways, I feel these details could have been illuminated in a simpler, less drawn-out fashion. Overall, I’d recommend this audiobook if you are looking for a quick, interest-holding, feminist empowering, murder mystery.

This was an interesting read - I kept having to remind myself it was fiction, it seemed like it could've been a zany story of someone's life! Well done.

ℝ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘: ⭐⭐⭐ | 𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕥: 𝒜𝓊𝒹𝒾𝑜𝒷𝑜𝑜𝓀

ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨: 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐤𝐚𝐲. 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐬𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐎𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥, 𝐈 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰-𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐈 𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝.

𝐀𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 #𝐌𝐞𝐓𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐲𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐉𝐨𝐧𝐢 𝐀𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧, 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐚𝐬 𝐉𝐨𝐧𝐢 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐮𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐚𝐮𝐥–𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐫𝐤–𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬, 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐥𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫.

𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝒦𝒶𝓉𝒾𝒶 𝐿𝒾𝑒𝒻, 𝒟𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂𝓈𝒸𝒶𝓅𝑒 𝑀𝑒𝒹𝒾𝒶, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒩𝑒𝓉𝒢𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑒𝓎 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒶𝓊𝒹𝒾𝑜 𝒜𝑅𝒞! 𝒜𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝓅𝒾𝓃𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝑜𝓌𝓃.

I'm sorry but this was a miss for me. It's like this book didn't know what it wanted to be so wasn't really anything. I had been expecting a thriller and while it had some elements pointing to that (an unreliable narrator, crime, twists), the writing wasn't there to make it suspenseful. Due to the subject matter, I would've been down with a domestic drama instead, but the book lacked an emotional punch. Also it's weird that the audience suspects something early on that the main character doesn't know for awhile.

There's also the fact that the narrator hurt the story. Her voices for people talking were like high pitched child voices. It undercut some of the serious conversations that were had.

I am, admittedly, interested in reading Patricia Highsmith novels now though.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

This book would be a great book club book. There is a lot to break down and discuss. The writing is well done and powerful. It is a slow start but picks up a quarter of the way through. I would classify it as a light mystery. It was predictable but still fun.

"Invisible Woman" by Katia Lief is a thriller set in the present time about the "Me, too" movement and men in power who took advantage of women. It is also about the deterioration of the
marriage of a powerful couple: a woman, Jodi, who wrote and directed movies, and a man, Paul, who is now a TV bigwig - director/ producer.

Years ago, Jodi and her best friend, Val, were at a college party, and Val was raped. The girls kept it a secret. Now, one of the two men has been accused of this by five women. No one knows or has told who the second man was.

The main character becomes less and less reliable as the story goes on. She also talks a lot about reading books by Patricia Highsmith, who it turns out was a real author in the 70s, mostly known for her psychological thrillers such as "Strangers on a Train".

The narrator, Carrington McDuffy, did great with the emotions, but some of the female voices were hard to tell apart. - 4/5

Plot - 5/5
Twists - 4/5
Characters - 5/5
Writing - 4/5
Unputdownability - 5/5
Cover - 5/5
Pacing - 4/5
Enjoyment - 4/5

Thank you to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media, and Katia Lief for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This was a first read for me by this author and honestly my opinion is still mixed. The story felt tedious to get through. I felt it was hard for me to get invested in the characters, especially in the beginning. Possibly because the quick jumps of characters while listening to the audio book? I will say that if you’re able to stick through it, the end does help to redeem itself!

I enjoyed this! I wanted Joni to figure out what was going on sooner but what a weird twist that was! She kind of lost her mind which is fine, it’s definitely a psychological thriller! I absolutely LOVED the cover and the narrator! Paul had it coming 🥱

The beginning of this was super relatable. This is a book about an excessively rich woman and her strange marriage. I loved it too much. The narration was wonderful and you cannot top the ending.

3/5

The characters in this book infuriated me. Val and Joni's miscommunication felt like it could have been avoided, and I also could not stand Paul. Also felt like the paet with the daughter didn't make sense. I loved the idea of this book, but it felt sort of predictable.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This was a really difficult read. Heavy TW from the get go. What an odd time for me to pick this up, on the coattails of Quiet On Set. I was disturbed the whole time I was listening.

A domestic drama with topics of abuse and feminism. What felt like the main twist was given to the reader early on, but MC Joni is unaware. Once she found out it was anticlimactic and unemotional. The book follows Joni’s perspective, her frustration of living in a man-centered world, her unhappiness in her marriage, and grief over her earlier career short lived success (although she seems disinterested in actually working at this point). Joni has too much time on her hands and turns to alcohol and obsessing over a previous friend’s assault, making it all about her under the guise of worry/concern for the friend as the abuser is publicly outed by other victims. She is so focused on her own worries and frustrations that she never stops to think about other people. There was a twist towards the end that made me gasp-but besides providing a liiiittle more insight to her mental health/alcoholism, it really wasn’t a big part of the book.

I don’t know if it was just me or if it was the book, but I struggled to connect with the characters and storyline. With so many hard hitting and relevant topics I would have expected more of an emotional reaction at some point.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing this ARC. This review is being shared on NetGalley and Goodreads.

Pub Date 09 Apr 2024

Invisible Woman was such an interesting domestic suspense story. It ties many components together to deliver a story full of regret, secrets, grief, mental health issues, ME TOO, and chemical dependency.

About 75% into the book there was a surprise that shocked me, and I initially thought a content warning would have been beneficial, but then, if there is one, it would have ruined the surprise element for me. So, if you have triggers, make sure to review trigger warnings for this title.

I really liked how the perspective was from two women who had already lived so much life, and were living in the now with the choices of the past.

I listened to the audiobook, which was well done. My only wish would have been that the two POVs would have had their own narrators. I listened at 1.75x and 2x speed (depending on the moment) which is my normal audiobook listening speed.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this advanced audio copy.

For the most part, I liked the story. Not a favorite but entertaining enough. Unfortunately, the narrator wasn’t my favorite. I just felt like it really dated Joni and that I may have liked this one better if I read it myself. 3.5 rounding up. Thanks for the chance to read this ALC!

An engaging premise, but personally could not click with the narrator. Still, a recommended title for collections where MeToo stories are popular.