This was a challenging read for me; ultimately, I did not enjoy it. The narrative style is interesting- we are reading the course of events of the discussions between women through the notes by a male minute-taker. Therefore, it follows a format of “this happened and then this happened...” I had a hard time connecting the events as a narrative and, though I could tell there was complexity to what was being described, things felt flat to me. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book!

I was extremely interested in the story behind this book. I found it, unfortunately, more interesting than reading this account. It was a bit confusing at times and I found myself mixing up the characters. On the surface, it seems simple. The men of your community are drugging and raping the women and children. What is there to discuss. It becomes a cultural and religious discussion. I had to get past the fact that it should not be a cultural or religious discussion. These women saw it as a much more complex matter. I tried to see it with them but it was hard to relate to the characters because of the way the story is told. The simple answer is not so simple to them. I did learn a little about their society but it just made me angry that people are still using their most closely held beliefs to hurt and control others.

I had to DNF this book at 15%. I did enjoy what I read, but it wasn’t the right time for me to read & I couldn’t keep the characters straight.

A small group of women gather to decide what to do after it is revealed that they, along with most other women and girls in their community, have been repeatedly drugged and raped by the men of their small Mennonite colony. Will they forgive the men, stay and fight, or leave the colony? Their discussions range over what it means to have the freedom to choose, whether one can be a pacifist if one harbors a desire a kill, how best to protect one's children, and many more philosophical topics.

It was somewhat jarring that a book that seemed as though it was to be about female empowerment was told from a man's perspective, but it worked. He is privy to the women talking as an amanuensis; none of the women can read or write, but want their deliberations preserved for posterity. He's an outsider in the colony, for reasons that aren't entirely clear, but his outsider status allows the women to trust him for this task, and makes him appropriately sensitive to them, in a way that no other man of their acquaintance could, or would, be.

And perhaps this is a realistic notion of what could happen when such an insulated group of people is threatened in this way. But I found it troubling to read about a group of women facing such a threat to themselves and their children and spending two days sitting in a hayloft debating the finer points of free will, rather than making actual plans. The lack of action in the books gives it a claustrophobic feel, which seems appropriate under the circumstances, and that feeling of clautrophobia helps keep the pressure on throughout the narrative, having the effect of sucking the reader through the story, rather in the manner of a pneumatic tube.

So what will the women decide to do, and will they be able to follow through on that decision? That is what they are talking about, and the question of whether they will be able to sieze their freedom, no matter what they decide, will leave the reader thinking long after the last page.

What a strange book this is. Based on true and horrifying events, its a transcript of a discussion between 8 women as they try to decide whether to leave their community after discovering that they've been sexually abused. The transcript is written by a man because the women are illiterate. That irritated me in a way I can't write decribe. The women have more of a philosophical debate than an emotional one- it's oddly bloodless. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Worth a read.

Women Talking is a novel based on true events that occurred in Bolivia between 2005 and 2009. Over 100 Mennonite women and children (the youngest victim 3 years old) were drugged with animal tranquilizers and sexually abused by the men of their colony, sometimes by their own relatives. The women were told that they imagined the episodes, were attacked by ghosts or devils because they had sinned or were making up stories to get attention. The truth could no longer be denied when one of the men was caught in the act. Even then, the men planned to do nothing about it until one of the women committed suicide. At that point, the men decided to turn in the rapists to avoid drawing further attention to their very private colony.

The events in the novel occur during several days when the men of the community went to the city to post bail for the rapists. Only the elderly, infirm men and boys under twelve stay behind with the women. Eight women meet in a hayloft to decide what they should do. Because they are illiterate and wish to give some formality to their discussions, the young male school teacher (left behind because he is not considered a real man in the farming-based colony) is asked to take minutes. Their main objective is to protect themselves and their children from future abuse. They come up with three options:
1) Do nothing and forgive the men
2) Stay and fight
3) Leave the colony

The pros and cons of each option are discussed at length. Their discussions are based on their religious beliefs, their societal rules, and fears. To do nothing would not stop future attacks. The option to stay and fight is a bold one. These women are used to being totally subservient; in fact, in their totally patriarchal society, they are not even considered members of the colony. The debate as to whether the men be willing to let the women have a voice and guarantee that the attacks would stop is a short one. It would be very difficult to leave as they don’t speak the language of the country, they wouldn’t know where they were, where to go or how to provide for their needs.

If placed in their situation, which option would you choose?

Talking Women is an important book in many ways. It draws attention to women living and being abused in such societies. It tells of women seeking a voice about their lives and fighting to be heard, trying to find the courage to stand up for and protect themselves, their desire for change, their fears, and their faith. It is a powerful book.

Yet there are things that frustrated me about the novel:
1) All the characters were introduced to the reader at the same time, with nothing to differentiate them. It was hard to keep the women straight in my mind.
2) Why a male narrator? I understand that because the women are illiterate, a male must take the minutes, but why take minutes at all? Who is going to read them? And you’ll find that these are hardly minutes at all. To have a male interject himself and his opinions into the discussion bothered me.
3) The amount and repetitiveness of the discussions grew tiresome. With time running out before the men returned and a vital decision to be made, the constant philosophical discussions were counter-productive. Perhaps the women couldn’t face deciding what to do.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Bloomsbury Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I wanted to like this book, and I think I was expecting something more in the true crime vein. Personally, I found the book extremely slow paced and I had trouble picking one woman from the other. Not for me. Perhaps if the reader was more invested in the religious doctrine it would be more engaging.

Women Talking by Miriam Toews isn't one of my average reading choices, but I'm actually quite interested in real life Mennonite and Amish culture, especially when it comes to Ohio and Pennsylvania. Needless to say that when I saw this novel on NetGalley it sounded like it could be right up my alley. I'm not all that familiar with Mennonite colonies in other countries or even the Low German dialect featured in the novel, but it was still fascinating to see on the page. The most disturbing thing about this story is easily the fact that it's based on a true story from events that occurred only a few years ago - let's just say that "violated" isn't the best word for the horrors these women endured at the hands of the men in their community. The title event occurred in 2011 and the violations happened between 2005-06, but honestly if you told me that it actually happened two or three hundred years ago instead I wouldn't have been surprised. My only complaint about this novel is the "meeting minutes" format - I've never seen any that look like what we see here.

I had a very difficult time finishing this book. The topic of Mennonite women being drugged and raped by their own community of men is shocking and fascinating, especially when I learned it is based on a real-life situation. However, the writing style is very confusing and difficult to understand. The women cannot read or write, so they ask a man who has been shunned by the men to attend their meetings and keep the minutes. He writes in a very informal fashion, describing so many women and so many situations that it is impossible to keep anyone or anything straight. I stuck with the reading only so I could see how it ends. I’m sorry that I can’t provide a more positive review. Thanks to NetGalley for providing a digital preprint.

In 2013, I read an article on Vice about 'the ghost rapes' of Bolivia. I was appalled, fascinated and horrified. Miriam Toews has taken this terrible story and written a very lightly fictionalized version. This is the story of the struggle of these women, to decide should they stay, fight or just leave.

This was....just okay. 1. The narrator is a man, which sure - these women were illiterate but, still. 2. Fact is always better than fiction. 3. This is The Handmaid's Tale starring Mennonite women.

I think that while the shock factor of the what actually happened are still horrifying to read, this could have been told as it actually happened, no need to fictionalize a real life horror story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book is based on a real-life event, which makes it all the more shocking. Between 2005 and 2009, hundreds of girls and women were raped by eight men from the Mennonite colony they were all part of. The men used an animal anesthetic to knock out their victims and then raped them. At first, the women didn’t know they had been raped but only that they would wake up in the morning feeling exhausted with their bodies bloody and beaten. They were told that ghosts or demons had done it as punishment for their sins or that they were lying or covering up adulterous affairs or that it was all in their imagination. Very young children were included in these rapes, as well as elderly women. Some of the women became pregnant. In 2011, the accused men were convicted. Even after the arrest of these eight men, the attacks still took place.

In Ms. Toews’ book, eight of the raped women meet in a hayloft to discuss what they should do to prevent themselves and their daughters from further harm. Should they stay and fight or should they leave? They had a window of opportunity as the men were off trying to raise money for the accused men’s bail. These women were never told how to read or write and knew nothing about reading a map or where they could go. They were told if they could not forgive these men, they could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. So they had a lot to discuss. If a women whose 3-year-old child had been raped couldn’t forgive in her heart, wasn’t it a worse sin to say she forgave the men even if she didn’t mean it? The women in this community were just commodities to these men and had no say in anything. In reading this book, it was hard to believe that this happened in 2005-2009 and wasn’t something occurring centuries ago.

The author does such an excellent job of delving into the hearts and minds of these courageous women. I felt their fear and their heartache and their confusion as to what they should do to make their lives bearable. The suspense builds as the time for the men to return nears. In trying to decide what they should do, they have lengthy discussions about religion and faith. There were times they seemed to forget the urgency of their situation and lectured each other. There’s some humor in this book, despite its dark subject. It’s one of the most unique books I’ve ever read. Don’t expect much of a plot as the book is just what the title says it is – women talking. I think it was quite exceptional and destined to become a feminist classic. Not all readers will like the format of this book but the emotional depth of this story is just astounding.

Most highly recommended.

The premise of “Women Talking” is chilling. The women and girls of the Mennonite community of Molotschna have been repeatedly drugged and raped in their sleep by a group of their fathers, sons, and brothers. Although the criminals have been jailed, they are soon to return to the community, bailed out by their brothers.

The women are meeting to decide whether to stay or to leave the community. The everyday-ness of the women’s conversation is moving and identifiable. They talk, argue, hold petty grudges, support each other and laugh. And yet, running under the talk is the knowledge of the evil that undermines their community.

This is a moving and unforgettable story.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This story is based on a true story, but it didn't really feel that way, as some parts just seemed far-fetched. There's a lot of talking in the book, so the title is appropriate, but things seemed to just go around and around, which made it hard to follow and keep straight at times. The premise was interesting, but the book itself was a bit boring for me, as there's just not enough action. Way too much narrative. I was excited to read it, but it just wasn't for me.

This was one of the most interesting and clever novels I've ever read. It isn't for everyone - not a lot happens and it is mostly talk (as the title so aptly describes). But the conversation and debate between the women is both ancient and modern in its content and struggles. While this is a group of women from a religious community that is stuck in the past (philosophically and geographically), their interactions and considerations are universal. Because of the religious background of these women, which Toews renders so unflinchingly and yet compassionately, the discussions may be more relatable to people with religious upbringing and familiarity with the Bible and with some of the more fundamentalist approaches to religion - though even without that knowledge, anyone interested in the psychology of groups would still connect with the text. This is not a page-turner, but a book that will make you think about your own motivations and what you might do when faced with tough decisions and consequences.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book almost reads like a science fiction novel, like some distant cousin of A Handmaid's Tale, until you remember it is based on a true story. A sect of Mennonites live in a distant part of Bolivia, speaking their own language and rarely in contact with the outside world. When it's discovered that the women of the community were being drugged and raped by 8 of the men, the men are arrested and sent to prison in the city. While the rest of the men are away securing the release of the rapists, eight of the women meet to determine whether to fight or leave the community. The women are illiterate but desire to have minutes taken of their meeting. So August, the school teacher and only remaining man in the colony, is tasked with keeping their minutes.
The title is apt, because about the only thing that happens during this book is talking. It gets very bogged down, pretty quickly, as the women go back and forth, arguing their limited options. The arguments tend to be circular, as women change their positions repeatedly. I found it hard to relate to them as real people and it took me ages to be able to keep them straight in my head.
Here's how you know you're really not enjoying a book - when you find yourself repeatedly looking at your TBR queue wanting desperately to get to your next book. There were some passages that moved me, but not enough to draw me into the book. I felt this book was all about unrealized potential.
My thanks to netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for an advance copy of this book.

As a story that is for the most part about "just women talking," it doesn't have much action but that doesn't make it any less gripping. Though it got off to a slow start, once I gained my bearings, I was all in. I couldn't stop highlighting passages. Toews put together a truly powerful read that couldn't be more timely. It would make an excellent book club discussion.

This book is about a conversation between women, which is an imagined response to horrific real-life events occurring in a Mennonite colony in Bolivia. Between 2005 and 2009, women were waking up to discover that they had been drugged and raped. Originally attributed to demons, the attacks were finally linked with men from the colony who were arrested, tried, and imprisoned.

The premise of this book is interesting. The reality of this book is...boring. The women gather in the loft of a barn while the men are away to discuss their options after these attacks. They can do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. The entirety of this book is women debating and discussing these options through an account of the one man who has been asked to attend their meeting and take down the minutes. There *is* some interesting discussion about biblical doctrine, which is important because the women cannot read, and have only been told by the men in the colony how the Bible instructs women to behave.

The best part of the book for me was when we discover why this one man has been asked to take down the minutes even though the women cannot read.

And that is it. I considered giving up a few times, but kept thinking something else would happen. They talk. They make decisions, though not unanimously, and nothing else happens.

This book was highly disappointing to me. It sounded like it would hit all my buzzwords: mennonite, feminist, based on a true story, told through meeting minutes? I had to have it. Well, after getting 36% through, I can say it is both Mennonite and based on a true story, but the other two not as much.

It's strange to me that this is being sold as told through meeting minutes, when I have never seen minutes look like this. The story is more narrative and told from the point of view of the notetaker, and I was highly disappointed by this.

Moreover, I have a hard time grappling with the fact that the narrator is a man. We learn more about his backstory than any of the women, and he often interjects his own opinions into the notes. I'm not sure why this is being advertised as a feminist work, when it's more religious introspection.

As a former victim of domestic violence and sexual assault, this book was a rough, but powerful, read for me. The author states that the story is loosely based on truth. Over a period of four years, more than 100 women and children were sexually assaulted in a Mennonite community in Bolivia. The victims were drugged with animal anesthetic and assaulted, waking the next morning bruised, bleeding, and in pain. Victims were led to believe that demons were attacking them because they were sinful. When the men responsible were arrested, the victims were accused of lying, expected to just forgive them and not seek justice, and assaults continued. Miriam Toews took her outrage over reports of the case and wrote this book.

The story builds using notes from secret meetings of the women. They are illiterate, so a trusted man attends the meetings to record the discussions. I was immediately sucked into the story. Thinking about a community of women kept illiterate, isolated, and without any decision making powers was disturbing. The thought that this sort of thing still happens in the world made me realize how spoiled, unaware and blind I am because of the relatively easy life I live. I am college educated. I am not abused on a daily basis. I make my own decisions. I have money at my disposal. My husband does not control my life. I'm treated as an equal. I can only imagine how these women felt.... They had to meet in secret to decide to stay in the life they knew, or leave and try to start over again somehow.

I felt so many emotions while reading this -- anger, fear, sadness. But it also made me realize how strong women are. When faced with an almost impossible situation, women will somehow find the strength to power through and go on. When faced with a horrific, abusive situation, these women met secretly to decide what to do. They supported each other and they did not falter. Bravery. Intelligence. Compassion.

I loved the plot of this book. I kept reading because I truly wanted to know what happened to these characters. But, the story moves slowly. Maybe the plodding feel is because it's reported through meeting notes? Most of the story is told through conversations. It made things tedious at times. But, I do see why the author chose the format. It works with the characters and the situation. They couldn't just make a decision and act on it. They were powerless. Conversation, planning and secrecy were required. Slow, methodical planning. They had to think it through. Their choices were do nothing and let things continue.....stay and fight for safety in their community.....or leave and learn to survive in the world outside the community. Big choices. Coming from a religious sect, they had to rethink their entire belief structure. Heavy stuff. And not something that can be decided quickly. My emotional response to this story might be because I knew from the start it was based on truth. If I had been reading this story solely based on its own merits, I might have been more frustrated by its slow pace.

I would have liked a lot less discussion of religious doctrine and a little more action, but the format (meeting notes) limited the exposition to conversations. The focus, at times, was on religion a bit too much, although I do recognize that the characters involved are part of a religious sect. I could see this book being great for discussion at a Christian women's group or book club. But the constant religious overtones put a damper on the story for me. It made me mad -- women subjugated, lied to, victimized, traumatized -- in a community that should have been safe had there not been extreme villainy and hypocrisy occurring. It took my attention off the subject of rape and abuse and turned it more towards my dislike of organized religion.

All in all, a powerful story about women. A bit too much religion for me, personally. But, I still enjoyed it. I'm giving this book a solid 3 stars.

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Bloomsbury via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

I was interested in this book because it was said to be similar to The Handmaid's Tale which is taught widely in schools. This was not nearly as good. While there are parallels to be made, it was not as engaging and lacked the same depth for discussion.