Dorian's daughter was murdered 15 years ago. Her initial rage has simmered. She tells herself that her daughter, Lecia, wasn't "one of those women". Yet, to ease her mind, she helps out prostitutes by feeding them from her popular fish place and talking with the girls. This all in the ghetto area of Los Angeles.

A (copycat?) serial prostitute killer from 1999 is once, again, committing murder. Dorian collects dead birds left for her and brings them to the police. Esmeralda, a police woman, takes down the information. Dorian feels as if after her rants about her daughter's death years ago have sunk her credibility with the police...

Lots of twists in this book. Also, the reader is given an inside look into the psyche and rationality of "These Women".

Many Thanks to HarperCollins, Publishers, Ecco and NetGalley for a solid read.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of These Women by Ivy Pochoda.

Wow, 2020 is cranking out some good ones already! I was blown away with this one, between all of the different voices and personalities, to how the author was able to connect them all, and then tie together one giant mystery. This was a very stunning and worthwhile read.

Dorian is perplexed by all of the dead birds being left outside of her home, as well as her place of business. So much so that she takes the evidence to a cop who barely seems to listen to her. Dorian lost her daughter to a yet to be captured murderer years ago, and because of this, she feels a need to help other women like her daughter, vulnerable women who work the streets at night.

Enter multiple voices telling parts of the same story. It's heartbreaking, fascinating and so captivating. The writing was done so well. I was able to visualize where I was, as well as get inside the brains of some of the narrators. I highly recommend.

Rated R for violence, prostitution and language

If you can’t tell from the timing of this review in relation to the publication date and the placeholder “review” below, apparently begging sometimes works. After reading both Visitation Street and Wonder Valley I was all over this request like stink on shit. I absolutely did not need a blurb, but I loved the one provided . . . . .

A serial killer story like you've never seen before.

This is a serial killer story – one that takes place in South Central L.A. that started 15 years prior with thirteen women (all presumed to be prostitutes by the police) being found dead in back alleys with their throats slit and plastic bags over their heads – but it’s a serial killer story delivered in Ivy Pochoda’s style. In case you aren’t familiar with the way this author writes a mystery, the whodunit factor doesn’t really even start to ramp up until the 60% mark (and is solved by around 80%). Her stories aren’t about the killer – or necessarily even about the victims – they are about the community. Narrators here include Dorian – whose 15-year old daughter was one of the victims so many years ago, Julianna – a young girl from the neighborhood who finds herself falling further into the same lifestyle as the victims of the past, Essie – a vice cop with a jaded past, Marella – a wannabe artist who may have been from the neighborhood, but lived a different sheltered life, Anneke – Marella’s mother who simply wants to keep her house in order, and Feelia – the sole survivor. Oh, and dare I forget the most important character in all of Pochoda’s stories – the neighborhood.

The time hops between the past of 1999 when the first bodies started showing up and the present (in this case 2014) where it might be happening again. So yes, it’s a story about a serial killer, but it’s also a story that touches on race and privilege and upbringing and circumstance and obligations and wrong place/wrong time and so much more.

You’ll know fairly quickly if you dig Pochoda’s style. Obviously I love it. Her writing makes me want to say things that I’m not young or hip enough to say like YAS QUEEN.

Easily one of my favorite authors. All the Stars.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!

Literary fiction so well written each character comes alive draws me into each of their lives.A mystery that kept me turning the pages.Book that stays with you after you read the last page.Will be recommending to my book club.#netgalley#harpercollins

If I had to reduce this book to two words, they would be: grief and rage.

This is one of those books that tears into you and doesn’t let you go – even after you read the last page.

These Women is about the women people whisper about and scoff at. It’s about the women who die in a filthy alley and instead of caring, the police and the press and the neighbors all look down their noses at the corpse saying, “But the way she lived…”.

It’s the addicts and the sex workers and the women who simply die for being brown or poor.

And, yes, it’s grief and rage.

It’s not an easy read, but it’s powerful and compelling and I simply didn’t want to put it down.

Five well deserved stars.

• ARC Provided via Net Galley

VISITATON STREET was my first foray into the fiction of Ivy Pochoda. I loved every poetic word of that novel. Now, with THESE WOMEN, Pochoda has cemented her place as one of the best literary thriller writers alive. This is a powerful story steeped in the texture of loss. A serial killer story, sure, but so much more as well. There are echoes of feminism and social change. There are sentences so beautifully written as to be savored. There are characters that leap from the pages. On the surface, this is the tale of seventeen women murdered over the course of nearly twenty years, and the renewed interest in the murders that occur after two new victims. Told in alternating voices, we are introduced to Dorian, who has never recovered from her daughter’s murder almost two decades earlier. There’s also Julianna, a dancer with the stage name of Jujubee, who has a front-seat connection to that earlier murder. There’s Essie, a Latina Vice cop with a beautiful for puzzles, and the only officer on the force, it seems, who hears “these women” when they speak. Marella, an artist who not only captures but inhabits the darkness and violence that peppers our world. And Anneke, Marella’s intense mother, who has known a lot more about the murders than she has ever let on. This is highly recommended reading.

These Women is incredibly engaging and wonderfully written. I took my time to read this book because I didn't want it to end. This is the type of book that stays with you after you read it. The characters felt real and the multiple mysteries kept me engaged until the end.