Aching, powerful, incandescent with rage and longing, this beautifully written novel gripped me and would not let me go. Page turning read about reading, motherhood, family, love, work, money friendship, but mostly the clean cut of how impossible it is to tell the whole truth about anything, about the limits and powers of words, about failures, small and large, and impossible connections and about the failed and necessary kindnesses throughout.

This novel is unlike any I've read. I at first didn't want to finish it. I couldn't get into the book. But it captivated me the more I continued to read.
Somewhere along the way, Elizabeth lost happiness in her life. She was just going through the motions of living. She had lost track of her best friend, feeling like a failure in her parents eyes because her and her husband needed money. Heartbreaking at times and then she could make you laugh.
You will want to put this on your TBR. You won't be sorry buying this book.

Thank you to Publisher and NetGalley for the eARC

Very engaging book. I loved the writing style, since it is different than most of the books I have read. A woman who’s name is not revealed until the end recounts her day to day life and the many challenges she faces as a wife, mother, teacher, friend, and daughter. She discusses how a friendship from her past fell apart and still haunts her, because there was so much left unsaid. I felt it was very true to life and could relate to the main character in multiple ways. It spreads across multiple themes (as mentioned above) and there were several parts that resonated with me. This book explores themes such as privilege, the education system, motherhood, mental health issues, gentrification, friendship, marriage and more . However, when I finished I did not feel that the end was well rounded enough. there were so many stories within the story and not enough
Of a connection, keeping the book on a theme. (What was I supposed to take away from
reading this?) While I understand all books will not give me a neat and tidy ending- I just felt at the ending there were so many unanswered questions. I was left wanting more (haha maybe that’s why it’s called “Want”). I can’t say I hated it. I can’t say I loved it. Three stars for me for beautiful writing, a relatable main character, but I am still left feeling like I needed more in the end.

A mostly nameless narrator talks about her wants. She’s unhappy in her job and she and her husband have filed for bankruptcy. They have no money to do much of anything. She does seem to like spending time with her children who she refers to as the 2-year-old and the 4-year-old. Long blocks of text go by in which she refers to others as “she” which made it difficult for me to remember who she was talking about.

I guess this is the new avant-garde style of writing where hardly anyone has a name. I prefer names that I can associate with characters in a book and that makes it easier for me to follow the author’s train of thought.

To me the unnamed narrator who we find out near the end is Elizabeth, whined way too much. And virtually did nothing to change for the better. That is my opinion and it doesn’t align with many of what other reviewers have said. If you don’t mind dwelling on depression this may be a great read for you.

Wanted to like this more. Sadly out didn't really stand out.

Thanks to author,publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free,it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

This just didn't work for me: I need more plot than this. There were decent elements, but it wasn't cohesive.



Review copy provided by publisher.

"All that talking, years of reading: There was a time I thought that all language might contain something of value, but most of life is flat and boring and the things we say are too. Or maybe it's that most of life is so much stranger than language is able to make room for, so we say the same dead things and hope maybe the who and how of what is said can make it into what we mean."

Lynn Steger Strong's latest novel, WANT, opens in 2000 with a doting memory of our heroine, Elizabeth, at age 16, and how she's tethered her love to her dear friend, Sasha, a year ahead of her. Like all beautiful people, Sasha is alluring, magnetic, an unfailing reminder of the innumerable ways Elizabeth places second to her. Seventeen years later: Elizabeth is 34, struggling to uphold her family of four as the brood's breadwinner, and barely making ends meet as an adjunct professor at underprivileged schools following the misadventures of her self-employed husband and the demands of their young daughters. She has, in so many ways, been broken by the trajectory of her life. She is not alone.

While finding transient joy in being a confidant to her students, doing morning runs, and leaving work unannounced to read books in cafes at the limited leisure of her “magic credit card,” she scrolls through the wasteland of social media feeds to find Sasha — married and approaching motherhood again — with whom she yearns to reconcile after her descent to drugs and miscarriage years ago. Burned by the backhanded affection of her parents, whose abuse lingers long after she escapes Florida for an unaffordable life in New York, Elizabeth, like so many other women, must grapple with wanting so much from a world that does not always want her. Who must keep her hands on the steering wheel at all times, and must pull herself together at all times even when it seems the very fabric of her life continues to unravel around her.

With WANT, Strong pens an exhilarating evocation of the ways women overcome the hurdles of motherhood, the distress of being undesired, and the painful severance of once-beloved friendships.

A novel of survival the struggles of. Motherhood.A novel of marriage of financial struggles of life struggles.Well written characters that come alive. #netgalley #henryholt

Disjointed story of a woman and her husbands experience declaring bankruptcy . A lot of complaining about her job as a teacher and her husband lack of employment. In her spare time, she cyberstalks her former best friend who she imagined is doing very well , according to the friends social media. She debates actually contacting the frien, and their real life interactions are disappointing. I never got a feeling for any of the books characters.