Wealth and inheritance are something I have been thinking about a lot lately in terms of current events and Hot Stew brings these things to life in a new and compelling way. An impressive sophomore novel!

Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley won't be everyone's cup of tea. Mozley recaptures her stark writing from Elmet in Hot Stew but adds it to a multiple narrative voice novel that explores issues of class and property and ownership against the backdrop of a brothel in London.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Not for me. I can see the potential in the writing but I could not make it further than the first couple of chapters.

To live right up under the nose, is to go unobserved until the crap hits the fan. That’s the premise here. Precious and Tabitha have lived and worked in Soho. A brothel due to be demolished is home to these two. The impending gentrification rubs the locals to respond comically but resolute. The characters areoutspoken and long residents who feel they have a say still in how their neighborhood should grow. Funny and real .

Out April 20th, Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley is an addictive and fascinating story. Set in London's Soho area, this book introduces us to Precious and Tabitha, two women working in an old brothel. They are not happy when they find out that millionaire Agatha Howard wants to convert their brothel, a place they consider home, into a luxury condos. Yep, Agatha wants to gentrify the neighborhood and looks like this building is her ticket. Except, the people who reside in Soho are not keen on losing their workplace, their home, their bit of history. So, they set out to make things difficult for Agatha. Yep, a class war erupts and it makes for quite the story.

Mozley has written an engaging and interesting story about gentrification, class, ownership, and identity. She's created an unforgettable cast of characters that will intrigue you. Her vivid and realistic portrayal of London is spot on and makes you feel as if you are visiting the city. And the story she's written showcases her storytelling prowess. Hot Stew is unputdownable. It's a story that will captivate you from start to finish. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of Mozley and anyone looking for their next great read - you will LOVE this book!

I loved Elmet so I have been excited for this for a while, and it's a great follow up. It has the same feeling of being a straightforward drama at its core (and I wouldn't be surprised if either book ended up being adapted as a miniseries or something), but the story also has an elevated, almost mythical feeling thanks to Mozley's thoughtful, patient writing.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this title. I have mixed feelings about this book. I found some of the characters and storylines to be completely engrossing & could have read an entire book set from their perspective, while other narrators felt like a challenge to connect to. I like how all the threads wove together, however, I feel like too much time was spent on the buildup and the ending was rushed.

“And it’s home. She doesn’t totally know what a home is but she guesses it’s got something to do with friends and family and also something to do with being in a place that you feel has left its mark on you, for better or for worse, and also being in a place that you’ve left your mark upon, for better or for worse. A place that remembers your you’ve been there, that bears your imprint, like a squashy chair you’ve sit in a bunch of times.”

In Fiona Mozley’s, Hot Stew, we travel to Soho in London where we meet a cast of colorful and diverse characters from pimps and prostitutes to junkies and magicians to shiesty business owners and people looking and striving to do better. On the one hand, Soho has become home to the forgotten, the misplaced, the rejected. And on the other hand, it has become a problem, for the owners of the tenements who have plans to gentrify the community, for the women who find work there and know that safety is a larger issue, and especially for those who have found themselves victim to drug taking and sex-trafficking.

It is here we meet Tabitha and Precious, both in the trade and who live and work in the brothel that operates in Soho. The brothel has garnered an unexpected amount of attention recently from those for and against its existence. We also meet Agatha who has been willed the building from an estranged deceased father and has made the decision to raise it and rebuild, but not without much dissent. When a huge accident takes place that involves the brothel and it’s tenants, all involved are called to question what it means to them.

I really enjoyed so much about this book. The phenomenal storytelling was consistent throughout. It is descriptive in a way that plants readers in Soho and on the very streets and buildings that are controversially the talk of the town. Hot Stew highlights the inequalities relating to wealth, gender, politics, gentrification, and the multitude of things that women must do in this world for equality. For home.

Thank you to NetGalley ( @netgalley ), Fiona Mozley ( @fionamozley ), and Algonquin Books ( @algonquinbooks ) for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for this book and for sharing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

"Her skin began to heal. She used to have cuts, sores, bruises, but these began to recede until all that could be seen was a smattering of scars."

We all have scars, whether they be physical or emotional, and so do neighborhoods. Just like people, a neighborhood has a history...a beginning, a middle and, hopefully not an end.

Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley is the story of the very real neighborhood Soho in London. It is filled with a cast of characters mostly living on the edge trying to survive, and even once in awhile, enjoy life. Our main protagonists, Precious and Tabitha, live in a building that houses their brothel. They are sex workers by choice. The building also houses a wanna be actor and not wanting to be drug addict. They are all safe and feel this is their home.

Enter Agatha who has inherited the property and wants to tear down everything and put up luxury housing. She could not care less about displacing anyone. She cares about money.

As the tenants and others in their circle band together to fight the destruction of their home and neighborhood the author deftly shows us the ramifications on gentrification, wealth, inheritance, greed and the scars our actions leave on each other and the places we call home.

This book is a quick read with many intertwined characters. There is a part of it that literally becomes fantasy and I was taken out of the main story for a bit. There is no need for allegory in this all to real tale of money over people. It has a lot to say about our changing world and our responsibility to it. There is humor, anger, sadness and all the emotions we should feel when reading it.

I received a free copy of this book from Algonquin Books via #Netgalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Hot Stew is Mozley's sophomore effort. Her debut <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35711376-elmet">Elmet</a> reached critical acclaim earning nominations for both the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Award. Agatha Howard is the sole beneficiary of her father's wealth. She has decided to renovate his properties so that she can turn over the properties for a hefty profit. But first she must clean up the area by evicting the "undesirable" tenants who have long standing leases. At the same time she must contend with her half sisters as they fight for what they believe is their rightful portion of their father's inheritance.

The Aphra Behn is a pub in the soho section of London that houses a brothel upstairs and a homeless camp in its basement. Among the colorful people that live there is a couple of drug addicts nicknamed Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee named so because of the magic tricks they play with customers' money and Tabitha and Precious who are sex workers.

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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>"All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn . . . for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds."</p><cite> Virginia Woolf, <em>A Room of One's Own</em></cite></blockquote>
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Indeed a hot stew is brewing as these women join forces to protect their home. Protests break out and draw the attention of feminists, religious zealots, politicians and the press. Mozley is pretty clear cut on who the good guys are in all this as she examines power and gentrification.

Perhaps the best part of the book for me was when Precious discusses the agency of women and ownership of our bodies. It was a different take on sex work. None of these women were being "pimped out". They have come to this life through different avenues, but work as a collective to protect and take care of one another. There is one scene where Precious and Tabitha are asked whether they are a couple. Tabitha responds that not only do they share a bed but they share finances. They go on vacations together. When one is sick the other nurses her back to health. If they have a rough day the other is there to listen to them vent and run them a bath. The depth of their relationship is beautiful. But Mozley tells us early on that their relationship is not sexual. The problem comes in how we view and define "couple". If you define couplehood by sex then you are reducing it to something so very basic, as sex is a fundamental need. What really makes a couple? Our ideas about sexare constantly being tested in this book. I was with Mozley when she was talking about how women can choose to have sex, that we can desire and enjoy sex, that we can define what it means to use. But when I got to that one sex scene - EWW! All I can say is that it was really awkward and even if I ascribe the concepts of choice and control to it , I did not see how it added anything of subatnce to Mozley's message.

For the most part the other women were rather ancillary and do not get much treatment in the book. In fact there are so many characters that I had to draw myself a map. At first I was getting frustrated, but then I thought about how fantasy novels are constructed and the time authors take for world building. The way I'm seeing it now is that Fiona Mozley is building up this world so that while the action is brewing and old secrets are bubbling up to the surface we can see more clearly the extensive impact that these power struggles have on this community.

This bold novel is big on detail and ideas, the writing is so intricate and vibrant. As we follow a cast of colorful characters in the heart of the SoHo scene of restaurant/bars & brothels (the “stew” of the title), they fight eviction from an ‘evil’ property developer intent on gentrifying their home turf. Whilst the observations are often so lovely, I did find the social commentary, and so obviously black and white nature of the heroes/villains, a bit heavy handed. But I just couldn’t not love a novel that starts with a snail’s eye view of local bistro as it makes it escape out the door.

This book has a large cast of characters. Due to the sheer number, none achieve a full sense of multidimensionality. They fall into neat boxes; evil billionaire real estate developer, sex worker with a heart of gold, unhoused woman who is neglected and silent.
The class commentary is strong, if not nuanced.
This book is also strongly rooted in place, namely Soho, London. If you call Soho home, this is probably a can't-miss commentary on the changing landscape, both above and below ground.
Otherwise, I would say, this is a fine romp, but certainly not a must-read by any account.

HOT STEW
By Fiona Mozley

HOT STEW is a riot of a read that is highly entertaining, addictive and propulsive. The story begins in the neighborhood of SoHo London where the dilapidated building’s owner Agatha, wants to rebuild to make room for high-end restaurants and luxury apartments. That means that the brothel and all the tenants are going to be evicted. Well, they are not going without a fight and the stir causes a hot stew of a situation.

I enjoyed this fast paced and thought-provoking read that brought these amazing and quirky characters together. The varying POV’s of the story brought a glimpse into the lives of these diverse and eccentric characters, that I found engaging. The writing was witty, and the characters were weaved together and connected brilliantly. The story in its core was about the haves and have nots, the gentrification that affects communities, the unscrupulous landlord vs tenant issues, gender roles, class and inequality. Mosley’s sophomore novel sure packed a punch and was quite the unique and compelling read.

Sadly, this just didn’t hit the sweet spot for me. Obviously it did for others but unfortunately I struggled to engage. Set in a fascinating part of London—Soho, including interesting concepts like gentrification and what happens to the original inhabitants—a universal tale. Despite this my overwhelming impression was that the characters who should’ve raised the bar kept missing their potential.

An Algonquin Books via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

Knotty. Naughty? Illuminati? But not twisted. There were characters is this expansive book who were just too dull to follow around for very long. But I did. Algonquin Books said I could read it, so I did. It was not at all like ELMET. But that's chill, I didn't much like ELMET. To be clear - this book is three stars. And maybe Illuminaughty.

Hot Stew missed the mark a bit for me. I tried, but didn't seem to connect to the characters; and there are quite a few. The book is set in the Soho neighborhood in London. The writing was beautiful and descriptive at times, but overall things felt disjointed for me. The themes playing out in the book are dealing with many social issues, including gentrification, class, and sexuality.

I went into this excited because of the buzz surrounding the books release, but I decided to set it down around the 40% mark. I found the writing tedious and the plkot meandering, and overall, it was just not a book I enjoyed spending time reading!

3.5 Stars

Hot Stew is a book of interconnected characters that are living and working in the bustling Soho neighborhood in London. Through the years this area has grown and changed and some of the old time tenants are at risk of eviction. One run down building in particular that houses a brothel does not plan on leaving quietly as these women are ready to fight for their livelihood.

There are themes of identity, community, class, gentrification, activism and wealth.

This was a book rich in characters. The book starts off with almost shorter stories of each character which then start weaving together. I felt this was done really well but I also felt it hard to connect with the characters until the halfway point. I really loved the ladies in the brothel Tabitha and Precious. They have a really special and unique bond.The social activism part was right up my alley too!

Overall a really interesting read that definitely paid off with a great ending!

Thank you Algonquin books for the review copy.

Mozley uses Agatha, who has inherited property in London's Soho, and a wide cast of characters (including a snail) associated with it, to illustrate the issues raised by gentrification. There's a brothel, sex workers, drug addicts, law enforcement, enforcer. Agatha might want to convert to luxury flats but they are determined to stop her. Read this for the people, who are lovingly written, more than for the plot, which at one point went, to my mind, a little sideways. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. It's an interesting read that will appeal to fans of literary fiction.

Thank you to Algonquin books for my gifted copy of Fiona Mozley, Booker Prize finalist sophomores novel, 𝙷𝚘𝚝 𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚠!

Read this book if you like
* A wide list of characters
* Witty characters with interesting commentary
* A tale where money and power tries to over take the lower class

Hot stew for me started out as a list of many characters with differing stories. At times I found I had to make sure I took notes as I read to keep up with the story and characters. But aside from that, the story has rich character and character development. This isn’t one to fly through as to not miss the depth in which the story portrays! I did enjoy the scenes in which the story took place, Soho. I enjoyed the vivid descriptions which made me feel as though I was In London as well!