"The Women's March" by Jennifer Chiaverini offers a fictionalized account of the historic Women's March on Washington in 1913, highlighting the diverse perspectives and experiences of the women involved. Chiaverini's portrayal of the characters is nuanced and compelling, with each one facing their own struggles and triumphs in the fight for women's suffrage.

The novel demonstrates commendable attention to historical accuracy, capturing the spirit and atmosphere of the period with meticulous detail. Chiaverini effectively incorporates real-life figures and events into the narrative, giving readers a rich and immersive glimpse into the suffragist movement. However, while the character portrayal and historical accuracy are strengths of the novel, the plot development and pacing falter a bit. The narrative unfolds slowly, with moments of tension and conflict interspersed throughout. While this allows for a more in-depth exploration of the characters and their motivations, it may also result in some readers finding the story slow-moving or lacking momentum.

Overall, "The Women's March" is an engaging and informative read for fans of historical fiction. While it may not be without its flaws in terms of plot development and pacing, its strong character portrayal, historical accuracy, and thoughtful exploration of the suffragist movement make it a worthwhile addition to the genre.

This was the first Jennifer Chiaviarrini book that I did not finish. It was tedious and boring and I could not find any interest in the story or the characters.

I have read Chiaverini for many years. I always enjoyed her Elm Creek novels. I struggled with this book. It seemed more a recitation of facts than a novel, and, at times, sounded like an encyclopedia entry.

The suffrage years of Alice Paul, Maud Malone and Ida B. Wells-Barnett were covered. There were bits of dialogue scattered among the facts and that made for some very dry reading. This information might have been better treated as a non-fiction biography. Then the reader would have a better idea of what is fact versus fiction.

Ok, so this is a tricky review to write. The main premise of the story I feel may have been missed by the amount of historical fact that wasn’t woven throughout well. At times it read like a nonfiction and at times it read like the NARRATIVE nonfiction it was supposed to be.

LIKES:
1) the inclusion of Ida B Wells meant a lot, but I will also bring up what bothered me about this in my dislikes.
2) it’s important to have this out there so that women of all color can see how HARD getting the right to vote was. And also the parallels of what what we are going through today with our body autonomy.
3) the significance to why Women’s History month is March. You felt for these women, from all of the world, in the battle to be heard.
4) Saskia Maarleveld!!! She was the narrator and she’s my favorite! She probably saved this book from being rated lower.

DISLIKES:
1) I always have a hard time when white women or men write a story, any part, from a Black person perspective. I think there was a lot of glossing over and the until you read this from the Black feminist POV, you really can’t even fathom that what Wells was experiencing. It was also not really included that where women got the right to vote in 1920… that was only WHITE women. Black women didn’t achieve this until 1968. Not mentioned and needed to be.
2) I know this is true, even today, so it’s not so much a dislike to the story but just in general. Why can women consistently be there to left up each other again oppression. Even today, the amount of “Christian” women that supports the SCOTUS and their recent decision, it just makes me sick. We don’t need to worry about the patriarchy…
3) Woodrow Wilson 👎🏽👎🏽

I’m very thankful to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Book Club Girl for this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I love, love Jennifer Chiaverini's work in historical fiction. I was really excited to read this.

Alice Paul, a seasoned suffragist, returns to her native United States to help with the suffragist movement after helping with it for years in Great Britain. She decides to organize a march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. Joining her is librarian Maud Malone, an Irish American, and daughter of immigrants, who has a police record for interrupting politics speeches and rallies in the past. Civil Rights activist and journalist Ida B. Wells is determined that women of color will be included in this march. Even though racism is rampant from Southern supports for the right to vote, Alice is trying to convince other women suffragists that it is the right thing to do, as her Quaker views have taught her. The march commences on March 3, 1913.

So I will say, I learned a great deal. I know of course, that while this march might have cause a great to do, it still didn't get the right to vote on the ballot right away. So, there's that. It definitely might have made the men in the country and pay attention a little bit more.

Things I liked: Points of views. I appreciated that you had someone who is more a pacifist, ie who would do silent protests like hunger strikes i.e. Alice. She was also someone who has been working in the suffragists movements for a while, so she knows what work needs to continue to be done going forward. I also appreciated Maud on her own way because I can so see a librarian at this time period standing up and saying this isn't okay (I still can today). I also really do appreciate that Ida B. Wells came through. While I feel stodgy about Chiaverini writing Ida as I know she has gotten slack of her portrayal of WOC in the past, I still feel this part of the narrative was pivotal.

I did feel with these points of view we actually did get to learn quite a bit about women's voting history that you NEVER learn in school. It seriously bothers me sometimes the things I have to learn from historical fiction and narrative history books. But that also makes books like this so much more important.

What I didn't dig: That this book is a tome for one day of history. I realize it took time to get to the March and that this is Chiaverini's style. I just felt like there was too much lead in. Maybe I need to read it in paper form so I can digest it better? Who knows.

Thank you for the ARC!

This book was a little outside of my box in that it seemed to be less historical fiction and more of a nonfiction book with some fiction thrown in. I try to steer clear of nonfiction, I just don't really find it enjoyable. I like to get lost in a book and this didn't really do that for me.

Every woman should read this book.

The Womens March is told from the point of view of a Quaker, a African American educator and teacher and a librarian from Brooklyn. Jennifer Chiaverini has a special talent for bringing history to life. In this book, she shows how important the right to vote is.

One of the great things about well written historical fiction is that it can ignite an interest. I'm thankful the author chose to write about this important part of American history. I will definitely be seeking out more books about the suffrage movement. I am honored these women were so strong, sacrificed so much and spent countless hours marching and lobbying for women's right to vote.

Thank you to Netgalley, Chiaverini, and William Morrow for providing me with an advance copy! All thoughts expressed are my honest opinion.

A very good, educational read about such an important time in our history. This book was so heartbreaking and empowering. It was beautifully written and I highly recommend.

The Women's March is a well researched book about the 1913 Suffrage Movement. It is more factual than some readers may prefer. It is well written and interesting, if a little difficult to read at some times. If this is your only book by this author, please try some of her others, this isn't her normal style. I am giving it a high rating due to the factual basis of the book.

I found this book to be fascinating. The details and descriptive writing really immerse the reader in the time period and experiences of The Women's March. I'm a big Chiaverini fan, and even though this is a departure from some of her other books, it's still well done.

Hard to rate. I would put it at 3.5 stars. This was a story I picked up and read as time permitted with other tasks and other reading

The story follows the lead up to the Woman's March of 1913 in Washington DC on the day prior to President Wilson's inauguration. It follows the stories of three well-known suffragettes at the time--Alice Paul, Maude Malone, and Ida Wells-Barnett.

I was grateful to receive the arc of this book from the publisher and NetGalley over the summer because the women's suffrage movement is not something that has been written about in much detail in history books other than mentioning Susan B Anthony and then women finally getting the vote in 1920. This book introduced me to and taught me more about other remarkable women and their contributions to the suffrage movement. In addition, I learned more about Ida Wells-Barnett and her contribution to racial equality in the US. Of the three women, I found Ida's story the most interesting and compelling.
With this being said, at times I felt like I was plodding through the story as discussions centered on the politics of dealing with people within the movement. I had to remind myself that I was reading a fictional account and not a non-fiction book. I could relate to this based on my involvement with organizations and trying to unite people in one cause, but it still made for some plodding through the story and, at times, skimming. This is not something that the author could have really avoided; I felt like she did a good job trying to keep the reader's interest, but the nature of the topic made it a bit hard to get through. As I mentioned above, I found Ida's story to be the most compelling and looked forward to when the chapters centered on her and her life. She is someone I definitely want to learn more about.
One of my complaints is that the author missed talking about Utah granting the right to vote to women. UT Territory was an early experiment in voting rights for women to help change the practice of polygamy within the LDS Church. Even though Utah was second to Wyoming in granting the right to vote, UT women voted twice before women in Wyoming did due to election cycles. The vote was eventually taken away due to fear of the undue influence of LDS Church in UT Territory, but then returned and guaranteed in the UT State Constitution when UT was granted statehood in 1896. It was noted that most Utahns opposed the removal of the vote from women during the 1880's, and they did fight it to have it restored. This is due to the fact that LDS women are allowed to have an equal vote and say in church meetings. Chiaverini omitted Utah having the right to vote in her book when she listed states who had the vote at the time.
I would recommend this book to help introduce most Americans to what women went through to press our government officials and a nation that half the population deserved a say in who we elected as leaders as well as to learn more about some of the other leaders of the movement.

It’s always frustrated me it took women so long to gain the vote. More than a dozen countries gave women the right to vote before the United States; that’s mind-boggling to me. I’d like to think I would have been a suffragist back in the day, but I’m a sissy. The leaders of the movement—including Alice Paul, Maud Malone, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Lucy Burns, and Jane Adams—risked life and limb to secure passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution.

I was excited to read this novel and learn more about the women’s suffrage movement in the United States, but what I got was a boring book by an author who couldn’t decide if the book was about the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession or slavery and racial injustice. Ida’s story seems out of place… interesting for sure, but it departed from the overall premise of the book. The two storylines would have probably made great books had been they treated separately. There were so many incredible suffrage events that preceded and followed the March that could have been added to the plot to round out the narrative. It stunned me to learn there were women’s organizations whose sole mission was to oppose women’s suffrage, The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, for example. Employing a dual narrative between leaders on both sides of this contentious issue would have been far more interesting. 3 stars.

On the one hand, I really liked how intricately this was written, with a lot of details packed in, especially in the early chapters as I was getting to know the main characters. However, all that detail also made it difficult to follow at times. As others noted, it sometimes did feel more like a history book narrative. Will definitely look for more books by this author because I do appreciate her level of research and general writing style.

The Women's March by Jennifer Chiaverini is a cross between an historical narrative and a novel. It was fascinating to learn so much about the suffragette movement in the United States - and its ties to the battle over women's rights waged in Great Britain. The characters were well-written, and it was really great to see the events unfold through their unique perspectives.

I must confess that I would have preferred a less detailed and more character-driven account, however Jennifer Chiaverini is an excellent writer.

#netgalley #thewomen'smarch

Told from 3 diverse voices this story explores the women's suffrage movement in the United States and features appearances from well known women in the movement..

This was such an interesting and enjoyable read. Not only did it deal with woman's efforts to obtain the right to vote but discrimination. The marches and gatherings were marked with women who did not want to be next to women or color or be in the same group. Therefore the organizers had this to contend with but pretty much agreed that those who discriminated would not have special treatment. It covers the miles they walked and supporters and non-supporters they encountered. There were some tender moments as when the desk of Susan B. Anthony was acquired. A well written and informative book.

The Women’s March by Jennifer Chiaverini is everything I usually enjoy in a book: historical fiction, women’s issues, multiple points of view. I received this advanced copy with much enthusiasm. And this is a good, and important story. It just fell a little flat for me.

Alice, Ida, and Maud are all suffragettes working for the cause in their own ways. Alice fought for the women’s vote in Britain, using tactics frowned upon in the US. As the head of the movement in DC, she is forced to write editorials and defer to men to get a March approved and the safety of its participants assured.

Ida is an African American woman fighting to ensure all women receive the vote, even those women of color. Ida has a long seen the effects of racism, throughout the country.

Maud is a librarian in NYC, and the most “militaristic” of the three. She’s served time for interrupting politicians speeches to enquire if they support women’s suffrage.

I enjoyed this book because I learned about issues I had not previously known a lot about. I really enjoyed Ida’s storyline. Overall, though, I got lost in the repetition of the story. I know there were important points being made but it was just told over and over again.

I appreciate the advanced e-copy of #thewomensmarch from #netgalley and the publisher. I’ll continue to read more of Ms. Chiaverini’s books. I’ve read others and she writes good historical fiction. This one just wasn’t for me.

The Women's March of 1913 that was over 250 miles long and resulted in bad behavior from men and Woodrow Wilson himself. It looked at the history of the suffrage from the perspective of 3 women Alice Paul, Ida B. Wells, and Maud Malone. These three women had the determination to see that women would have the vote. A vote that was not only a vote, but spoke of women in the workplace, the raising of children, and the rights of women to be safe at home and in society. Ida B. Wells was fighting two fronts. One for women and one for racism. Her background was the most interesting.


The narration was told more in a documentary style instead of a personal style. It did give details to these brave women's background and how they were able to bring together women in this historical march. I myself googled them because I was having a difficult time staying on track. Sometimes putting a face to a name helps and a shorter summary of who these women were. It was a long book but nevertheless, a story that needs to be told of where we came from and where we are heading.

A special thank you to William Morrow and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

I found this book very interesting in regards to the History of Women's rights. We take a lot for granted and should be grateful for the fight our ancestors had to endure.
I did find it a little confusing following a number of women's journey. Not my typical genre but I am learning a lot more of our history than I ever did at school. A enjoyable read and would recommend it. Thanks to #netgallery for my ARC copy

I enjoy historical fiction, especially when it covers more unique time periods. The Women's March definitely fits the bill, covering the suffragist movement in the United States.

Alice Paul has organized the march, after returning from England and the suffragist movement there. Joining her is Maud Malone, an agitator especially during political speeches, and Ida B. Wells, whose goal is to ensure black women are represented. In March, 1913, the Women's March takes place, much to the chagrin of the men who wish to stop it.

Loved this book! Love the author! Love the topic! It's definitely a must read for historical fiction fans, and those interested in women's rights. The story is inspired by the actual events, and is definitely a well researched piece.