This book was a struggle. It took everything in me to finish it. The plot is difficult to follow from the beginning and becomes more muddled as the storyline progresses.
Even with access to a printed copy and the audiobook, the multiple writing styles made it difficult to follow along. Multiple footnotes further bogged down the flow making it even more difficult to get into a reading rhythm.

The narrator did a good job infusing emotion into the characters but it was still difficult to follow because of the jumping around from the past, to the present, and the future, with no segways. The fragmented story telling makes me wonder if this is how victims/survivors of compartmentalize these traumatic events.

There are photos sprinkled throughout the chapters which do not lend themselves to the storyline. Strangely enough, the person whom the book is named after is not introduced until more than halfway through the book and has no real bearing on the story.

This book was not enjoyable.

I was only able to get through 20% of this audiobook. The narrator was wonderful, however, this story was EVERYWHERE! I understand what was to be happening in the book, yet it was so all over the place I just couldn't follow it.

This was a super interesting and unique story. I loved the writing style, though at times I was confused or the story was hard to follow.

This is an extremely great debut novel, Ferrell should be very proud. This book was absolutely heartbreaking, the story of the horrors girls and women have to survive and how it affects every relationship going forward. With a refreshing back and forth of past, present and future and multiple points of view, this novel was a hit. The choice to do a non linear time path was an extremely great decision. While there are a lot of highs to the greatness of this book, there are some lows as well.

Audio format of this book would not be recommended. The change of POVs, use of quotes at beginning of some chapters, and multiple time periods make for a pretty confusing audio experience. I would definitely recommend a physical copy of this book. The main characters for this novel were pretty fleshed out (as fleshed out as 15 year olds can be I think), the use of some random characters and their points of view made less sense. In fact it seems most of this book is not even told from the viewpoint of the actually Miss Metropolitan which stands out only because it is named after her column.

While for the most part this book had very powerful mix of prose and stream of consciousness, and showed the mind of a child going through unimaginable trauma extremely well, other times this book was a plethora of unnecessary and bordering on excessive writing. Towards the last 20% I wished for some extra editing.

It's tough to write a book about splashy, headline-worthy horror without falling into cliche. Carolyn Ferrell admirably takes the framework of this sort of real-life atrocity and creates new doors and windows, new sky lights, and a new, compelling character to inhabit this house that contains horror, yes, but so much more: loss, love, longing, confusion, hope, and great sadness. It helps of course that the main character is a Black woman, the sort of real life figure more likely to be on the receiving end of such violence, yet so rarely portrayed as a bold survivor.

The narrator of Ferrell's book is ambivalent about the heroism thrust upon her, though. In her telling, she becomes most often the observer, a marginal figure in contrast to her larger than life mother and the looming nightmare of Bossman.

I had to stop reading a few chapters into memories of the kidnapping because it was too intense, but that's more about me than the book which I didn't love (perhaps due to the singsong tone of the audiobook reader) but found worthwhile and interesting, and notably original in voice, structure, and characterization.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC audiobook of Dear Miss Metropolitan!

This book was unique in the way it went about telling the story. I really like what the story was aiming to do and how it was told, but I will say, I don’t think it lends itself well to an audiobook format and I look forward to flipping through its pages when the physical book becomes available.
There were a handful of times I found myself lost or not connected with the characters but I really think the visuals within the book would really help with that.

I think this book is worth the read, I just wouldn’t recommend listening to it without the book in front of you as well.

A brutal debut novel that follows the stories of three young women who are abducted and held for several years before being rescued. The story is named for a journalist in the neighborhood who, among other neighbors, wonders why no one realized that the horrors that occurred right under their noses. The audiobook is narrated by Bahni Turpin, a usual favorite. However, her reading here felt unnaturally slow and the POV switches that occur are not completely clear.

When I first started listening to Dear Miss Metropolitan: A Novel by Carolyn Ferrell, I almost gave up on finishing the book.  I knew what the story was supposed to be about, but I wasn't getting it for the first few chapters.  Nonetheless, I stuck with it and soon came upon an 'ah ha' moment where everything suddenly became clear.  What I was listening to, is the introduction to the three different girls who have been kidnapped, raped, tortured, and held against their will for an extensive time.  What I was listening to is a bit of background on them, their lives before their kidnapping, and how they went missing.   Their stories and lives before their captivity are heartbreaking; their stories and lives during their captivity are excruciating; their stories after their captivity are devastating.

As much as Dear Miss Metropolitan: A Novel by Carolyn Ferrell is a book about the three girls, Fern, Gwen, and Jessenia, it is also a book about the neighbourhood that didn't know they were being held in that house for years.  How could they not know?  It seems far-fetched, but at the same time, it's not as far-fetched as you would think.  Ariel Castro kidnapped Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus in 2002 & 2004 and they weren't found until 2013.  Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped in 1991 by Phillip Garrido and remained missing until 2009.  Jeffrey Dahmer killed and dismembered several people in the 1990s in his apartment and no one was the wiser, even with the horrible smell.  So this kind of stuff happens; we look the other way and justify it by calling it minding our own business.

Now I had the audiobook version of Dear Miss Metropolitan: A Novel by Carolyn Ferrell and it was narrated by Bahini Turpin.  She did an admirable job of telling the story and communicating the emotion of the various characters.  In the audiobook, the chapters don't announce which character is narrating, so it takes a while to realize who is speaking each chapter.  I'm not sure if it is different in the physical book, but I hope so as the story would make sense that way, and you wouldn't have such a hard time adjusting each chapter.  The audiobook runs for 10 hours, so it is not that long and can be completed in a few days.  I quite enjoyed Dear Miss Metropolitan: A Novel by Carolyn Ferrell.  It was at times heartbreaking, and upsetting, but oh so good.