I tore through this and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. There are parts to it that are really unexpectedly moving (like when Mallory and Joseph talk about Friends) and parts that are a little cliché and obvious (the root of Mallory’s attraction to older women is not cloaked in metaphor).

But that doesn’t really matter, because this is a very well-written book, even if it feels a little unfinished. I wanted to know what happened to Hannah, I would’ve liked to know more about the woman, about Ruth, about Mallory’s father. Seeing the world only through Mallory’s eyes became a little tiring. I think this could benefit from other perspectives and a little more length. I also wonder what the artistic choice of calling the woman only “the woman” was for. So she could be anybody, I guess, but she’s very clearly not. I think I wanted to know more about her.

I know I’m seeming negative but I really did like this book. The positive outweighed the negative by a lot. I just could’ve stayed in this world a little longer and wish I knew more about it.

Stark, beautifully written, and so, so clever in the way the story is delivered. I look forward to future work from this author and to purchase a copy of WE DO WHAT WE DO IN THE DARK upon publication for my own collection.

This book was a surprise. I went into it expecting to enjoy it, but I didn't expect it to be SO engaging and impressive. Hart has written "the woman" and her experience with shame remarkably well - so well that I often had to put the book down just to take a deep breath to center myself. This book is so incredibly human, and overall just really good.

I was looking for a great womens fiction book- not a thriller or mystery but something with an eerie feel- and this was it, It reminded me of Lisa Taddeo's "Three Women." Erotic, tense, and unique.

This was such an exquisite read — the use of time movements in the narrative, the unpacking of shame in the narrator (and those she is in relationships with), the way “the woman” remains unnamed throughout… it was all perfection!

This is a story you’ll experience with the narrator, it’s sensual but never gratuitous (though the intimacy is written beautifully!), and reads less a discovery of self identity and more as a coming to peace with a sense of self, a state of self. I can’t recommend this enough!

Thanks to Riverhead for an early read via netgalley.