The Change is everything I could want in a book: women with semi-magical abilities grabbing the patriarchy by the balls and squeezing. It is both funny and warm. It follows three women with special abilities hunt a murderer in their small-but-wealthy beach town.

At times, the women in The Change feel like more adult versions of the girls in Miller's Irregular series. As someone who read and loved those books growing up, this made me love the book all the more. For those who don't have that same love and nostalgia attached to these quirky-but-unstoppable gals, the characters and plot may seem to work out a little too well.

The mystery was one that I could see coming a mile away. Right from the beginning, the depiction of the wealthy men--particularly Leonard--are supposed to draw parallels to the likes of Jeffery Epstein. Leonard, by virtue of how kind-yet-vague he seems, is clearly our Big Bad.

Revealing Claud to have supplied the men on the island with girls was a smart choice, one that gives this book more nuance then "men of power are bad." It highlights the many ways that patriarchy is sustained. Women like Nessa, Jo, and Harriet exist for a reason; they wouldn't be needed or special if all women felt that the status quo did not need to be maintained. I wish, though, that Claud had a more overt role than supplying the men of the island with girls; I think it would have made a more poignant point about the intersection of class and patriarchy (and white supremacy) than what is depicted here. Giving Claude a more overt role in the girls' deaths would also make sense re: the photos of Faith that the woman pretending to be her mother have. If Claude was the one who sourced the girls, the one who trusted the girls, it would make more sense for her to have been explicitly involved in her coverup; how would Leonard and his men get that information?

The chapters where we were shown what each girl was like before she died was a great choice.

Overall, I think this is a good book that missed out on it's potential to be great.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review the novel. I am rating this book with my own opinion and have not received anything in return. Great book, Kirsten Miller, has a solid hit on her hands!

"Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick—a gloriously entertaining and knife-sharp feminist revenge fantasy about three women whose midlife crisis brings unexpected new powers—putting them on a collision course with the evil that lurks in their wealthy beach town."

We follow Harriett, Jo, and Nessa as they deal with menopause, narcissistic/toxic men, and their growing powers and friendship - as they hunt down a serial killer! The character development was on point. We get to watch them grow as women and learn the backstory that got them where they are. The world-building was *chef's kiss* - I was able to picture everything and I can tell you that I wish I lived in Harriett's garden/mansion! The story and plot progression was perfect. I was on the end of the seat, reading as fast as I could, and trying to figure out the big picture of corruption.

I loved this novel so much - I want to be Harriett in 10-15 years haha - and it will definitely be on my recommendation list for any women who love a good thriller.

*Trigger Warning* - there is a recurrent theme of rape of underaged girls.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free e-copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Do you ever read a book where you are grinning and having the time of your life the whole time? The Change was like that for me. The three women the story follows could not have been more different, but each of them became a new favorite of mine. If I was forced to choose I would go with Harriet. The utter chaos that she embodies was awesome to read about. I read this as a buddy read, which led to crazy theories being discussed and the ending definitely lived up to our speculations. I’m not usually into books where the main message is “Girl power”, mainly because they read too much like a cliche or come off as shallow, but this book managed to feel empowering and genuine at the same time. I would love to read more books with these women, I can only imagine what other trouble they could get into. For me, this was a 5/5.

If you like characters that straddle the gray line, have ever wanted a super power, or you like plants, this is the one for you.

I received a digital copy of this book free from Netgalley and William Morrow in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, but was also equally disturbed by it!

Three women in the Long Island community of Mattauk discover that they have developed supernatural powers during menopause. Nessa, is able to hear the spirits of the dead calling to her asking to be found. Jo, is able to channel her hot flashes and mood swings into feats of extreme physical power and anger. While Harriet, has become an extremely powerful healer adapt at working with plantlife. One night Nessa leads the women to the body of a missing woman they find along the shore. Local police have written the woman off as a runaway or sex worker, so Nessa, Jo and Harriet decide to investigate themselves. During their investigation they find out that someone has been killing young women in their community for decades, and its up to them to use their newfound powers and exact their own brand of justice.

Author Kristen Miller is an excellent writer! Her characters are strong, unique and interesting women. I found myself rooting for them, and sympathizing with them at the same time. The book is well structured and flows really well. Feeling fast paced, but at the same time extremely detailed. Miller does a great job at building the world of these characters. Making you understand exactly why these women felt it necessary to take the law into their own hands and figure out what happened to these murdered women. The story is extremely engaging and entertaining. I practically read it in one sitting!

I was a big fan of how menopause was the catalyst to these women getting their powers. I feel like most of the time menopause is treated as a changing of the guard, something to be sad about and mourn, yet Miller made it something badass and saw it as a strength. Something we need to see more of in media, if I do say so myself.

As much as I enjoyed this book, there were a few things that did bug me a bit. The first being how compartmentalized some themes of the book were. I feel like you could split the story into three sections: 1) myths and realities about our periods and how it effects us as we grow, 2) superpower and the supernatural and 3) the investigation. I wish these elements had been carried throughout the book, but instead it seemed like each section was focused on one topic and then it was rarely brought up later in the story.

I also wasn't a fan of how similar to current events the investigation ended up being. The Jeffery Epstein/ Ghislaine Maxwell similarities were a bit much. I understand that horrendous crimes like this have been happening unfortunately for a while, but it made me a bit sick to my stomach to read them in this story. Especially since I wasn't excepting the investigation to go that route. At one point I did have to put the book down and consider if I wanted to keep reading. But I stuck it out, and will say besides that element it is a fantastic book and I look forward to Kristen Miller's future works.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book. This is my honest review.

I loved this paranormal thriller where the protagonists are three women over 40. Each woman is uniquely fascinating and they unite in their quest to track down a killer.

Along with being a hell of a thriller the book speaks to the imbalance of power between men and women. In particular she takes on the immunity of uber rich men and the systemic degradation of the women in their orbit. However, the author is careful not to characterize all men as evil and all women as saints.

It was a supremely satisfying and enjoyable read.

The Change is a highly entertaining book full of justifiable anger at the way women have always been treated by male society. This fantasy novel gives our three main characters super powers so they can take revenge for some of the wrongs done to women. thanks to netgalley for an advanced reader copy of this book.

QUICK TAKE: absolutely floored by how much I enjoyed this modern spin on The Witches of Eastwick...three women essentially come into supernatural powers later in life and take on all the toxic men in town. I loved the world-building and character stories (every woman in town has her own special backstory), and nothing like a big ole revenge fantasy to keep me on the edge of my seat the entire time!

This book has me SO EXCITED to go through menopause yall have no idea.

The Change by Kirsten Miller is absolutely brimming with bad ass 45y/o-and-over women doing what needs to be done and apologizing to no one for it. I was completely invested in the characters from the first chapter and could not wait to see where it went. The ending was as satisfying as I could have asked for!!
I really, really hope I am half as amazing of a mother as Jo was throughout this book. Or, you know what? Maybe I'll run away to be the green witch I've always been destined to be like Harriett.

I wholeheartedly loved this novel and its absolutely going to be my go-to recommendation for older women who like thrillers. How empowering to finally have a book with bad ass experienced women rather than whiny twenty year olds.

My singular gripe is that this book, like many others, should have contained a small trigger warning blurb at the start. While I expected this book to be dark, it was much more harrowing than the description led me to believe. There is a recurrent theme of the serial rape of underaged girls.

I gave this book 5 stars on my Goodreads. Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Change is brilliantly plotted and perfectly executed. The characters are strong, the writing is lyrical, and the pacing is pitch perfect. Out of the 200ish books I’ve read in 2021, this was my favorite, hands-down.

Let me begin by saying that I am not a fan of any type of fantasy or genres of that type. However, this book pulled me in and would not let me go. I inhaled this book despite the witches and paranormal activities. This book defies a genre and is a joy to read. I think we all want a little bit of Harriet in our personalities.

At its core, this book is basically about friendship. A group of friends creates a brilliant revenge plot. Yes the story is also great but it also rest upon the characters that are brilliantly depicted. I absolutely enjoyed reading this book.

This book is going to be the book of the year. A great setting and a dynamic group of women looking for revenge. I was immediately taken in and enthralled by this book. I think most readers are absolutely going to enjoy reading about this. I don’t want to give too much away but this book is a winner.