I thought this book was lovely and astute, if in part a rehash of other stories told before. I would seek out other books by Steavenson based on her writing, especially if she took up a more novel plot.

I'm going to be honest. I read this a month ago and I've already completely forgotten it. Looking back on my notes, I enjoyed it just fine, though I found it to be more YA than literary fic. Another historical fiction that taught me a lot, I guess, but didn't compel me. It was fine.

As someone who loves campus novels and Boston/Cambridge settings, I really wanted to like Margot. Unfortunately, it felt like a juvenile historical fiction – a novel meant to accompany an American Girl doll.

While the novel attempted to portray Margot’s love of science and intellectual curiosity, I found it difficult to connect with her as a character or even care about her interests. Instead, the novels seems propelled by the question of who she will marry despite claiming she wants more than that. Additionally, Margot is completely devoid of any meaningful commentary on class and instead relies on a simplistic riches-to-rags story.

Moreover, Margot’s heavy-handed nostalgia baiting made me cringe, and the inclusion of topics like sexual assault and abuse seemed to only exist to provide the novel with a dark edge. It’s an easy read, but left me unfulfilled.

This was an interesting coming-of-age story set in the 1960s. Margot is the product of a privileged, sheltered upbringing and longs to break free from the expectations of her mother and become an independent, academically-oriented woman. She is able to go off to attend Radcliffe and experiences all the political, social and sexual revolutions of the late 1960s.

I’m struggling with how to rate books that I’m fully invested in for the majority of the book, but find the ending is lacking in some way. That was the case for me with 𝘈𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘝𝘪𝘤𝘦 by Deepti Kapoor and it’s definitely the case with 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗚𝗢𝗧 by Wendell Steavenson. ⁣
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This is a classic poor little rich girl story. Margot is the only child of a wealthy couple, growing up between their home in NYC and another in Oyster Bay, an elite enclave not far from the city. While it might seem Margot has it all, she’s a very insecure child, lacking friends, with a domineering mother and a distant father. But, Margot is also brilliant, having a mind for science and the natural world. Eventually, she escapes her parents for Radcliffe in the late 60’s. Now here is where we might expect Margot to flourish and at times she does, but she can never fully shed the insecure little girl she’s always been.⁣
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This grew frustrating even though I was enjoying the story and especially the era (one of my favorites). Then there was the ending. In my opinion, it went completely off the rails in ways that were impossible to believe. So, back to my rating? I’m not doing quarter stars anymore, so I’m going to go with ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫. I liked most of the book and want to give it credit for that, despite its ending.⁣
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Thanks to @w.w.norton for an ARC of #Margot.

The only child of a wealthy and prominent family in the mid-1950s, Margot's mother has her daughters life all planned out: marriage to the son of an equally well-off family, children, and a life of parties and other social engagements. Margot, though, has little interest in her mother's dreams for her. Instead, she wants to go to college and pursue her interest in science. When Margot's family experiences a devastating setback, their lives are changed forever. Margot goes to Radcliffe just as the school and the country are undergoing significant change. As Margo experiences newfound freedom to live by her own rules, Margot's mother must adjust to new circumstances and a future for her and her daughter that is much different than what she envisioned.

This is a thoughtful examination of a mother and daughter at a critical inflection point in American history. As the book traces Margo's evolution and efforts to escape what her parents and their cohort expected for her, it offers interesting insights into parent-child dynamics and the pressure of family expectations.

Highly recommended!

An interesting and memorable novel. I love the way Ms. Steavenson portrays her protagonist both as a complex individual and as a model of a cultural generational movement.

An intriguing coming of age story set in the late 1940s through the 1960s. Margot's family had- had- a lot of money and her mother Peggy thought that Margot should simply focus on marrying well. But then there's a fire and Margot finds the spine to stand up to Peggy and attend Radcliffe, where she finds genetics. And what a find it is for her! Even as she's peering into a microscope, though, Margot is also learning about life writ larger and exploring her own desires. It's interesting to watch how she copes - and soars- after the change in the family fortunes and even more so after she finds her niche in science. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

A coming-of-age story set in the 50s & 60s during wide political change and the sexual revolution. Margot grows up amidst wealth and privilege with a highly critical mother for whom marriage is the end goal. But Margot goes off to Radcliffe to study science and dreams of graduate school. She drifts in and out of fuzzy relationships with men. It's the portrait of a young woman caught between shifting mores and gender expectations. Margot was taught to waltz but now must rock 'n' roll, and she can't seem to decide which one is the right one for her. Her persistent uncertainty and near-passivity color the entire novel. It's like the story is told in muted tones that kept me feeling detached. Overall, a well-written albeit subdued character study.

thank u for the advanced copy <3

i sorta enjoyed this book but it was a little slow/bleak for me. the writing style felt unique and sometimes v poetic and creative but it wasn't enough to keep me very invested in the story itself. it's great as a character study for margot but the plot just felt a little lacking. i also didn't really care for or relate to any of the characters and found a handful of them pretty unlikeable - which is fine but i do like redeeming moments in the books i read and this felt like it didn't really have many unfortunately. and while it was a relatively quick read, i still felt like it dragged on a bit. i'd give it a good 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.

The chronicle of a young woman's life in the middle of the last century, from girlhood to college graduation.

This didn't work for me. There was a distance in the narrative that didn't serve it well, paired with several moments of being far too on-the-nose. I found it an odd combination. The writing was also slightly too cute for my taste. The alliteration, repetition, creation of new compound words didn't feel organic to me. It's something I've seen again and again in recent fiction, and frankly, I'm sick of it.

This feels undeniably like a book club book to me, and in that respect I'll say that it is a step up from the usual fare, and might be a good choice for that use. I don't like it, but there are many that will.

A fantastic, thought provoking piece of literary fiction that functions well as a character study.

I loved everything about this, from its strong sense of time and place to its intense omniscience of its main character’s thoughts and feelings. I was surprised how interested I became in Margot’s studies and interests, given that genetics generally doesn’t do much for me.

The story is pretty bleak and has a lot of cruelty in it, and it’s a bit painful to see how much Margot suffers at the hands of others, but the writing is so good and the story so compellingly told that I found myself less averse than usual to what is essentially a real downer of a plot.

I wasn’t crazy about the semi-open ending, but it does seem fitting for the story so it didn’t really change my feelings on the book. Looking forward to exploring more of Steavenson’s work.

𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿. 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗴𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲. 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗱, 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀, 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲. 𝗦𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻, 𝗮𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿, “𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴.”

Margot Thornsen is to inherit her grandfather’s steel fortune, it is the 1950’s and success for a young woman is to marry well. If Peggy can just polish her strange daughter, who seems set on embarrassing her, than everything will work out. Ever since she was a child, she loved nothing more than questioning the world around her, “Discoverings gave her a bubbling-up feeling in her chest.” An only child with natural intelligence, she has never pleased her mother Peggy, instead she is shamed for her gangly height and curious nature. Peggy puts stock behind beauty, like her own, and is repulsed by her quiet child’s cleverness. Where is her daughter’s knowledge of biology going to get her socially? Not even dancing lessons can mold her into a fine young lady, it is a miserable childhood ruled by her mother’s tyranny. Margot knows that her mother’s sister, Sarah, was left out in the cold, cut off from the family wealth when she ran away with an unsuitable man. She is the cautionary tale, such choices are destructive, according to Peggy, wayward behavior only leads to ruin and the same could happen if Margot doesn’t get her nose out of her books. Aren’t her impoverished cousins evidence? When a fire torches the family legacy and her mother’s grand visions for Margot’s future, it’s her chance to escape from under Peggy’s control but the shame chases her. With her mother’s unending list of Margot’s deficiencies, there is no shortage of insecurities waiting to bubble up, eclipsing the pleasures she has found in academic pursuits.

Free to rise from the ashes of disaster, despite their dire financial circumstances, Margot gets accepted to Radcliffe, but will she be able to break free from the pleasing girl her mother molded her to be? Life isn’t found in studies alone, the world is changing with sexual liberation, race riots and hopes for a new age of peace and love during a time of war. Peering at chromosomes through a microscope helps the world recede, but she manages to find sexual intimacy with a man. It’s easy to confuse sex with love, and rejection humiliates.Too, there are liberties a family friend takes to make another jealous, Margot just doesn’t seem to know how to fight for herself. Margot looks ahead despite the pain, makes an important discovery in her studies and is lauded but still feels inadequate. In a time voices are strong for the women’s movement, she is absent, despite her important work. Will Margot ever learn how to move to her own rhythm, to chose her future? Or will she succumb to her mother’s expectations? She herself isn’t sure, and wonders if maybe in the end it’s genetics that pull us against our will. She just can’t seem to figure out how to let go and get to living. From the beginning, she only knows she doesn’t want to end up like her mother, “subjecting her own daughter to the same rituals”, of postures and poses, the same conversations, golf, vacations, talks of ‘so and so’s engagements.” How spiteful her mother feels when Margot, through design or accident, gets what she wants and she refuses to let Margot enjoy a lick of her freedom.

This was a moving read and I like that Margot doesn’t burst on the scene and transform into someone unrecognizable. Such things make for great movies, but in reality, it’s much harder to fight conformity, and society’s expectations. She certainly forges her own path, but fate isn’t always kind and as so many of us experience, obstacles and her own weaknesses often lead others to push through her boundaries. She is quiet, unsure of herself, not everyone has the fight in them when growing under the roof of a tyrant. Some retreat further within. Then there are Mayweathers, the perfect example of how wealth and prestige change our perception. Things aren’t always as perfect as they seem. It’s a slow awakening, but Margot is getting there.

Publication Date:January 24, 2023

W.W. Norton & Company

Margot reads like a moment in time and the passage of time all at once. The prose grows with the character, developing along with her experiences and ambitions while also feeling restrained as she begins to grapple with the implications of her extreme social privilege. An enjoyable piece of historical fiction that touches upon a singular experience within an era of lasting change and continuing implication.

(Digital ARC provided from the publisher via NetGalley)

I quite enjoyed this book. It started off a little slow for me, but by part two I was invested.

The novel follows the life of a young woman named Margot as she navigates life to discover her place in the in the post WWII era (1940-1960s). As a student myself, I always enjoy books that are set in university and/or academic settings and Margot was no exception. Although I did not really understand the science behind it all, it was really interesting to follow Margot as she dug deeper to discover new findings in the field of genetics. I enjoyed Margots’ character growth throughout the novel and the ways in which her relationships with the people in her life changed and developed as a result.

My main critique of the book is that it did not fully address the anti-black racism that occurred during this specific time period.

I am also left wondering how the novel would have played out if the author had used a first person POV rather than third person POV. Since this novel so closely follows one character, I really wanted to dig deeper inside Margot’s brain, but the third person POV prevented that to some extent.

Thank you to netgally and publishers for the e-arc of this title.

Margot by Wendell Steavenson reminds me of the books I started reading when I first started reading "adult" books. They were books from another time, something like Fifteen from Judy Blume, a coming-of-age story, with hints of romance or first love. Margot, however, is a bit deeper, with talk of money, sex, unhappy families and society expectations.

There's a nostalgia feel to this type of writing, it's historical fiction but at the same time, it's contemporary thinking and contemporary ideals. I see other have complained about the end, but I quite liked it. I like the abruptness. When reading books like "Peyton Place", finding out what happened after....kind of ruined the story. Ending Margot's story like this is good...just leave it. Life is like that, vague. We can assume, but we don't know.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Raw and naive and nostalgic and devastating!!! This book has some of the most wonderful characters I’ve met in a long time, and some of the nastiest as well. Steavenson's prose is both flowery and unflinching in its honesty.

I hate and adore Margot, and I need so much more of her.

Margot was a great book, historical fiction in a sense given the time period. I liked reading about her toxic relationship with her mother, as well as the strictures of an upper-class upbringing.

I loved this book for so many reasons. The setting, the characters, the time period and the thought provoking lines. I think it is one of the very few books that I would want to reread because there is so much there to absorb. I'm an older reader and the time period is one that I also lived through so I found it particularly interesting. For younger readers, it will probably be an eye opener.
I did not want it to end and I felt I wanted at least another few chapters of Margot's life. I was not ready to part ways with her!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It's an easy five-star read for me. Well done, author!

3.5 rounded up to 4.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I love any books about introverted women navigating the world, their mothers and sex lives, experimentation and radicalization, possibly because they remind me of myself and I am nothing if not driven by self-posession. Sorry sorry.

The author allowed me to really get there in terms of the setting and the secondary characters mostly felt fully fleshed.

I wish it had delved more deeply into the racism that existed (and continues to exist) during this period of time especially when it comes to academics.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the e-arc.