florida is getting out of prison in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic. dios wants to ruin her life, for she knows that florida is a killer just like she is. the two women end up on the run, and detective lobos tries to catch them.

the blurb about this novel was misleading. i expected a grand adventure between dios and florida — two women trying to survive in a world riddled by pandemic and prejudice. that’s not at all what this novel is about. it mostly focuses on detective lobos in part ii and her dedication to track down the two women. dios really doesn’t have a large part in this novel, which was horribly disappointing as she was the most interesting character. the description is so misleading. is it a good book? sure, it’s fine. the writing is fun and full of colorful colloquialisms. the ending, however, thematically makes little sense.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Honestly, this was not at all what I expected from the blurb. This was an interesting read that could be 1 star or 5, kind of like the movie that wins the Oscar every year.

It took a few pages for me to get in the swing of the author’s style of communicating with her reader, but once I did, the mood and tension of the story never let up.
During the first months of COVID, Florida, and Dios are serving time in an Arizona prison. The acts that put them there are hinted at, but remain a mystery. Dios is constantly badgering Florida, threatening her, stalking her, and telling her they’re very much alike. Florida doesn’t believe she’s as cold-hearted and mean as Dios, who can take a beating just as easily as she can dish it out.
After one of the inmates dies from the disease, some of the other inmates are given an early release. Florida is thrilled to learn she’s one of the lucky ones, and she won't let it dampen her spirits when she learns Dios will walk out the same day.
Immediately after their release, Dios stalks Florida. As Florida attempts to outpace Dios, she quickly learns that Dios isn't going to be so easy to shake. They both immediately break parole by leaving the state and riding an illegal transport bus to California. They leave behind them a trail of crimes, including one murder. This gets the attention of Lobos, an LA investigator with her own type of monkey on her back.
Three relentless women, one hot and dry summer, everything closed due to COVID, and riots are ongoing in response to police brutality. But these women aren’t concerned with anything but the one goal they each have in mind. But only one will rule.
Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is May 23, 2023.

Sing Her Down by Ivy Pochoda was a really great so called western/thriller.
I was drawn into the story of these characters.
They were truly realistic and showed true emotion.
The story was dark and gritty which sucked me in and I found myself captivated till the end.
Pochoda has written a compelling tale. I loved the powerful writing by this author.
My first time reading her work and I’m very pleasantly surprised.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux & MCD for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Sing Her Down
By Ivy Pochoda
I thought this was going to be a western about bad women in the 1800s! Boy was I wrong! Reading about women in prison is not my favorite thing to do but they are not in there long because they get out early. The focus is mostly on two women. The story is told by several women's POV.
Florida and Dios are the two women that leave early from prison. Dios hounds Florida and tries to get her to be violent. Dios is convinced that Florida needs to get her violence out to be herself. I think Dios just wanted Florida to be as vicious as herself.
The story is mostly about the misadventures of the two. There is also a woman cop that comes into play and the violence around her life, and working on the case of these two women, seems to hit her hard.
I think the book was a bit confusing in places. It was a dark book and I felt I needed to wash my brain in cold water after reading it. So much dark manipulation from Dios. Florida had been doing ugly secret acts of violence. Dios seemed beyond redemption or rehabilitation.
This is not the kind of book I would normally read but I am glad I read it. It was dark and violent but thought provoking too. It showed many ways women ways turn to violence. It also showed ways to avoid violence.
I give this book a 3 1/2 stars rounding to 4.
I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this book!

I am new to Ivy Pochoda. I would say this is Orange is the New Black meets HBO's Oz. Women prison stories are always so interesting. This books takes the reader on a dark journey into an state orchestrated society where normal rules and behavior are not present. The author did a good job of creating believable, sympathetic characters who are doing their best to survive this hell. There are very dark components of this book that may be disturbing to readers, but they only add to the overall atmosphere a story set in prison conveys. In an interesting twist, the darkness really begins after the main characters are released and are their own and begin a cat and mouse chase across the Southwest. Who is truly more evil? How do we decide? Thanks Net Galley for this opportunity.

There are three women at the center of this novel: two recently paroled from committing serious crimes, let out of prison because of shortened sentences due to overcrowding. They embark on a serious of Thelma and Louise escapades that are fascinating, bloody, and lots of high drama. Most of the action is set in a somewhat post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, filled with tent cities and marginal characters. The other part of this trio is a cop who is trying to catch the first two as they bring mayhem to the city. The characters are finely drawn, the inner dialogs hard to discern but interesting and provides some depth to their motivations and actions. If you like your fiction with finely drawn female characters this novel will be a compelling read.

This was a bit hard to really get into, the change of character perspective and the characters themselves were a bit hard to settle in with. I do think the writing was good, just not exactly my style.

This is a really well written book. The characters are believable and I found myself relating to each one. I did find it a little hard to get into at first because of all the switching back and forth between the characters. I would have liked a different ending,but the one that was presented was actually inevitable. I am glad that both Logos and Florida got their closure in the end.

Sing Her Down is a psychological production with characters and setting in prison and after parole featuring characters that have twisted and demented minds up to no good. The police are always two steps behind and even if rehabilitation is maybe in the future for one former inmate, the other is more evil and successful in the downfall. It is not my favorite book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publishing for the e-book in exchange for an honest review.

"Florida" Baum is imprisoned in Arizona claiming she is innocent of her crimes. Her cellmate, Dios, knows the truth about Florida. Unexpectedly they are freed together due to Covid, and they have to figure out life on the outside....back to the violence or to walk away.

In reading this, I struggled with the characters, their lack of development and their purpose in the story. I am not certain what the plot was other than to have 2 women lead a life of violence, end up in prison, and then determine whether or not they are capable of rehabilitation. I agree that the middle drug along too much as well. This was not a good fit for me.

This is a well-written, brutal depiction of lives in and out of actual or imagined prisons. Multiple POVs. hard to follow at times, but powerful and lyrical. Unlike anything I normally read, I appreciated this book rather than enjoyed it. It might have tried to be a little too deep at times.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a brutal story.. an understatement, I had to push it to finish. Fast paced, depressing, and yet realistic. The homeless problem is depicted graphically and it is beyond frightening. The prison system is the other aspect of the novel that is terrifying. Combine the two and you have a book most readers will not complete or recommend. I am in that group of readers. Sorry.

A simmering, cat and mouse game that will have you hooked the entire time! Highly recommend to lovers of the genre.

That was a bit of a slog. Some might like the literary take on the western/crime novel but this one wasn't for me.

I liked the story in general, with two women getting out of prison and trying to reckon with their past. I really liked the cop Lobos with her separate storyline dealing with her husband. I liked the gritty skid row setting. I liked the feminist themes. And at times, I even liked the writing style. Pochoda is clearly doing something different with this one.

What I didn't like though, was basically everything outside these themes. This felt like an excellent 120 page novella stretched to its limits. I didn't understand the motivations of any of the characters and with the style of writing there were times where I wasn't even sure what was going on. The author is trying to write some deeper meanings into this book, and if they were there, then I missed them. It just felt like a ton of puff. There were entire pages that I felt advanced nothing in the story, and the flowery language didn't give me anything either. It hits on the same sort of message over and over again and I found it annoying.

Take the character of Dios. She's a real character, since Lobos is able to see her. But the whole book I was wondering if she was a Tyler Durden style character within Floridas head. Because who else would act in such a strange way? How was Florida not able to ditch her stalker in a city as massive as LA? Why did Florida feel the need to have a showdown with Dios instead of just, I dunno, leaving? Dios is the flattest character in the book and I don't get what her point was. Which is a problem when she's one of the main characters.

I can't say this is a bad book, since I know there will be people into this sort of thing. But not me.

This book was like nothing I’ve ever read. It is my first book by this author and I can see why she is so popular. I felt like I was in the prison, I could feel the Arizona sun, and I felt the dangers of skid row. This book is not for the faint of heart, it is dark, it is gritty, it is rough, and it showcases the struggles in the prison system. Not to mention this takes place at the height of the pandemic which just leads to the anxiety of the situation we find the women in. This is a quick read and I enjoyed the different point of views.

Beautifully written. A captivating story, western/thriller, featuring two women and set during the pandemic . This story will definitely stay with me.

We learn how the story will end in the prologue, from a ranting prison inmate called Kace, a woman who carries voices of dead women within her. She tells us that two women - Florida and Dios – will face off on an empty stretch of road in Los Angeles, with the scene being captured on a mural close by. But how will they get there and what does this mean? We’ll be introduced to each of these women, and others, as they serve their time in an Arizona prison, in the early days of the COVID pandemic.

The prison is a nasty place: noisy and violent, with the sort of atmosphere you’d associate with a testosterone fuelled male lockup. Dios has a particular ‘thing’ for Florida, she likes taunt her, provoke her. We don’t know why this is but when the pair are released early, due to the pandemic, Florida aims to distance herself from her tormentor as quickly and as thoroughly as possible.

Florida eventually finds herself in Los Angeles, a city seemingly empty of people except those living rough in tents and every possible type of temporary accommodation. Skid Row (a place the author attends a studio and teaches creative writing) looms large here, but it also seems that every available space in the city is inhabited by those lacking a bricks and mortar home. Life will be tough here for Florida, but will she be able to survive and, just as importantly, evade Dios? Well, we already know the answer to that; it’s now just a case of seeing how this comes to be and how their showdown plays out.

We get to learn quite a bit about Florida (real name Florence): her upbringing and how and why she eventually went off the rails. But Dios remains an enigma and this feels like a missing piece of the puzzle to me. And in the second part of the book a third significant character is added to the mix: a female detective called Lobos, who is searching for the pair – the result of a crime committed after they were released - has her own story. Lobos is in many ways the most interesting of the three main protagonists, certainly the one I found most compelling.

I’ve enjoyed all of the authors previous books, each feeling fresh and offering up something different to other novels I’ve read. This one does too, but to my mind it’s very much the hardest read. There’s a big theme here concerning violence and it’s various triggers, and in particular how woman react to it but also instigate it. The pandemic, and principally it’s impact on the marginalised and the homeless, is another key element. But does it all add up to a compelling story? In truth, I’m not entirely convinced. Though my interest in the fate of Florida and Lobos was maintained throughout, I continually struggled to comprehend why Dios acted in the way she did. So I’m stuck somewhere between three and four stars – three for the story, four for the writing. So three and a half stars rounded up to four it is.

Pochada always gives us a lens into women’s darker spaces, and this prison novel is no exception. Again she transcends the genre of thriller into dark literary fiction, while still satisfying the thriller itch. This book was something else!

This is the story of Dios and Florida, two women on early release from jail during the pandemic. Dios is obsessed with Florida and determined to get her to reveal her true self, to own her violence. It is also told by the detective tracking them and a cellmate still in jail who hears the voices of everyone who has been there and their victims. The style is poetic and gritty.