While this book started off very slow, the more I read, the more intense and interesting it became.
Two really dysfunctional women released from prison early, going back and forth with some of each or their backstory and the female detective who gets involved tracking them with her own dysfunctions. Also some other female prisoners and their storied thrown in.
Thank you to Netgalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux MCD and the Author Ivy Pochoda for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

I love her writing style and have enjoyed previous books. This book is no different. Such a unique voice, and I loved the dual timelines.

I love a good western but I wouldn’t consider this book a western at all. Although it does happen in western towns and they do have a showdown doesn’t know where resembles the western but having said that I had first found it hard to get into although I did love the second half of the book with the detective I just would be lying if I said I enjoyed the whole book because I did not. I have sympathy for those down on their lock but not everyone is there due to happenstance and summer there due to their own bad choices neglectful ways an irresponsible decisions having said that I would still give the book 3 stars the riding is great the characters are interesting and I would love to see the Miral. If you love Gritty books about women then you’ll love “sing her down” they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions in this book is a great example of that. I received it from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

My Thoughts:

We follow Two women that have been just released from prison early due to covid. But Florida soon learn after getting on the bus to leave that another inmate Dios is on that same bus. Dios's fixation with Florida turns into a dangerous obsession, and a deadly cat-and-mouse chase ensues from Arizona to the desolate streets of Los Angeles. What happens next is really Raw and Raging violence. Thank You @netgalley for letting me read this great book. This was my first Ivy Pochoda book and Wow what a writer I just added Ivy Pochoda to my list of favorites

Sing Her Down by Ivy Pochoda was original and spell-bounding. Great prose, well-developed characters, and intricately placed plot points. I enjoyed the project of this book as well as the slow burn of this literacy work. Pochoda is a master storyteller and an amazing writer. The flow of the prose was just beautiful.

I received a review copy of this book from the author/publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This is a good book, though it is very dark, gritty and violent. Florida (Florence) a former rich girl that had it all, has ended up in prison, charged as an accomplice to arson, but she's getting out, COVID is running rampant and the prison authorities have decided to release certain prisoners that are deemed to be low risk. Florida's cell mate, a real bad lady, Dios, is also released for the same reason. Dios is not liked by the majority of the prison population, and the day before she's to be released, several of the prisoners lay a heck of a beating on her, but she doesn't fight back and is released. Florida and Dios are sent to a motel to wait out a 2 week quarantine, though they aren't together. They are supposed to receive prepared meals daily and when Florida doesn't receive one for a couple of days, she goes looking for something to eat, instead ends up on a bus to LA, and Dios happens to be on the same bus. Things always seem to go off the rails when Dios is around. In a separate arc, LAPD Detective Lobos who has her own demons, mostly her violent ex hubby that she has a restraining order against. Florida, Dios and Detective Lobos meet on a lonely LA road for a showdown where this story comes to an end. A good book but with some very dark themes, though I would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

A searing page-turner of a novel. A completely immersive story that examines the brutal politics inside a women’s penitentiary in Arizona, set against a mid-Covid landscape. This is my first Ivy Pochoda novel, and one that prompted me to explore her backlist! Brilliant!

Lately, I’ve been in a western frame of mind. So when I read the description of — and advance praise for — Sing Her Down as a gritty, modern, feminist western, I requested an eGalley from Net Galley to check it out. I was unfamiliar with Pochoda’s earlier work, but Sing Her Down certainly seemed like something I would enjoy. You probably sense a ‘but’ coming and that’s fair. What I want to say is that, for me at least, the advance categorizing of the novel as a western never really clicked. The story starts with two women, Florida (Florence Baum) and Dios (Diosmary Sandoval), in prison, and both are subsequently released due to overcrowding at the height of Covid-19 precautions. (Many of the nation’s responses to the epidemic—abandoned cities, people sequestered at home, masking, and social distancing—play a large part in the setting of Sing Her Down.) This is the first novel I’ve read where Covid-19 plays such an overt role in the plot. The nationwide isolation is mirrored in microcosm by Florida and Dios, as the ex-cons never really connect with anyone even after escaping the confines of the prison, and mostly remain locked in their own obsessions and internal conflicts. For example, Dios stalks Florida throughout the story, obsessed with the woman who came from wealthy and refuses to acknowledge her penchant for violence; meanwhile, Florida seeks to separate herself from the other woman at every turn. Undaunted, Dios pursues Florida like an exterior conscience. Dios’ motivation is never clear, other than possibly trying to expose a kindred spirit.

In my reading experience, Sing Her Down is more a character study of these two women, along with Lobos, the police detective determined to track them down after a murder on a bus links back to the two ex-cons. As a character study, the story is strong, the violence unapologetic, the prose hard, knife-edged, and unflinching, never compromised by sentimentality, befitting its flawed subjects. Yet, the post-prison plot remains relatively thin, lacking sufficient conflict between the principles to read as a page-turning thriller—though it skirts the edges of thrillerdom a few times! For large parts of the story, the conflict remains internal, with the lead characters tormented by self-doubt and their dark pasts, freighted with physical and sexual abuse and exploitation. In summation, the story delivered something other than what its marketing message promised. Since this isn’t quite the novel I expected, I find myself in the days since completing it trying to forget the advance hype and weigh the novel on its own merits.

DNF at 41%

I was bored out of my mind. Every character sounds the same and the plot just meanders from scene to scene and with every new stop along the way I asked myself what the point was.

These Women introduced me to the searing, unflinching writing of Ivy Pachoda in her novel of a serial killer stalking sex workers. Sing Her Down takes those descriptors and says - hold my drink.

We meet 4 women, 3 in prison and 1 detective. Kace isn't getting out anytime soon, but we hear her voice throughout the book, along with Marta, the voice inside her head. They are the Greek chorus weaving the story together.

Dios and Florida are granted early release due to COVID. They aren't friends, or even frenemies, but are tied together in an elaborate dive into the meaning of repentance, criminal intent, and freedom.

Detective Lobos needs to suss out who committed a gruesome murder, and why, while facing her own struggle with what it means to be a victim and what pushes someone to break moral limits.

Pachoda builds on the tension of the COVID lockdown days. It's an incredible use of background as mood.

Ivy is an interesting writer. Not a big fan of jumping from character to character as I sometimes find it confusing. However this discord my interest.

I received a free copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

For such a harrowing subject matter, this novel is gorgeously written. With allusions to Cassandra and other women of myth, the story of three ex-cons in contemporary skid row during the onset of the pandemic asks philosophical questions at a breakneck pace. This is a cat and mouse thriller that is compulsively readable. One of the best books of 2023.

Disjointed, ramblings of three women who are in prison- two later get out and a female police detective. Excessive cussing, not even really a plot to the book. Most of the writing is extremely hard to follow, does not flow at all, difficult to tell what exactly the author was trying to convey other than craziness. Not for me at all.

Thanks to Netgalley my my advanced electronic reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This novel begins in a violent women's prison in Arizona, with the voices of three women. There's Kace, who hears the voices of the dead; Florida, who comes from an affluent family from Hancock Park and who was so high when she drove her boyfriend away from where he set a fire that killed a man, that she has no memory of it; and Dios, who loves singing <i>narcocorridos</i> and being feared for her random acts of extreme violence. When both Dios and Florida are paroled at the start of the pandemic, Florida impulsively jumps on an illegal bus to Los Angeles, hoping to go home. But Dios follows her onto the bus and before the bus reaches its destination, both Dios and Florida are not just breaking parole, they are on the run.

This is a novel not about the pandemic, but set in a dystopian Los Angeles ravaged by the shuttering of businesses and the explosion of homelessness. Centered on the skid row neighborhoods around downtown, there's a real feel of hopelessness and of end times to this world, despite its proximity to the comfortable Tudor-style manors and shady avenues of Hancock Park. There's a recurring character from her previous novel, These Women, who serves to ground this novel while Florida and Dios circle each other in a way that feels like a Western, albeit one with an urban setting.

There's a lot of over-the-top violence at the start of this novel and while that isn't something that usually bothers me, Pochoda's writing made it just that bit more vivid and real. It's a wild beginning, that leaves the reader ready for anything. Pochoda is an interesting author and her version of Los Angeles, one of dirty street corners and a capacity to explode into violence at a moment's notice, is a compelling one.

Title: Sing Her Down
Author: Ivy Pochoda
Release Date: May 23rd, 2023
Page Count: 277
Format: Netgalley
Start Date: May 14th, 2023
Finish Date: May 18th, 2023

Rating: 3 Stars

Review:

This story takes place shortly after the pandemic where everything went into lockdown. Two women are released early from prison because of it. They are sent to be quarantined in a motel for two weeks before moving on to their permanent location where they will spend their parole. Things don’t go according to plan at all. I got so many vibes from this book. I’m going to be honest, I’m still left reeling. I may have to buy an audiobook copy of this book to read again. It was kind of all over the place. I didn’t hate it, but I can’t say I was fully in love with it either. I’m still glad that I read it. It’s really interesting to read books that have been written since the pandemic.

A powerful read with characters you will remember long after you finish reading. This is a must read thriller that does not disappoint. Thank you NetGalley, MCD and Ivy Pochoda for the advance read copy of this book.

Visceral, propulsivec and raw, I found myself utterly addicted to this fury cry from start to finish.

<B>”You won’t believe what women can do”</b>

I’m not sure what I expected when I started this but from the first chapter, this just felt so different. It’s edgy, it’s gritty, it felt wholly full of fury and barely restrained violence in a way that manages to tap into your darkest fears, desires, and full on furies.

This exposes the violence and seething underbelly society often refuses to see as a part of women, as well as the circumstances that breed and fuel such discontent. Set against the backdrop of the emerging pandemic, Sing Her Down brings us on a journey of reckoning with our darkest impulses of the acutest and most unapologetic fashion.

<b>“this was a demonstration of power by someone who wants to be seen.” </b>

Alternating between equal parts dangerous obsession and edge between two newly freed convicts, and an examination of the brutality women can be subjected to that begets it’s own rage and vengeance, Sing Her Down was unputdownable at times. While certainly popcorn entertainment worth at moments, what I relished was the deliciously wicked moments in where the females on the story tapped into their emotions, their anger, their boredom, their desire to simply shock and assert power. It was glutinous at times but also vividly refreshing and gripping.

While I certainly believe the story beats could have been tighter and certain storylines certainly fleshed out more, including the one about domestic violence, I did find this wholly engrossing and interesting. The narration was wonderful, adeptly capturing the story pacing and feelings to emote the highest of highs and introspective quieter moments.

Overall, a very enjoyable read. Excited for what’s next from the author! This gritty, action filled western take of sorts is not to be missed!

Thank you to FSG Books for sending an advance copy of this book.

I love Ivy Pachoda. I thought this was great, fresh in its depiction of several women on the brink of explosion. The moments of violence are startling. I've seen this described as a modern western, and I think that fits. It's gritty. As in her previous books, Pachoda does an amazing job of bringing Los Angeles to life.

Check out These Women and Wonder Valley, too.

If grit lit is your thing, run don’t walk to Sing Her Down. This is a one sit, edge of your seat read that I think belongs in most bags this summer. Well paced, not overly done twists and turns, and enough character development in few pages made this a win for me.

In a time where there seems to be no end of great crime fiction, here's a contender as one of the best books of the year. SING HER DOWN cements Ivy Pochoda as one of the great noir chroniclers of L.A.

The story is simple: During the opening days of the COVID pandemic, two women are given compassionate early parole from prison. Florence "Florida" Baum wants nothing more than to keep on running from her past, even denying it to others and herself. Her ex-cellmate, Diosmary Sandoval, knows the truth about Florida, however, and she believes she is key to Florida seeing the truth about herself. From sun-bleached Arizona to the undomiciled camps of L.A., Florida and Dios circle and pursue each other, with a determined female police detective harboring her own secrets close behind.

Pochoda writes in razor-sharp prose that harkens to Cormac McCarthy, James Ellroy, and Jordan Harper but feels distinct to her voice as it cuts into the hearts and minds of the female characters. Pochoda explores the female capacity for violence while also detailing the horrors of the pandemic. It's often a nightmare on the page, and the pages will keep turning once started.

Her previous book, the extraordinary THESE WOMEN, put Pochoda in my must-read list. SING HER DOWN makes her a must-buy.