This is the first book by this author I have read and I really enjoyed it. The story was very interesting and held my attention. Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for letting me read this and leave my opinion.

Across California two violent women face off in a cat & mouse game that will leave many dead. A feminist tale of manipulation & revenge, this is for anyone who likes their heroines to be morally gray or a straight up villain.

The plot was also brutal but the writing was lyrical, which is what helped give the book its western tone

A powerhouse performance by a stellar new writer. I’m absolutely obsessed with this book

Ivy Pochoda’s Sing Her Down unfolds in the early days of the COVID pandemic, a choice that both sets the novel into motion and gives it an uneasy atmosphere that’s hard to shake off. Nominally, the book is the story of two women released from prison to accommodate the needs for spacing in the pandemic, but as we follow them into a weirdly empty world where they’re adrift in a society that doesn’t much need them (as convicts, as women, as felons, as lower-class citizens - take your pick), it’s obvious that Sing Her Down isn’t a traditional thriller, or even the vaguely Western-themed tale of two women coming to a showdown. Instead, there’s a little bit of folk ballad, a little bit of archetypal saga, a little bit tale of guilt, remorse, and revenge against a society that, to some degree, pushed them into these roles. There’s a hint of Cormac McCarthy to it all, from the stark prose to the unusual characters, and it all generally works well enough, but I spent the whole book waiting to be more emotionally hooked than mentally/intellectually, and that just never really happened. (Splitting the book’s focus with a new character halfway through doesn’t really help matters here, especially as she ends up feeling more like a plot element than an entirely satisfying addition to the book.) I think Sing Her Down probably fits into the category of “good book that I didn’t like that much,” but your mileage will probably vary; it’s sharply written, delivers some great moments, creates a beautiful atmosphere, and undeniably has a point of view…but it just never really coalesced into something that really drew me in, even as I respected the craft of all the various elements. Rating: ****

The tragic story of prisoners, Florida Baum and Diosmary Sandival is told by different voices. Both women receive an early prison release during the pandemic and escape their two week mandated quarantine for L.A. The violent past of Florida and Diosmary's relationship continues as another murder is committed during their escape. The relationship between Florida and Dios feels like a fuse of dynamite slowly burning, and the blast will be deadly. Detective Lobos, on the trail of the escapees, has her own demons. Lobos is an interesting and nicely developed character has a story of her own that added to the plot. Lobos, is likable and was easy to root for. The author's style of writing was awkward and the protagonists were hard for me to connect with. With that said, 3.5 stars.

This wasn’t anything like the blurb. I found it especially wasn’t like the two titles they compared it to. I found a lot of it to be above my head and I want to read something that’s easy, breezy, cover girl. I’ve heard excellent things about this author so I wish I loved it.

It's 2020 and the pandemic time. Florence Baum, aka Florida, and Diana Dios Sandoval – Dios – are on early release from a woman's prison in Arizona and going to LA. Dios says, "The world is on pause. (…) But we aren't. We are on the move. (…) The world isn't paying attention to us. We can do what we want. This is our time."

"Sing Her Down" feels like an apocalyptic place with two young women moving through the landscape of cheap motels, homeless tent sites by Los Angeles's freeways, and empty, deserted bars. It's hot, with the scorching sun and empty streets, where "discarded masks and gloves swirl like tumbleweed." The women are not friends, and they don't travel together – instead, Dios follows Florida on the mission to make her accept who she is - a woman embracing violence, someone who progresses from minor misdemeanors to crime, not because falling under the influence of others, especially "bad men," but because of her inclination. Dios is already a murderer, and she wants to "sing Florida down." It manifests in her singing narcocorridos (Mexican drug ballad songs) which adds to the weird, hypnotic atmosphere of their inescapable destiny. Another woman, Detective Lobos, follows them, aware that Florida is a magnet and Dios is magnetized and that she'll get Florida by following Dios. The end becomes a classic, western-style showdown, immortalized in a mural.

Ivy Pochoda decided to write it after being challenged by herself and her friend to write a female version of "Blood Meridian." Violent and poetic, it shows women as violent creatures, and the violence is not easily explained. It's not born of past traumatic experiences as Florida and Dios are relatively educated and intelligent, and their past doesn't justify such extreme behavior. To her credit, Florida tries to escape Dios and start a new life, returning to her mother's house, but Dios is a skillful predator, and Florida is the willing prey.

This book is undoubtedly engaging, a mixture of a psychological thriller, a modern Western, and an apocalyptic showcase of the pandemic decline. It's also highly stylized, similar to a ballad, somehow idealizing the main characters and making them suburban legends. In the tradition of Thelma and Louise, but much more determined and violent, Florida and Dios display the same degree of violence as it's associated with men, if not worse. It's the road novel, but the road leads directly to self-destruction.

I couldn’t stop reading this book. In the midst of COVID, two inmates are granted early release from prison. Both of them are not the traditional inmates, meaning one comes from money (Florida), the other was a smart scholarship student (Dios). Both of them jailed in connection with violent crimes. They end up on the same illegal bus to LA — Dios begins chasing Florida. This doesn’t capture the essence of this exquisitely written book. This isn’t a story you have read before. Note that there is some pretty graphic violence in this one if that’s too much for you. This is my second Pochoda book and won’t be my last. Also check out These Women.

Florence "Florida" Baum is not the hapless innocent she claims to be when she arrives at the Arizona women's prison—or so her ex-cellmate, Diosmary "Dios" Sandoval, keeps insinuating. Dios is determined to get Florida to face her past and the darkness inside herself. When they are unexpectedly released, Dios becomes obsessed with Florida and pursues her halfway across the country so they can unleash the darkness within.

Spend thanks to Giroux, Farrar and Stroud and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This is my first Iva Pandora and I heard she writes really great character studies and this book is no different. Highly recommebnded, love the author and loved the story of female prison and pandemic!

Just great book! 4.5 stars!

After being granted early release from prison, Florida flees to California, but is followed by a fellow inmate intent on settling scores.

Having loved the gritty reality and well drawn characters of “These Women”, I was looking forward to “Sing Her Down”. The description alone, "No Country for Old Men meets Killing Eve in this gritty, feminist Western thriller from the award-winning author of These Women” equated to the promise of a compelling read.

The main characters, both in prison when we meet them, are Florence "Florida" Baum and Diosmary "Dios" Sandoval. The depiction of their prison life was stark, spare & violent and the early chapters compelling, particularly the hate-hate relationship between the two. Following the pairs early release due to Covid overcrowding and re-entry into a world that is bleak and hopeless, the book took a turn that I was unable to regroup from. I almost never abandon a book mid-read, but I did here. The aspirational police procedural style turn mid-story along with characters who were one-dimensional, and unlikeable just didn’t work for me.

Though I didn’t finish it, I would still recommend it if for no other reason than the author’s raw, evocative writing style.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read an advance reader copy for free in exchange for a honest review.

Dark and gritty, themes of violence. Follows the lives of four women during the COVID19 pandemic: three are prison inmates and one is a defective. Atmospheric: some alternating times lines and allegorical structure. Evenly paced but difficult to follow at times. The premise drew me in. Overall a thought provoking read

I REALLY wanted to love this book.

The description reads: "No Country for Old Men meets Killing Eve in this gritty, feminist Western thriller from the award-winning author of These Women."

"No Country for Old Men" is a absolute gritty and dark masterpiece. And my love for female assassins has no bounds which will explain my love for "Killing Eve" I hit request so hard my dog woke up and asked for another treat.

We have two women in prison: Florence "Florida" Baum and Diosmary "Dios" Sandoval. The first part of this book is the best, IMO, and it's a decent portrayal of prison life. I guess, of course, since I still haven't spent any time in the pen. They get paroled early and that's where this book starts to 'theoretically" take off. Florida takes off and for whatever reason, Dios is obsessed with her and follows her and forces a showdown which is foreshadowed in the very beginning.

At it's core this is a great book. In fact it may be fantastic. But I didn't like several things. Specifically the personalities of everyone involved. To me, a sign of a great writer is to portray several personalities with their own life and character. This one is not the case as you can cut and paste every character in the book. They are all the same character. And second: It tries to be a police procedural which to me falls short. Maybe I read too many of them but the main detective on the case just wasn't believably written.

Overall, I think the book is average and I recommend it. There are plenty who, when reading the synopsis, should take a chance and get some satisfaction from it. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm in that group.

I really appreciate Farrar, Straus and Giroux, MCD for giving me the opportunity to read a advance reader copy for free in exchange for a honest review and it has a publication date of May 23, 2023.

Story is told in the voices of four women - three prison inmates, Florida, Dios and Kace and police officer Lobos, dealing with abuse, violence and pent up rage.
Dios spends much of her time goading Florida, trying to get Florida to admit what she really did.
When the two are released early from prison due to Covid 19, Florida is determined to get home and Dios follows, determined to get Florida to admit who she really is. The murder of a prison guard sets them on a violent path as they continue their journey.
Through Kace the reader learns more about what transpired when all were inmates.
Lobos joins the story as she hunts for the women, believed to be responsible for the death of the prison guard.
Mixed feelings due to the amount of violence in the story but it did hold my attention.
 #SingHerDown #NetGalley

I actually got this arc together with You Know Her and thematically they fit into a category of feminist thrillers. As Nora Murphy writes: "It is by no means a new sub-genre in a rich array of thrillers and domestic suspense books, but perhaps its use as a classifier is relatively new. "
In broadest and simplest of terms looking through prism of thriller setting authors are shining a light to modern issues and challenges of being a woman in today's society.
Ivy Pochoda is by no means a newbie in this because she was highlighting the female perspective from her earliest works and Sing Her Down is Pochoda with her writing skills honed to perfection.
As much as blurb suggests that novel is focusing on Florence "Florida" Baum and Diana Diosmary "Dios" Sandoval and their escape from prison ending in an epic showdown, I don't recommend going into it expecting some version of Thelma & Louise as they run from the police. This novel is Florida mostly running from herself and Dios. And Dios is not even running.
In Part II another female character is introduced- a detective assigned to the case, E. Lobos whose domestic circumstances makes her understand what's going through escaped prisoners' minds.
In its core, the novel actually deals with female rage, how women feel angry all the time, but it seems like they are not particularly allowed to feel this way. If they commit crime in a fit of rage, male investigators will look for a reason behind it, they will equate the burst of violence with madness or being crazy, completely skipping the rage as an emotion woman are capable of.
Some women, like Florida, will conveniently hide their rage and thus, their culpability in this blindness.
Some women, like Dios, will burn the world down and everyone in it to make them acknowledge their anger, to make others see.
And some women, like detective Lobos, will bottle it down, grind their teeth and deal with it themselves, in, let's call it,a "socially acceptable" way.
This, a whole palette of female perspectives, is what Pochoda excels at, but the message she was trying to convey was drowned in places where her style of expression-her storytelling signature, if you please- got more importance. It's like they way she was telling this story got in a way of why she was telling it in the first place. This was particularly obvious to me in Dios's chapters, who is the most direct mouthpiece on the subject, where she is elevating her motive, this right to feel angry, to mythical heights which is just another way of divorcing it from emotion everyone is entitled to and the same goes for symbolism of mural. I saw this novel being called a "spiritual successor" to These Women and on comparison simply I have to say it lacks for me when it comes to characterization. Kace, another prisoner who got few chapters, with her voices of dead women in her head somehow got more to say than the character she gave the loudest voice to.
Hence the rating. But Pochoda is never not worthy of your time.

Florida and Dios are released early from prison. The pandemic means they are two of the prisoners eligible for that early release. Taken to a motel to quarantine, Florida decides to ignore her parole conditions and head home to California. But Dios Isn’t going to let her get away that easily. She follows Florida and they both wind up on the same bus heading west.
Pieces of each of their back stories are revealed showing two people who were both wronged in different ways by the system. Most of the story is told by Florida, but the detective determined to figure out what these women have done also has a haunting backstory.
Seeing the many ways how Los Angeles was changed during the pandemic, provided a stark look at how much of the world wound up being so different, by this, hopefully once in a lifetime event. This really was a story that was well told. My rational brain says that I should have felt equally bad for these three women, but honestly, it was Florida whose story move me the most.
My first book by this author, and it won’t be my last.

3.5 stars? I feel like this was a little above my head. A lot of it is abstract and metaphorical- which is fine! I just found myself struggling to grasp the meaning I think.

The writing is stunning. I highlighted whole paragraphs at times. This story follows two primary characters, Florida and Lobos, their different backgrounds and their approaches to violence.

Except the character I wanted to follow most was Dios. She was fascinating and every time she showed up I found myself wondering where she’d been.

I think it has a lot to say on the cyclical nature of violence and also the expectations society has of women.

What held it back from being a full four star read is just the abstractness of it all. At one point while a murder is being committed the main character is musing on violence as though it is the pull tide of the ocean. We never really see the violence committed, just the aftermath of the murder being discovered.

So there was a little confusion in places for me and I sometimes found it difficult to connect/envision the story being told, because of the abstractness.

I appreciate that this story exists and that people are enjoying it. I think it would make a great book club book.

I also know this is a story I will be thinking about for many months yet to come, and am likely to feel fonder of in retrospect, as is often the case with me an literary stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advanced Reader Copy.

Grabbed me right away. Great characters and story. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Visceral and haunting, Sing Her Down was a book I did not want to read but couldn't put down. It is, on the surface, a story of four women (Florida, Dios, Kace, and Lobos). Florida and Dios are released early from prison due to the pandemic. Lobos is the police officer looking for them following a gruesome murder they appear connected to. Dios and Florida are not friends but Dios is obsessed with Florida. stalking her, goading her. Lobos is fighting demons of her own. Kace, still in jail, harbors voices of the dead who are eerily prophetic. As the tension built, I found myself holding my breath. In Pochoda's expert hands nothing was insignificant, no words wasted. And that mural; that mural was brilliant!

For me, Sing Her Down is best described as a psychological case study exploring whether women broken by abuse and violence at some point reach a tipping point, releasing their pent up rage, changing them from victim to abuser. It is a fascinating addition to women's literature.

I received a drc from the publisher via Netgalley. Publication slated for 5/23/23.

This was an interesting story. I liked the audio of the story and also had the book to follow along. It had a lot more language than I'm used to, but overall, I liked it.