5 Stars!

Thanks to NetGalley and Zando Projects for sharing an advance copy of WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST.

I was captivated by this story of a high school girl's death, and the waves her untimely passing made in her small town. Set in Massachusetts, the novel follows ten different girls/women, all written in the first person. There are echoes of Elizabeth Strout's OLIVE KITTERIDGE and Jennifer Egan's A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD.

Grabowski's strength lies in the voices of these characters - I found her writing to be witty, wonderfully specific, and a bit cynical. There are a lot of clever observations in this novel that will appeal to readers who focus on voice over plot. As the book progresses, we learn more about Lucy and how she died, and the characters form a chorus revealing the different ways grief reverberates through the town.

Overall, a compelling and kaleidoscopic examination of a tragedy and of the inner lives of women.

I was initially perplexed by this book and honestly was only going to stick it out for the sake of seeing where the book went, if it went anywhere at all, and I am glad I did, because the writing seemed to me to improve as the book continued.

Women and Children First is a non-linear story told from the perspective of 10 different girls and women in a small, economically depressed, Massachussetts town somewhere outside of Boston. Each of their stories focuses to a degree on a local high school girl who has died at a house party under questionable circumstances and each of their stories reveal how they are interlinked to each other.

I appreciate books that weave a web like this, showing the small and big ways we are connected to and impacted by each other. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo is an excellent example of this manner of story telling. Unfortunately Women and Children First does not quite deliver quite the same way mostly because the beginning chapters are written in such a vague and disjointed manner that it's very hard to tell what is even going on. I felt like everyone was making random declarations, suddenly dropping things, lying for no reason, because maybe that is the only way the author can convey that many of these women/girls have underlying psychological issues stemming from their circumstances or otherwise? I have no idea but it made the first almost hundred or so pages very hard to read. In the first chapter there is an almost laughable exchange between characters about lying about liking Dunkin Donuts. Maybe a Boston area in-joke that falls flat?

I found that the most compelling characters were the adult women, particularly the mother of the girl who died. It's not that teen girls can't have compelling stories to tell, it's that the author was writing them as if teen girls are just assholes who do things that are nonsensical and that's it. Underlying motivations were only superficially examined. Because of this manner of writing, the actual death of the girl who this book focuses on was very confusing and underwhelming. I think the goal of this was to focus on the aftermath and how people are affected by a death in their community, particularly that of a child, but it would have been more impactful if the death itself were more clearly explained. I had to read it twice to even understand what exactly happened.

While the perspective of her mother was very well written, the one part that made very little sense was the big reveal of the secret life that the girl who died led. It was effectively not a reveal at all and then the book just ended. Sometimes it works for a book to end on an open ended note like that, but this was just a huge let down.

My minor complaint about this book is there is a brief segue to New York City and I am fairly certain there is no way the author has been to NYC, at least not in the past several decades. This book clearly takes place in the present yet the girl who goes to NYC somehow is hanging onto a subway strap which haven't existed for 20+ years.

I am rounding this up to 3 stars from 2.5 because there were some chapters which I really enjoyed.

Many thanks to Zando Projects/SJP Lit and to NetGalley for this ARC to review. This review is my honest opinion.

An interesting character study especially on tragedy, community, and mother-daughter relationships! This novel was Thought provoking and I marked quite a few lines.

We get 10 different character POVs, we get to know some of them more than others but even then it still felt too short to really get to know anyone especially well. I didn’t like some character’s chapters compared to others and was left with a lot of unanswered questions.

I finished this in 2 days! I was so engaged and pulled into the lives of these young girls and women. We don’t ever really get answers but it makes sense for the book. Also even though there’s a lot of characters to keep track of, you get POVs from characters on the outer edges (not as close to the girl who passes) which adds depth and shows just how far the ripples of tragedy go in a community!

Dark, emotional read but despite this there were still some beautiful moments too. Overall I’d highly recommend if you like character driven, stories centered on a small community coming together, through the perspective of its women and teens.

I’ll be sharing my review on IG and TikTok in the next few days and update my review here once I do!

TW/CW: adult/minor relationship, sexual assault, death, cancer, emotional abuse, drug use, alcoholism, grief

Many thanks to NetGalley and Zando | SJP Lit for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a well written story about the murder of a young girl. However, each of the characters, all women who are connected to the crime or the girl, tell their perspective on what happened. I struggled with moving through so many characters, their connection to Lucy and to the crime that I had a hard time keeping up with everyone. After I had read the first 25%, which was really too slow, the pace seemed to become more frantic and the ending I found confusing.

While this did not work for me, definitely try this if it is of interest. The writing is very good just not a great read for me.

I just finished Women and Children First and this is going to be one of those novels that I find myself thinking about for a long time. This takes place in a small town in Massachusetts and at the heart of the story, a teenage girl dies while at a party and we see the effects this has on her friends, family, and town as a whole. Told from the perspectives of ten female residents of the town, we see how everyone is connected and how the community is impacted by Lucy's death. This is a unique read, sometimes it's confusing to know if you are in present time or the past, but I thought it was beautifully written.

Thank you to Zando and NetGalley for this ARC.

This was the story of a young girl who died and was told from the perspectives of 10 different women and how they were related to her. I really liked the idea of this story, but had a hard time following it. I found myself rereading pages/chapters to make sure I was fully understanding what was going on. I would recommend this book, but make sure you have the time it takes to really get into the story and take notes! I wanted to give 4 stars, but took one away for having to reread so much. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced reader’s copy.

I loved this book for the first half. I loved the different women, and how their lives intersected. But the book is broken into pre and post death of a teenage girl, and I spent the entire post death part confused. I think I expected it to be the same women, but instead it was 5 new ones and I just felt like no story was finished. It was an interesting book and I think a lot will love it, but I struggled.

This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The writing is absolutely gorgeous. I highlighted so many lines that felt so poignant and insightful about womanhood and existing in the current world and that felt they would continue to resonate with me beyond the confines of the story.

I really liked seeing the same timeline and some of the same events from the different perspectives. However, you only get inside the head of each character one time and there were a few characters and loose ends that I really wanted to go back to! I also felt like with the wide spread of characters, some of their voices were not distinct enough to really feel different from previous perspectives.

Overall, it is well written and interesting but ultimately left me kind of unsatisfied and searching for answers. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

An exceptional debut.

Ostensibly, this is a novel about a local high school girl‘s death. It is told - in ten chapters divided into two parts, pre and post Lucy‘s death - through the eyes of ten different women who knew Lucy, some better than others. And yet Lucy, and what happens to her, is never the focus of the novel; especially in the first part of the book, she is often mentioned merely in passing, by people not especially close to her. The more the book progresses - and especially in the aftermath of her death -, the closer the narrators were to Lucy, going from mere acquaintance or school guidance counselor to Lucy‘s best friend, and finally, her mom, spiraling inevitably towards those whose lives are shattered the most by her death.

While Lucy‘s death is the central point towards which and from which these stories grow and these women evolve, Lucy herself is still, at best, a side character. Center stage take three groups of women who interacted with her to varying degrees and whose lives are intertwined in the way those of people living in a small town generally are: teenagers on the cusp of adulthood, their mothers, and young, childless women still finding their way. The men, if mentioned at all, are often useless, sometimes downright predatory.

The idea behind the old maritime saying „women and children first“ - that is, to first save those viewed as more vulnerable and, at the time when the phrase was coined, less capable - is put on its head in this book because here, it‘s the women, young and older, who shoulder it all: the secrets, the blame, the responsibilities, the grief, the shame.

„Women and Children First“ deals with heavy subjects such ad death, sexual abuse, substance abuse, and abandonment without ever feeling too dark, or unrealistic. I was stunned by this book. It is wholly original and captured in poised, vivid, beautiful writing. Truly remarkable debut.

Thank you to NetGalley and SJP Lit for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sometimes difficult
to follow varied voices,
wonderfully written.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I write haiku reviews on Instagram but am happy to provide more feedback.

Women and Child First was a wonderful debut novel. You'll become quickly immersed in this series of intertwined stories about the lives and relationships of mothers, daughters, sisters and friends in a Massachusetts coastal town. At the center of the book is Lucy, a high school student and budding artist who is in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The structure of the book was very unique and provides a firm foundation for the telling of Lucy's story. It's divided into Pre- and Post sections, with each having five chapters about different women in Lucy's life. They're of varying ages and different stages in their lives and their connections to Lucy range as well. I especially loved the voices of the teen age characters. It may seem at the onset that there are too many characters, but the author did a wonderful job of developing each of their stories and tying them together. I would have actually been interested in learning more about one additional character (Jane's mother).
I saw the book described as a blend of an Elizabeth Strout book (Anything is Possible) and a Celeste Ng novel (Everything I Never Told You) and have to agree. I'm looking forward to what Ms. Grabowski shares with us next!
Thanks to Netgalley and Zando Projects for the opportunity to read Women and Children First in exchange for an honest review.

3.75, a quiet and well-written novel featuring the voices of ten women in a small seaside town where a tragedy has taken place. I enjoyed seeing different facets of the terrible incident in question and its aftermath and the way the characters fit together from all the different perspectives. It could have used a little more of a drive shaft, maybe, but that's not really the kind of book this is. Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

I liked the writing in this book about a small New England town and ten young women who live there somewhat affected by the death of a high school girl. I say somewhat because at times the connection is rather tenuous. Some reviewers felt there were too many characters and the interconnections too hard to follow. I did not have that problem although at first I kept notes on the first three characters but abandoned that when I found it totally unnecessary. Certain characters I clicked with and others I found rather bland, but such is life. Overall, I enjoyed the book and its snapshots, via the ten, into small town life. Yes, I would recommend the book.

This book is quiet perfection. From the way Grabowski structured this story, to the glimpses of the different lives we're allowed to see because of this structure, there is so much feeling and emotion weaved throughout the pages.

This book is told from the perspectives of 10 women; each one only has one section or chapter, but they do overlap in each other's POVs because of the essence of small town life. Each POV deals with events before and leading up to the book's central and inciting "conflict" and what happens after. A tragedy at a high school party leads the friends and family and even almost strangers to grapple with what it means to lose someone, and to ask themselves the question: why?

Each character could have a book of their own and I'd gladly gobble them all up. But I truly liked the smaller glimpses of each character as we went along and discovering how they were connected to Lucy, our center point. There are ancillary ways -- one witnesses a parent's horror and grief, another regrets not bothering to ask questions of two teen girls she finds on her property late at night, obviously in distress -- and there are the characters most affected like the girl's mother and best friend; each POV peels back the curtain into their lives just enough to understand them, and to see how this affects a small town already so touched by death.

Wow! A powerful novel that grips and holds on tight. This novel weaves the story through 10 different women and their connections and perspectives of the death of Lucy. Alina Grabowski understands grief deeply and reminds us why as women we need to hold each other up. The book is well written and immersive and there are lines that hit hard and give goose bumps. This is not an easy read but a worthwhile one. This is a book that will sit with you for awhile and you will be grateful for the opportunity to read. Thank you Net Galley but more importantly - thank you Alina Grabowski . This is a 4.75 in my books!

“Women and Children First” is a must read debut novel, a literary cousin of Dennis Lehane’s “Mystic River”.

The book is about a crime (the lead up to it, the crime itself, and the aftermath) without really being a mystery. Instead it tells the story through the perspective of ten women living in the small town who are in some way connected to the event.

I really liked what the author was trying to do here. I liked the setting and the way the story was structured. Where it fell slightly flat for me was in the final execution – moving through so many perspectives meant that I was unable to fully understand the story of any one of the female narrators. Just as I’d start to connect with one, the perspective would shift again.

In addition to feeling rushed (although also felt fairly slow at the beginning!), it also prevented me from fully understanding the plot and what led up to the crime. And that made it hard to understand the ending. But maybe that was the point? I have the feeling it was meant to be fairly ambiguous.

Anyway, while it didn’t fully work for me, I still enjoyed this read and would recommend it to readers who enjoy character driven stories and are comfortable with ambiguity.

One story told through the eyes of ten women. Each woman gives her viewpoint of a different part of the story. An interesting perspective, for sure.

Do not expect from this book’s title that it is a comforting, sweet story about protecting the most vulnerable from catastrophe. This extraordinary novel is a heart-breaking mystery, the weaving together of the connections between a teenage girl who dies suddenly, and several females who knew her. As the author quotes in her prologue, ”The only reason that they say, ‘Women and children first’ is to test the strength of the lifeboats.”


The multiple first person narratives, spoken by friends, family, and teachers close to the deceased, reveal the character of each narrator, relationship with the deceased, observations about others, and occasional inconsistencies. For the reader, it’s a challenge to decide if the words of these young women are reliable, as they waiver in their own sense of selves and their relationships with life. They have the judgment , emotions and impulses of children despite inhabiting adult bodies. While this danger has long existed, Grabowski suggests that it is amplified today because teenagers can drift anonymously online for any information they want. They no longer need to ask questions of anyone - friends, parents, teachers, librarians, clergy etc., with the perilous consequence that no one might truly know where their innermost thoughts and emotions are wandering. The lifeboats leak.


I initially had some difficulty following the threads of this book, and found that it helped to make notes to follow the relationships and the timeline. Once I did, it became a gripping page-turner to see how, or if, all the pieces would fit together. Descriptions of the decaying New England town were vividly painted and added dimension, but this tragic, universal tale could be placed anywhere. The story and writing were so intricately plotted and developed that it’s hard to believe this exceptional book is a debut novel.


Thank you to Net Galley and Zando for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

“𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐚 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞. 𝐀 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐭. 𝐀 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐲.”

i really wanted to like this. and i think, i almost did. reading Women and Children First felt like the second before you get submerged under ocean water. You can feel the shortness of breath, the pull of the water - the trepidation that soon, all of you, all of your sense are gonna be engulfed.

but sadly, that's where it ended for me. i kept waiting for the tides to get higher but they only reached my chin and receded.

i think my biggest gripe with this book is that there were simply too many characters in order for me to feel connected to anyone. i kept losing track of them and having to go back to make sure that i wasn't mixing them up - which definitely took me out of the story. at some point i realized i was just so focused on keeping track of the POVs that i wasn't enjoying the story anymore.

yet i kept reading, holding my breath and bracing for that punch i've been waiting for. and it did not come. maybe that's on me. the majority seem to have been moved by the book in its entirety but i just kept swiping on my kindle thinking: no way? where's the rest of the book?

all of this to say: maybe this book was simply not for me - something the last pages sealed for me. i guess i was waiting for an explanation, anything to wrap it up whilst the author clearly meant for it to be more of an exploration of grief and human nature.

The story is about how the death of a high school student, Lucy, affects 10 women connected to her in some way. The story is told from the point of view of each of the ten women. Unless they really stand out in some way, it’s easy to mix the characters up. At several points, I had to remind myself of the name of the character I was reading about and who their main connections were. There’s little action - it’s mostly internal dialogues and conversations between characters, several of whom appear in more than one narrative. It all builds up to nothing, unfortunately. Readers expecting a resolution will be disappointed and I feel they should know before choosing to read the story. Not just regarding the death of Lucy, but other scandals like the teacher abusing students and all those who know about it but take no action. It’s certainly not empowering for women.

To me, the story believes itself to be bigger and more powerful than it is. It didn’t strike me as an epic sweeping tale of women, life, death, etc. It just doesn’t have that extra something that makes a story stand out for its beauty or timelessness. It’s too long of a book to leave you with so little.