Women and Children First is an interesting book - you learn more about it as it goes on. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different girl or woman in a small Massachusetts town. They are not completely in order but the stories link together. I left kind of wishing some connections had been made, especially with some of the earlier chapters. or that there was more closure on a couple of issues, but it did feel more like real life this way. It's well written, and I will be thinking about the opening quote for a long time.

(Thanks to @sjplit #gifted.) 𝗪𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗟𝗗𝗥𝗘𝗡 𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗦𝗧 by debut author Alina Grabowski is exactly my kind of book for two big reasons. To begin, it’s a literary mystery around what exactly happened to a girl, Lucy, who died at a high school house party. That may sound usual, but believe me, it’s not! Grabowski takes you to the house party, so you know much of what happened to Lucy, but it’s everything that comes before and after that will keep you turning the pages.⁣⁣
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Rather than make this book a “thriller” Grabowski used a technique I adore. She gathered ten women and girls from the community and dedicated a chapter to each. Some were closely connected to Lucy, and others barely knew her: her best friend, her high school counselor, the PTA president, Lucy’s mom, etc. Each had their own story, with the question of what happened to Lucy always in the background. Their lives overlapped, so you might learn more about an earlier character from one who speaks much later. This detailed layering always draws me in and with each successive chapter, I was more and more invested.⁣⁣
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In this structure, 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 very much reminded me of 𝘕𝘰 𝘛𝘸𝘰 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘴 by @ericabauermeisterauthor and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘋𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘰𝘯 by @shannonbowring.writer. Each book is really tightly connected short stories in that each chapter follows a different character. I’ve come to love this way of storytelling and Grabowski did it so very well. I wanted to linger in the lives of these women and I’m still thinking about them today. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was really beautifully written. I don't normally enjoy multiple POV but this was really well done. Gripping and emotional. Thanks to NetGalley and the author for this ARC

This read like a lifetime movie. I was expecting more from the storyline: some type of blackmail that led to the death. Even the storylines coming together would have been better for me. I felt like there was so much about the school and teachers but I did not feel there was closure to it.

I liked that there were so many different POVs but it was a bit tough to keep the names/relationships straight. Overall, it kept me going and wanting to read but I didn't feel the storylines connected very well.

I wanted to like this, I really did. I always try to support new publishers, and knowing this was a book being published by SJP's new publishing house made it a priority for me, but it fell flat.

The writing style was not for me. I need to know who is speaking and when. Sometimes there were quotation marks indicating speech, and other times there weren't, so I had to constantly re-read to determine context and if it was something being said out loud in conversation or in the character's mind.

The story deals with grief, coping, sexuality, family and relationships, but I didn't really get to know any of the characters. Each characters story is told in one chapter, giving you a small glimpse into their life. There were so many that we weren't really given the opportunity to get to know them- or the deceased- which felt strange.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Women and Children First by Alina Grabowski
I did not love this book. I did not hate this book either. It was somewhere in between.
The story is told from ten different perspectives, which in my opinion, was just too many. It got confusing at times and could be hard to follow. I was good with the story line, but many characters to keep track of especially when reliving the same event.

ARC provided by NegGalley. Things may change from ARC to published material.

This book is about a “mystery” and swaps POV from different female characters in this small town. Every woman and girl, regardless of age, suffers from serious teen angst and are generally chronically unlikeable. The story is a pre and post surrounding the death of a teenage girl but the mystery isn’t actually that interesting. It’s more a tragedy than anything else. The pre talks about the moments right up to her death and during whilst the post is set over the following months.

I was dragging myself through reading the pre part hoping that the post would be better and pick up, but it didn’t at all really. A lot of big moments happen “off screen” during the second half and it’s only referenced as “this big thing that happened weeks ago”. The characters come across as pretentious and without much depth. One character can’t even bother telling us her boyfriend’s name only referring to him as “the poet”. His poetry is never relevant other than to make sure you know he’s an artsy hipster type.

Another character has her name shortened by her boss to sound Asian because it’s funny since she’s white… ok sure. The writing just isn’t that good, not captivating and the story is underdeveloped. It’s about women who don’t really know this girl to family members, and there isn’t really a story beyond “oh this has changed cause this kid died”. No real consequence, no real character development or journey. I was very intrigued by the title and blurb, as well as loving the cover, so I was excited to read this but ultimately it was just tough. The writing style is much more reminiscent of YA than adult fiction and felt at time childish (though crude language is used).

I hate rating things this low but I just genuinely did not enjoy reading this book at all and the concept wasn’t enough to drag it up.

I chose this title on NetGalley on a whim. I don't even think I read the synopsis- just enjoyed the cover. And sometimes my friends....you should judge a book by it.

In a small Massachusetts coastal town, a young and promising high school student dies suddenly and tragically. We then hop from one perspective to another- all women, all having some connection to Lucy in some way. Different ages, different circumstances. The voices we hear from include those present at her death, her best friend, her mother, the head of the PTA, a local bartender, etc. etc. etc. Each perspective provides a bit more information, reveals secrets, and paints an incredible picture of what it's like to grieve, feel shame, evolve, fuck, and simply live in a world that doesn't always seem so livable.

This was a hard read for me. The story of a teenage girl who dies at a party is told by ten women, each in one of ten chapters. The women range from barely knowing the victim to the victim's best friend and her mother. I had difficulty connecting with the characters and with the story. I felt like I was on the periphery, but never in the story. I wanted to understand their relationships. The ending didn't seem finished. The idea of the book seemed very creative, but the execution, not so much. Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the ARC of Woman and Children First in exchange for my honest review.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Nashquitten, MA, is a small coastal town that hasn't changed in years. A small group of people make the decisions, and life seems to be the same. Then suddenly, a young woman dies at a house party, and suspicion and secrets begin to be thrown into the open.

What I loved was the structure of the novel. It is told by ten of the local women. It is about grief, yes, but also about how we are all connected.

This novel begins with the sudden death of local girl in a small town in Massachusetts. The events prior to her death and after her death unfold through the perspective of 10 women who knew her, some intimately and some loosely. In the first part, the reader is introduced to 5 of them who share their relationship to Lucy prior to her death and the second part is from 5 women's perspective after her death. These women include friends, teachers, mothers of friends of Lucy and of course, Lucy's mother herself. It took me awhile to get into this novel as the stories seemed so disjointed. The second part was much more interesting as more details about Lucy are uncovered. Overall, I think it was an interesting read but I would have liked a little more connection between the characters.

Thank you to Net Galley and SJP Lit for an early digital review copy of this novel. It was released last month on 5/7/2024.

I’d seen glowing reviews of this debut from some of my trusted reading sources, and while it won’t be a favorite of the year for me, I am so glad I picked it up! The story centers on the death of a high school girl named Lucy and includes both the lead up to and fall out from this tragic incident The novel is narrated by ten different women—each of whom gets one chapter to tell her story and may or may not appear in the pages of another woman’s chapter. Some of the narrators are intimately connected to Lucy while others merely exist in the orbit of her small town. I liked the structure of the book—it was very reminiscent of Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips, which is a favorite of mine—and I thought it was mostly successful. Grabowski does a wonderful job of creating ten distinct voices (which is no easy feat!), and every narrator was nuanced and voicey. I was occasionally confused about when in the story I was (perhaps a byproduct of listening on audio), but my bigger issue is that I think the book might have been stronger if it had either connected all of the dots or committed to being a collection of loosely connected stories. Instead, this existed somewhere in the middle, which left me feeling a bit unsatisfied in moments. I’ll also confess that I felt a personal connection to an important element of this book that made it challenging for me to read and may have interfered with my overall reading experience, but that is no fault of the book itself. Still, Grabowski is a lovely writer with a firm grasp on characterization and how to build tension in a quiet, poignant way. Plus some of the moments of insight into the loneliness, anxiety, terror, and sheer boredom of being a young woman stopped me in my tracks. This is a book I highly recommend checking out this summer and I will absolutely be reading whatever Grabowksi writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Zando for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This story takes place over the course of ten women’s individual perspectives surrounding a tragic death of a teenager. I enjoyed the depth of characters in this book and seeing how they all connected to each other, but I didn’t love that you only saw each woman’s perspective one time. As I was putting more puzzle pieces together as the story went on, I kept feeling frustrated that we weren’t ever going to go back to previous characters to get their perspective again.

Because you only see each POV character once, it made the book feel more like a collection of interconnected short stories than a novel. I don’t necessarily think that is a bad thing, but I am not a huge fan of short stories so I just don’t think I was the right audience for this one.

There are some well-written paragraphs in this book, which looks at death from the perspective of ten local women. My problem was keeping my train of thought as I moved through the various aspects. I would flip back a few pages and try again, but I couldn't follow through. There are some very good reviews, so please, give the book a read. I like the writer’s writing style, so I look forward to more from her.
Thanks so much to Zando, SJP Lit for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date was May 7, 2024.

3.5 The structure of this well-written story both works and doesn't. It propels the plot and keeps the reader engaged but it also results in an ending that feels incomplete, a story that just trails off....I wanted to know what happened to several of the characters--a sign of a successful creation but also a frustrating finality for the reader.

Moving look at the death of a young woman seen through the eyes of ten women whose lives intersected hers. Ms. Grabowski’s writing is beautifully crafted. I was blown away by the descriptive quality of her writing. Exploring the relationships between friends, students & teachers, and parents & children, this is a deeply moving and nuanced look at what it means to be a woman in today’s society and how peer pressure, social media and the secrets we keep inform our lives and the people whose lives intertwine with ours.

As a Massachusetts native, I could picture the events of this book taking place. I'm not sure if the setting is a real town in Massachusetts but Grabowski is able to capture the essence that it is. I really liked how all of the stories are intertwined together but not explicitly linked. It took a bit for me to get the rhythm but once I did it was smooth sailing for me. I think the novel could've done more if it was less of a character study and had a bit more plot - this is where it fell flat for me because it read like an anthology and not really like a cohesive story.

I really wanted to like this debut novel -- the Massachusetts scenery and the telling of the story through the lens of multiple people surrounding a mysterious death intrigued me. Unfortunately, I had a hard time keeping track of the characters and timeline - and didn't feel invested in most of their stories. I could however see this successfully being adapted as a mini series.

2.5 rounded up to 3.

Thank you Netgalley & SJP Lit for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

While I found this book to be very well written, I think that it was not my style of mystery. Written more as a lit fiction than a mystery novel it was a much slower read than I typically go for. I didn’t dislike it and would recommend it to friends who are interested in books that explore the complexities of being a teenage girl but not for those looking for a cut and dry mystery book with a tidy ending.