Definitely a read for lovers of literary and historical fiction.

I do love the plot of this story- it follows 4 women who live in the same dorm at Oxford University in 1920 (when Oxford first allowed women to enroll) and are referred to as “The Eights”. They have startlingly different backgrounds and personalities, and over the course of their time at Oxford their friendships forge into something reliable and sound.

As much as I love the concept and story, I really struggled with this book. The first half was very very slow. I frequently found myself zoning out WHILE reading, which does not happen often for me. That being said- this could potentially be attributed to the time period it is set in. It is also a very literary piece of writing. Very descriptive, thorough, and formal. Fortunately, the ending did redeem it a little and draw my interest back in. I chuckled and smiled at the way it came together so wholesomely. Happy publishing day!!

Thank you NetGalley & Putnam for the eARC!

A not-to-be-missed women’s historical fiction based on the first female undergraduates allowed to matriculate to Oxford University post-World War I. Coming from disparate backgrounds, four women find themselves sharing the same 4-room corridor at St. Hugh’s College in 1920. As they live in Corridor 8, they come to call themselves The Eights and form a tighter collective friendship than any of them could have imagined.

There’s wealthy socialite Otto Wallace-Kerr, the youngest of four sisters, who comes to Oxford to spite her controlling mother who would rather she just marry and cares not a whit about Otto’s mathematical prowess. Beatrice Sparks, the only daughter of a famous women’s suffragette leader, towers at 6 feet tall and fights her sense of both insecurity and unworthiness as a result of her mother’s constant disparagement and neglect. Beautiful Dora Greenwood has come in lieu of a place meant for her brother, who died during the war two weeks after Dora’s fiancé, who she met during his officer training in her hometown. Dora still grieves their loss and feels not academic enough to have deserved a spot at Oxford. Kind-hearted Marianne Grey has come to Oxford on scholarship, which she needs to continue to afford to attend, and goes home every other weekend to help care for her ailing, widowed Rector father.

The pervasive misogyny at Oxford, with many men hostile to the admittance of women, pervades their campus experiences, academic work, and feelings of worth. The women feel both a powerful need to be the best they can be to show women worthy of attending, while also feeling socially curtailed by the strict separation of sexes imposed. Even their college caps and gowns sag in comparison to the smart outfits of the men. But their collective spirit and constant ability to find fun wins the day.

They also confront deeply held secrets, many from the war time, which only draws them closer together. The specter of World War I lingers poignantly over all – from injuries sustained from the undergraduate men who fought as soldiers, the family losses to war, war-time romances, and harrowing memories by the women who worked with the injured in war time London.

The very best one can hope from women’s historical fiction, and based mostly on real events and stories, you feel as if you for the first time truly understand a historical era. I also felt flooded with gratitude for the many unsung heroines who broke down gender barriers that so dramatically benefitted generations of women who followed them.

Thanks to Penguin Group, Putnam, and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

The Eights by Joanna Miller ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This character-driven novel focused on female friendships and breaking barriers. I wanted to love this one, but for me, it was a little bit too slow and the characters felt a little too stereotypical and merged with one another.

I loved the mixed media aspects and seeing some of the rules that the women had to follow highlighted the barriers placed on women just to learn. I also enjoyed the post-war world Miller crafted and found it added depth and empathy to those that served, survived, or never returned, and how that affected others.

Fans of historical fiction with meticulous research, strong female bonds, and books about academia may enjoy this one.

This book has everything that I enjoy in a good historical fiction:

1. It’s set in a time that I know very little about.
2. There is a unique point of view. In this case focusing on the women attending Oxford instead of the more common topic of the Pretty Little Things. Also, as someone who has read a Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, her inclusion in this story was perfect and not overpowering.
3. It is incredibly well researched. This is obviously a topic the author is passionate about.
4. There are interesting characters who are both familiar due to their complex humanity and foreign due to the fact that they are rooted in their time.

It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an early copy.

The Eights by Joanna Miller is a slow-paced historical novel about love, loss, and the people we can become when given the space and the sunlight to grow. Dora, Marianne, Otto, and Beatrice are four of the first young women to matriculate at Oxford. Living side-by-side in corridor eight for their first year as Oxford students, the four women who start off as strangers quickly become a family.

Taking place in the shadow of World War I, The Eights does not shy away from the horrors of history. There is not a scene in the book that is not shaped by the events of the era, whether that be the Great War, the Spanish influenza epidemic, the fight for women’s suffrage, or something else. Nothing is sugar coated or misremembered as fun; every character we meet carries a scar, physical or emotional or both.

I do wish that more of the character growth had happened on page — for Dora and Marianne in particular, it feels as though they disappear and don’t return until they have completed their arc off-page. I also wish we had seen more of the girls as friends; so many of their scenes feel like they are just recapping instead of showing us the actual happenings.

That said, I enjoyed the writing itself quite a bit. I thought the descriptions were lovely, and it was clear that a lot of research and a lot of love went into this story. There was a lot of compassion for all of the characters, and I’m so happy that it ended with hope for the future. I wish the stakes had felt higher throughout the book, but all in all, I enjoyed it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC!

I feel like I learned a lot about the first four women who attended Oxford. This book is very informative, but also has a good storyline that keeps you rooting for these characters.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

Oof… I really wish I was beta reading this story instead of reading a review copy a few days before the pub date…

To me, this reads like an early working draft. Certain chapters are more put together than others. For the most part, The Eights does not illicit any emotion nor is written to be particularly interesting. The author frequently uses two (or five) sentences where one would have sufficed and has littered in an unbearable amount of rogue similes. Nothing unfolds in this story - every detail is revealed through painfully boring conversation between characters I did not care about or narration stating historical facts. We do not get to LIVE the history with our characters. I believe this story would’ve benefited heavily from choosing a main character from the bunch.

From the publisher’s description I should’ve LOVED this book for several reasons but I could not even like it even a little.

Though I dislike rating debut authors poorly, two stars is the absolute most I can give for “The Eights”

Ms. Miller’s book follows four young ladies who are among the first women to attend Oxford. This is in the heels of the end of WWI. All four experienced loss due to the Great War as they pave their path. Each of the four come from very diverse backgrounds but become fast friends even while keeping secrets.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It would be a great book club read/discussion.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy and to the author for writing a good read.

The Eights was a delightful surprise of a debut. We meet four women who have been admitted to Oxford University, the first ever women to do so. We meet the women, learn what brought them to Oxford and go along with them on their journeys. There is quite a lot going on here and at times it felt a bit muddled, trying to keep it all in my head, but it was compelling and there were surprising turns. I really enjoyed reading this and I look forward to seeing what Joanna Miller writes next.

I love a good well thought out historical Fiction and The Eights was exactly that. I didn't know much about the first class of women at Oxford and now I want to learn more after reading this book! This book is perfect for anyone who loves historical fiction and books about academia.

i liked the eights overall, but it definitely dragged in places. the middle felt kinda choppy and slow, like not much was actually happening, and it was hard to stay fully into it. but the plot twists surprised me more than once, which i wasn’t expecting, and i really liked the premise. some of the quotes were actually so good too. not perfect, but there were parts that really worked for me.

i think what stood out the most to me was the way it explored friendship and how some situations bring together people who otherwise might not be friends. the setting and time period added a cool layer too, with all the tension around women finally being allowed into spaces that were never built for them. it wasn’t super plot-heavy, but it had this quiet intensity that i appreciated at times. definitely a slower read, but one that had some really thoughtful moments.

📖 Title: The Eights-a standalone

✍🏾 Author: Joanna Miller-debut author

📅Publication date: 4-15-25 | Read 4-10-25

📃 Format: e-Book 384 pgs.

Genre:
*Women's Fic
*Historical Fic
*British Lit
*New Adult

Tropes:
*college student heroines
*women's suffrage
*feminism
*found family

👆🏾POV: 3rd person, multiple

⚠️TW: death of loved ones, bullying, misogyny

🌎 Setting: Oxford University 1920

Summary: Post WWI at Oxford University, four women bond over being a part of the first female class at the college. They face ridicule and are underestimated by everyone. They all have secrets and lean on each other in tough times.


👩🏾 Heroine: Beatrice Sparks-21, has no friends her age, wants to get out of her mother's shadow

👩🏾 Heroine: Marianne Grey-father is a pastor, goes home every weekend to help him

👩🏾Heroine: Theodora "Dora" Greenwood-20, came to Oxford in place of her deceased brother and fiancé.

👩🏾Heroine: Ottoline "Otto" Wallace-Kerr-24, turned down a proposal against her parents' wishes, the "rebellious" one.

🎭 Other Characters:

* Edith Sparks-Beatrice's famous women's suffragette mother
*George-Dora's brother-killed in the war
*Charles Baker-Dora's fiancé-killed in the war
*Henry Hadley-pastor who befriends Marianne
*Miss Jourdain-principal @ St. Hugh's


🤔 My Thoughts: I loved this historical fiction of female empowerment. All four women showed strength even when making hard decisions. Past trauma haunted them, but they faced it together leading to a satisfying conclusion.

Rating: 4/5 ✨
Spice level 0/5 🌶️

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Group Putnam | G.P. Putnam's Sons, and Joanna Miller for this ARC! I voluntarily give my honest review, and all opinions are my own.

I loved this book. It covers an area of history that I am interested in (also in women's education) but did so through excellent character development. Each of the four women we followed throughout the book portrayed a depth of emotion and perspective which made the first class of women at Oxford seem real!

Thank you Netgalley & G.P.Putnam’s Sons for an eARC ❤️❤️❤️

You know when you finish a book and just sit there staring at the ceiling, feeling like your heart’s been gently cracked open?💔
*The Eights* did that to me. I picked it up thinking it’d be another historical fiction about plucky women in academia (which, don’t get me wrong, I *live* for), but what I got was this raw, achingly real story about friendship that feels less like reading and more like being folded into a late-night dorm room confessional. ♥️
Let me tell you about these women, because by page 50 they stopped being characters and started feeling like people I’d take a bullet for. Beatrice is all sharp edges and quiet fury—the kind of woman who stares down a professor sneering “Shouldn’t you be married?” and deadpan replies, “Shouldn’t *you* be intelligent?” (I cheered. Literally. My cat judged me.) Dora wears grief like a second skin, but there’s this moment where she absentmindedly fixes Otto’s collar while arguing about Latin verb conjugations that made me tear up over how love lives in the smallest gestures.
And Otto—god, Otto. A war nurse who’s seen things she can’t unsee, moving through the world like she’s half ghost, until Marianne drags her out at 2AM to steal apples from the dean’s garden. Their friendship arc lives rent-free in my head now: how they patch each other’s wounds with sarcasm and stubbornness and the occasional well-timed punch.
The quiet horror of how little has changed. These women fighting for scraps of respect in 1920 could walk into a STEM department today and hear the same condescension wrapped in prettier words. There’s a scene where Marianne—brilliant, vivacious Marianne—has to pretend she’s “just auditing” classes so male students won’t riot, and I had to put the book down and go breathe into a paper bag for five minutes.
I finished it at 3AM with that particular hollow-chested ache you only get from stories that reach into your ribs and rearrange something. Not because it’s sad (though oh, it *hurts* in places), but because it’s one of those rare books that makes you believe—really believe—in the revolutionary act of women loving each other well.

(And if anyone wants to start a petition for Miller to write 500 more pages of just Otto and Beatrice’s snarky letters to each other in their later years, I’ll sign it in blood.)

A propulsive historical fiction that follows an unlikely friendship of 4 women in the first female class at Oxford (1920) that move into Corridor 8 (become known as The Eights)- all coming from different classes, circumstances, and each contending with secrets. Takes place in the shadow of The Great War (WWI) & the women navigate & support each other in a turbulent post-war world that deals misogyny and ghost of the great war. It was a love letter to female friendship and Oxford. It did drag on in some places where I wish there was more character development, but overall, a solid book.

Each of the four main characters is dealing not just with the pressures of studying and social life, but also with the fallout from the war that upended all their lives, not to mention the still-present threat of deadly influenza and the ongoing attacks of misogynists. But Miller deftly balances the dark moments with scenes of warmth, humor, academic success, and the joys and comforts of friendship. More than anything else, it’s the women’s tight bond that carries them through their challenges, missteps, and setbacks, and keeps them committed to their chosen path. Miller has created her characters with insight and sensitivity, and while there are a couple of far-fetched subplots (and one odd headfake I’m still trying to figure out), for the most part their story is well told and their victories, large and small, are gratifying. (Full review at my Substack.)

Very enjoyable and well researched historical fiction! I appreciate learning more about post WWI in addition to the challenges experienced by the first females to officially attend Oxford University. Will definitely recommend this to my library patrons!

What a terrific book! The story of 4 young women entering Oxford University just after the end of the Great War (aka WW 1), these 4 very different women from very different backgrounds, become part of a group known as The Eight (because they are all on Floor/Corridor 8). Ottoline, known as Otto, comes from a moneyed family but she doesn't fit the mold of proper young lady looking for a husband, children and marriage. She's outspoken and a definite rule breaker. Beatrice's mom is a well known suffragette and a terrible mother; Beatrice wants to chart her own path separate from her distant and dismissive parent. Marianne is a parson's daughter with a secret she can't share. And Dora is suffering from the loss of her brother and fiancee in the war, looking to find new purpose in life. Somehow these very different women because close friends and each other's support through the challenges they navigate including male student's harassment, ridiculously confining rules and more. In a way it's a coming of age story for each of them, and for Oxford University male students as well.

The characters are so well developed, I'd love to be able to meet them. It's a fast but intense read; there is so much going on between the girls and around them at the same time. The scars of the war run deeply and differently through each of their stories. I couldn't put it down!

The Eights is a very character-driven historical novel about four women who are in the first class of women to matriculate at Oxford. I really enjoyed the Oxford setting and historical details. Miller clearly did her research and set up some interesting storylines. Ultimately, the women were a little too flat for such a character-based book, and with multiple side characters thrown in, I really struggled to keep track of who was who. The ending felt extremely abrupt; maybe an epilogue will appear between the ARC that I read and the final published version? Overall, this book had promise but didn't quite hit the mark. Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam | G.P. Putnam's Sons for a digital review copy.

Four young women (Beatrice, Marianne, Theodora, and Ottoline) are dormmates at St. Hugh's, the first female college to be admitted to Oxford. All of their lives were affected by the Great War and they still have issues. The Eights chronicles the events of their first year at college.
While the subject was intrinsically interesting and I did get involved in the story, I found The Eights overlong at barely 350 pages.
The characters seem a bit stereotypical (Beatrice is freakishly tall, Dora is a beauty in mourning, Otto is an abrasive flapper with money, and Marianne is poor and has a secret) while at the same time tending to bleed into each other so that I had some trouble figuring out whose viewpoint I was reading. The "secret" was pretty easy to figure out.
After awhile I got very tired of reading descriptions of architecture, furnishings, nature, and food, because they tended to be repeated over and over again. The details of the really abominable treatment the women received from their professors and the male students was interesting, but again, the stories became repetitous.
This is a book about female friendship and the aftereffects of war. It wasn't bad, but it should have been better.
I am grateful to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the opportunity to read a free advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.