What was this !
It was really hard to make sense of the stories and I didn’t see where they were going with a lot of the stories.

Some were funny and better than others but most literally were nonsense but it was all a bit of fun.
I loved the Barbie movie so thought this sounded fun and interesting but I couldn’t didn’t make head or tail of most of the stories.

It just wasn’t for me .

The Woman Dies had all the ingredients for something powerful, but the execution fell flat for me. The message was loud, but not layered — more told than felt. It skimmed the surface of big themes without giving them room to breathe. I wanted to care, to feel, but the emotional spark never came. Ambitious concept, just didn’t land.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC.

I've been really enjoying Japanese fiction lately and I've also been getting into short stories, so this seemed like and obvious choice to pick up. I'm glad to say that I was not disappointed. 

The stories in this were funny, but they also had a lot to say about different societal issues, especially related to feminism. 

They definitely had similar vibes to other Japanese fiction I've read recently, so fans of recent Japanese fiction will definitely enjoy this. 

I'd also recommend this to people who like a funnier take on serious issues. 

The ARC was formatted a little weird so it was a bit of a chore to get through at times because of that, but I'm really looking forward to picking up a  copy once it's published and rereading the whole thing.

I honestly don’t know what to say for this one.
There was nothing objectively bad or wrong with this book. It was written/translated well and the characters for each story were fine. Just fine.
My biggest complaints were that I did not enjoy my time and also I felt like it was trying to be meaningful and powerful when it wasn’t. You could tell that it was trying so hard to be a feminist collection, as it’s described on all its platforms, and it was not.
Meh.

This is a SUPER quick read!

I was originally drawn to this book because of its cover art. I thought it was so fun, cute and I was intrigued.

This book is a collection of super short stories (their length ranges from one page to about eight pages).

This reads almost like poetry in a way, sometimes that was good thing and sometimes the writing felt clunky. But I do believe that this is translated, so I give it some grace because of that. The nuance of language can get lost a bit through the translation.

My favorite story was "God Must Be Stupid." It is about wishing your cat was immortal. And I completely agree with the entire little story. I do think that cats should be immortal (I think all pets should be).

I also love that this author also loves Dr. Spencer Reid. (I mean, who doesn't?) I don't trust people that don't love Dr. Spencer Reid.

This has stories on girlhood, sexism, society, and whatever random ramblings may sprout into one's head. And I think that was very fun.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

The message in the novel The Woman Dies is strong, but the unsubtleness of how the message was delivered had me unentertained. I sense a sort of hastily written exploration of thoughts exploring critiques of the society, but it failed to stir any real emotions. I sensed a detachment, and I wish we had dived deeper. The potential was definitely there, it just didn’t land for me. I wanted more nuance, more tension, more connection. Instead, it felt like ideas thrown at a wall, hoping something would stick. A cool concept, but not one that’ll stay with me. 2.5 rounded up.

“And that concludes my live demonstration! So now you see what misogyny looks like, dissected and slit open. It doesn’t make a very pretty sight with its flesh all over the tabletop like that, does it? But we’ve come to the end now, so there’s to be no more fainting, okay ladies?”

“The Woman Dies” is a playful, reflective, surreal and surprising collection of stories that touches on themes of adolescence, misogyny and masculinity. There are horror stories, sci-fi stories, fantasy stories, cat stories.. I was really impressed by the range. This collection’s satirical story about men fighting misandry to be taken seriously in their fields was probably one of my favorites. Many of the stories left me really thinking and it will be a while before I’m done flipping back through them.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.