In The Women we follow multiple women in their lives. Every story is set in a different point of time, often years in between.
One thing these women all have in common: self-loathing and self-destructive behavior.

I expected to feel really connected to them all and see their characters develop in the years that we follow them, but that wasn’t the case for me.
Their stories were often extremely short and felt quite random. I don’t think the moments we witnessed were always the most interesting ones. Especially if that one story is the only one we’ll read of them in the course of multiple years.

In the end I just never felt like I could connect to any of the women and that made the book less impactful to me.
If you’re thinking of reading this I would recommend checking trigger warners beforehand. Some of the subject were extremely heavy so keep that in mind.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for the arc

Sigh... this was a book. 4.5/5


Beautiful but heavy. I did not read the interactive novel but I think these short stories hit hard on their own. Women and young girls everywhere experience these things all the time and its so gut wrenching. A lot of relatability and vulnerability in this collection. It was moving and heartbreaking...I loved it!

So beautifully written, giving glimpses into what it's like to be a girl! A collection for the people watchers, the girl's girls, and anyone who loves women. The Women tells the tales of a diverse cast of characters and is perfectly comprehensible and enjoyable without having read Raising Women (which is now on my TBR).

Building around the brilliant pick-your-own-adventure novel Raising Women, Waite has provided additional stories on all of the female characters from the original book. They are jumbled up and non-linear and provide extra context for the women we meet in Raising Women.

Whilst this short story collection is billed as working as a standalone as well, I feel I would have needed to dip in and out more had I not already met the characters. The stories are a mix of short stories and stories so short I would call them vignettes or snapshots rather than short stories. I enjoyed having a mix and read a few stories in the beginning then decided to follow a single character at a time through the book. I will definitely be reading The Women alongside Raising Women when I return to it in future as it really fleshes out many of the characters and their backstories and past experiences.

The trigger warnings at the back of the book will be useful for anyone who wants to avoid certain topics as there is plenty of heavy material.

I hadn’t read the original Raising Women interactive novel before diving into The Women: A Raising Women Expansion Pack, but that didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying this collection. It stands confidently on its own (no prior knowledge required) while still serving as a strong companion piece for fans of the original.

This book slips under the skin of what it means to be a girl or a woman, letting you inhabit the emotional weight, contradictions, and complexities of womanhood. It’s sharp, insightful, and laced with humor and grit. There wasn’t a single page that felt slow or unnecessary. The stories are fierce and unfiltered, a series of sharp-edged vignettes that range in length but are unified in their raw honesty. Each one digs into the messy, uncomfortable, and often unspoken realities women face.

Whether you’ve explored Raising Women before or are coming to this one first, it stands strong either way. It expands on the world of the interactive novel but is fully digestible on its own. With its brisk pace and varied structure, the collection pulls you forward quickly, never lingering too long yet never lacking emotional depth. The shorter stories carry just as much weight as the longer ones, often delivering a gut-punch in just a few pages.

What makes this book especially powerful is how much it feels like a reflection: you see your own buried feelings, intrusive thoughts, and quiet fears mirrored back at you in the characters. The tone shifts seamlessly from story to story, perfectly matching the theme, rhythm, and emotional charge of each piece, which only deepens the immersive quality of the read.

As a whole, this is a collection that reminds us of the shared essence of women’s lives, the universality found in even the most personal experiences.

One note, though: unlike Raising Women, this book isn’t interactive, and that changes how the stories are consumed. Because it focuses on telling each woman’s journey rather than letting the reader choose their path, I would have preferred if each character had her own distinct section or chapter, rather than being interwoven throughout. A more structured division might have made their arcs clearer and more resonant. Still, this doesn’t take away from the strength of the writing or the emotional impact of the collection.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the e-arc!

Review will be posted to Goodreads on July 20th.

Each one of these stories was brutally honest and fractured. The focus on these girls’ relationships and sense of self without holding back any messy flaws and emotions, felt like a dramatic and often painful coming-of-age film. Waite’s writing captures the anxieties and isolation these women experience, and pours it out on the page with all its sharp edges. Thank you to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for this ARC copy.

I loved Raising Women and the only critique I had was that the format made it difficult for much character development. This was before I knew The Women was coming, so to say I was eagerly anticipating this would be an understatement. I love Waite’s decision to tell these stories in a series of vignettes from differing times throughout the characters lives. The structure of both stories compliment each other extremely well. I especially enjoyed learning more about Roman, from the beginning that character intrigued me. Being able to dive deeper into each character and their past traumas really helps set the scene for why they may have made some of the choices they (could have) made in the other novel. That being said, this is a short story collection that stands extremely well on its own. If you haven’t read Raising Women, this is still a hauntingly beautiful trip into the traumatizing thing that is growing up female.

Just finished this piece of raw honesty. No sugar, no sweeteners. Just brutal, gut punching truths about being a woman in this f*cked up world ☠️

A collection of sharp, unfiltered stories that’ll make every woman feel seen… or maybe a little exposed 👀

A solid 4 ☆ read. But, don’t walk in blind. Check those trigger warnings. This book hits heavy and deep. Your mental health matters 🌼

A book that climbs into the skin of girl/womanhood and lets you walk around in it. Sharp, witty, and never had the pages dragging. A razor-tongued combination of short stories varying in length, detailing the knitty gritty, dark, and dirty. A great extension to the Raising Women interactive novel, or perfectly digestible by itself. A relatively quick read with a good, fast pace that draws you through the chapters, featuring lots of smaller stories that pack a punch. A reflection of your hidden thoughts, feelings, and anxieties, reflected in the characters. The tone of the novel pivots perfectly in line with the theme and pace of each short story and adds to the immersive nature of the stories. A collection of short stories that acts as a reminder to us of the universal nature of women's lives.

This was a fun delicious ride!! Told from various people so you can have a better understanding fast paced read !! It had a. Moment I was like wtf did I just read and read it again I enjoyed it

Shannon Waite’s The Women is like being handed a rusted key to a locked cabinet in your own memory, one filled with the jagged, painful, private parts of girlhood you forgot you remembered. It’s unflinching, sometimes brutal, often strange, and always electric.

Each story is a little grenade. Thirty-nine brief, blistering vignettes, some as short as a paragraph, others a few pages, each packed with raw honesty, blood-and-bone truths, and sentences that slice you open when you least expect it. The characters are messy, mean, vulnerable, and so real you feel like you know them (or were them). They are the girls who grew up behind the bleachers, in the nurse’s office, under streetlights, in church pews and detention halls. And Waite does not look away from their beauty or their damage.

There’s a defiant, punk lit energy to Waite’s writing. It reminded me of early Mary Gaitskill or Jenny Zhang, blurring fiction and confession, girlhood and womanhood, danger and desire. And yet, it feels completely its own thing: nonlinear, lyrical, and quietly revolutionary.

This isn’t a collection you breeze through. You flinch, pause, reread, wince, maybe laugh (a little too loudly), and feel exposed. But by the end, you’re not the same.

Waite has written something bold and brilliant. A love letter to the girls who never learned how to behave. A battle cry for women trying to survive their own softness and sharpness.

My Highest Recommendation.

The Women is a collection of linked stories that allow readers to enter the self loathing and self destructive minds of eleven girls from the original novel. While this collection does expand on the original novel’s characters you can read before, after or even isolated from the novel Raising Women.
In this interactive novel, readers have twenty-four possible pathways with four unique endings to explore what it’s like growing up a girl, Thirty-Nine stories all together.
I would like advice you to please check trigger warnings before reading as these short stories contain sensitive themes and subject matters that some readers may find disturbing. There is a content guide page that tells you which stories have which sensitive subject matters.

The Women by Shannon Waite is a gripping collection of short stories about girlhood & womanhood. They are all extremely raw, honest & emotional with absolutely no sugar coating and many of them relatable for many women.

I really enjoyed Shannon Waite writing and I can’t wait to see what else she she brings out in the future.

just finished The Women by Shannon Waite and… wow. raw, messy, brilliant. 39 stories that peel back the layers of girlhood and womanhood—nothing sugar-coated, everything felt. if you like sharp, unflinching writing about growing up, this one cuts deep.