This book was such a great mix of history, heart and grief. I loved Odette and was happy to watch her grow as a human being. From living small life devoid of love and joy, to making a family with the ones she loves. I can’t wait to see what Julianna Edwards will write next!

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with this E-Arc

I loved this book. The characters were so strongly written and real that I actually found myself getting angry and frustrated with them, to the point that I had to put the book down for two days because I was so mad at some choices made by Odette. The plot was interesting and rich. At times I felt that the author packed in too many challenges and obstacles, but, ultimately, I liked how those events moved the story along. And the writing was beautiful. The author captured so many real, raw emotions: grief and loss, shame, despair, hope, friendship, love. This deeply-damaged character's growth arc was real and her strength was well-earned. I look forward to recommending Odette Rising to my friends.

Odette Rising by Julianne Edwards

Thank you Viking Penguin | Pamela Dorman Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

The young Odette, just twenty-one years old and entirely walled off from society, has spent the bulk of her life in isolation. After the death of her father, a man who was more a stranger than a parent, she takes the first step in her journey to finding her footing in turn-of-the-century France: leaving the comfort of her home. Odette’s lifelong struggle with self love accompanies a slew of new hardships as she takes on responsibilities that even society deems unfathomable, like taking over her father’s hosiery factory as a woman. Throughout the story, she slowly and courageously branches out, making new friends (and enemies), all while discovering where she fits.

Edwards manages to hone in on the lives of a multitude of characters, not just our protagonist, giving readers a necessary glimpse into the motivations behind their actions and a wide breadth to the overall story. It is a strong utilization of third person. Because of how much Edwards delves into other characters, readers also better understand how Odette is being received as both she and the story progress. We witness change in some of the most raw ways, especially for people who were living in a time period in which the year itself was so much an obstacle that people–women–never thought able to challenge it.

I found Odette’s view of society particularly enthralling, as she thought it was almost shameful, something not to care about at all. Rather than succumbing to the world that shunned her and kept her locked away, Odette manages to challenge society while simultaneously overcoming its stone-set limitations. She incurs a plethora of unique perspectives that stem from her upbringing–wealthy, but ostracized due primarily to her weight. It makes for a gripping story. With surprising turns and a brilliant conclusion, Odette Rising will linger, a reminder that everyone is capable of bravery and self love. This story is Odette’s, and it is one worth reading.

Beautiful lyrical writing style 🩷

Great strong characters like Odette (love her name )

Odette was a strong easy to relate to character

The story was beautiful,detailed and unique

Julianne Edwards writing style completely pulled me In. It is so unique and descriptive that I genuinely felt like I was there with the characters the entire time. The world felt vivid, immersive, and easy to get lost in. I found myself fully invested in Odettes journey from the get go, so much so that I was eager to keep reading every night. The book was full of awkward moments and I found myself genuinely feeling for Odette. I will be looking forward to more works from Edwards.

Thank you NetGalley and Viking Penguin for a chance to review Odette Rising by Julianne Edwards
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

*Odette Rising* earned every hour I gave it. Edwards writes characters with such precision and weight that I found myself genuinely furious with Odette's choices — put the book down for two days, that kind of furious. The plot is rich, occasionally overstuffed, but the obstacles accumulate with purpose and the story earns its momentum. What stays with me is how honestly Edwards renders grief, shame, despair, hope — the full emotional register, nothing softened. Odette's transformation never feels granted. Her strength is excavated slowly, from damage, and that makes it land. A book I'll be pressing into hands. Highly recommended.

“Odette Rising” by Julianne Edwards is a beautifully written novel set in Sevre’s France in the late 1800’s. The characters experience pressure from society and from their perception of themselves. Odette is in her early 20’s and has lived as a shut in for many years. She is lonely, disconnected, and filled with shame. She had no real interaction with anyone beyond her father and the staff and has no knowledge of the world outside her room. For years, her world has been limited to food and books. When her father dies at the beginning of the book, she forces herself to leave the house to attend his funeral. This is the beginning of her being propelled into the world. After the funeral, her father’s lawyer comes to inform Odette that she has inherited both a fortune and a stocking factory. She has no need, nor desire, for either. However, she has experienced a breath of air and a view of a larger world and she wants more. Now, with the reading of her father’s will, she has been handed a responsibility and must rise to the challenge.

This is the story of how Odette learns to accept herself and move in the world. It is a story of growth and friendship. Odette faces many difficulties, both from within and from the society in which she lives. She often doesn’t know what to do and she doesn’t always rise to the occasion or make the best choices. This makes her relatable and human. Odette lacks social graces, yet she possesses an artistic bent and an ability to see others with kindness and clarity. She also has tremendous courage. She is repeatedly forced to make decisions and keep on trying, even when faced with unpleasant consequences and no idea how to handle the situations facing her.

The novel is subtle and I enjoyed that the issues were interwoven and multi-layered. The book held me and I found it difficult to put down. While many of the issues in the novel were quite specific to the historical time and the situation of the heroine, the underlying themes of empowerment, self-acceptance, and connection continue to be relevant today.

This is a strong debut. It is well-written and literary, subtle in its characterizations and references, yet clear in its storyline and historical setting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pamela Dorman Books for access to this ARC. This is my honest review.

ODETTE RISING by debut author Julianna Edwards is nothing short of a revelation, a marvel, and an astounding piece of literary fiction.

Set during La Belle Époque, 1896 to 1898, the novel is a coming of age story about the marvelous Odette Huré. Despite the fact that she is in her twenties when the story opens, Odette is someone who has lived a sheltered life. That is not hyperbole. She has not left the confines of her home in Sèvres, France for ten years.

The novel opens with her father’s funeral. Reader, I implore you — pay very close attention to the opening page of the book. So much is happening. And you can pinpoint the artistic precision of the author’s prose. She writes,

The house was tall, regular, gray. It sat with dull confidence a little back from the road where the funeral bier waited, rocking gently
as the horses moved in their harnesses. A half-hearted wind moved through the plane trees that lined the pavement, starlings fussing in
their branches.
In the first-floor window a figure was watching. Still and solid, framed in silhouette by the gas lamps that lit the room behind her,
even though it was not yet midday. From her window, Odette noted the flat sky and formless clouds. It was an unremarkable day in
which to send her father into nothingness.

Did you notice the fine detail? The author starts off with this third-person, impartial, documentary-style voice. She is chronicling details — shape, colors, trees, a wind. This restrained voice then notices a figure. Suddenly, this voice that starts out on the exterior of the house effortlessly and swiftly soars to the interior, and just like that . . . Poof. Gone is the expressionless opening tone, and Odette’s first impression upon the reader is overflowing with emotion. It is small gestures like this that occur throughout the entirety of the book that impressed and overwhelmed me.

Her father has starved Odette of his attention and affection. She she found satiety in excessive amounts of food and drink. The author writes,

[Odette] knew what they [society] said about her, had heard Madame Dendron and Cook gleefully repeating the gossip. That she
was grotesquely fat and unsavory; that she needed to be lifted up and down the stairs; could eat a whole veal calf in one sitting; that
she preferred beer to claret, sang to herself and stared out of the window for hours on end.

Odette is large, naïve, unsure of herself and her place in the world, and a laughing stock in her community. Now that her father is dead, Odette must rise — like a phoenix (or more appropriately, a heron) — to the occasion and fill the space his death has created. She must assume control of her father’s factory, which makes women’s stockings; except the factory manager, Beauclerc, is a gruff man who never takes the time to sit down and explain the business to her. He simply expects her to know to pay the employees, to make new designs, etc.

Odette is unschooled in such mundane manners because she has been sheltered, or more appropriately, imprisoned in that “tall, regular, gray” house.

The author chronicles Odette’s many hardships and sacrifices that she is forced to make in order to survive in a “man’s world.” But as the story progresses and Odette starts to carve out a path for herself, rather than try to survive in a “man’s world,” she tears down all antiquated relics and erects new structures, new towers that usher in modernity and the dawn of a new age.

There are moments when the author’s prose is sublime. One passage that captured my attention:

Here was an altar to beauty, a tableau fit for a Renaissance painting, celebrating nature with sublime reverence. But there was
also the disturbing presence of a poetic sexuality that was all the more disorientating because it had seemingly sprung from her papa.
She felt crushed by the shimmering sensibility of it all. It was just so, so beautiful and represented all that she was not. But more than that, it had
nothing to do with the version of himself that he had offered, in meager portions, to her. At home he had been quick and tight and silent; a thin
straight line of a man with scant capacity for emotions, let alone passions. In here, in this room, he seemed more a lark, soaring skywards trilling
joy into the golden air as he penned glorious designs to adorn women’s calves.

And then there is my favorite passage in the entire book: “Her lips parted as she approached their table and she lowered herself, like poured caramel, into her chair.” I read this sentence over and over again. It reveals so much about the character.

The character development is superlative. It is remarkable. There were scenes in the novel’s opening where I laughed out loud — where I laughed at the grief-stricken orphaned Odette. As the novel progressed, I was not laughing at her any longer. I was cheering her on and scowling at every person who took advantage of her.

Once I was 50 pages into the book, I was as good as done for. There was no way I was not going to finish this book. It is so wonderful.

I do not know if I am a connoisseur of historical fiction; all I know is that I read a lot of historical novels. I can state, unequivocally, that ODETTE RISING is the historical novel of the year. A brave and talented new voice is now on the literary scene, and I pray it does not disappear any time soon.