SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVELAN LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE, MYSTERY & THRILLER FINALIST * AN INTERNATIONAL THRILLER WRITERS FINALIST, BEST HARDCOVER NOVEL * A MACAVITY BEST MYSTERY NOVEL FINALISTA Recommended Book FromThe New York Times Book Review * The Washington Post * Vogue * Entertainment Weekly * Elle * People * Marie Claire * Vulture * The Minneapolis Star-Tribune * LitHub * … Weekly * Elle * People * Marie Claire * Vulture * The Minneapolis Star-Tribune * LitHub * Crime Reads * PopSugar * AARP * Book Marks * South Florida Sun Sentinel
From the award-winning author of Wonder Valley and Visitation Street comes a serial killer story like you’ve never seen before—a literary thriller of female empowerment and social change
In West Adams, a rapidly changing part of South Los Angeles, they’re referred to as “these women.” These women on the corner … These women in the club … These women who won’t stop asking questions … These women who got what they deserved …
In her masterful new novel, Ivy Pochoda creates a kaleidoscope of loss, power, and hope featuring five very different women whose lives are steeped in danger and anguish. They’re connected by one man and his deadly obsession, though not all of them know that yet. There’s Dorian, still adrift after her daughter’s murder remains unsolved; Julianna, a young dancer nicknamed Jujubee, who lives hard and fast, resisting anyone trying to slow her down; Essie, a brilliant vice cop who sees a crime pattern emerging where no one else does; Marella, a daring performance artist whose work has long pushed boundaries but now puts her in peril; and Anneke, a quiet woman who has turned a willfully blind eye to those around her for far too long. The careful existence they have built for themselves starts to crumble when two murders rock their neighborhood.
Written with beauty and grit, tension and grace, These Women is a glorious display of storytelling, a once-in-a-generation novel.
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These Women is full of resilient and undaunted characters that society often doesn’t give a second look to. But Ivy Pochoda does and in these pages she gives us the small story that grows so large in meaning and emotion as to transcend genre. It tells us how to look at ourselves and at what is important.
Chills.
That’s what I get now when I re-read the synopsis for ‘These Women’ by Ivy Pochoda.
When I first came across this story, I was certainly intrigued. In life, I’ve said tearful goodbyes to my share of ‘the lost,’ which is how I see the many I feel are sadly overlooked. As is true with the characters in this book, the lost can come from any demographic.. from any lifestyle.. from any past or future. Tragedy doesn’t pick and choose.. deciding on some mystical idea of a deserving few. That’s a uniquely human trait. To see the worst occur and blame the victims.
Told from the perspective of several women, this shifting narrative gives the reader a glimpse of what it’s like to walk in each woman’s proverbial shoes. Outwardly, it tells a story about a gruesome string of murders spanning two decades, and those whose lives are rocked by them.
It doesn’t cease with the victimization of the murders, but rather expands to include the unstated victims as well. Those orbiting the women who are killed.. family, friends, neighbors, police.. even the murderer and their circle of influence.
Inwardly, it’s about much more. It’s about the minimalization of women. Not just in death, but in life and not in an overblown, sensationalistic way either.. though, that’s here too. In the little things.. like the way sometimes it’s assumed our perspective just isn’t true. In the ways not only outsiders can push us down, but sometimes those we see as friends.. who opt instead to leverage us for their benefit. Though it’s not just a women’s issue, the act of tearing each other down, isn’t exclusive to us. In my personal experience, it can at least seem like we do it much more than men.
I was deeply moved by each of these stories, the misrepresentations, the misunderstandings, the darkness you can see coming a mile away.. but can’t seem to move out of. And that’s what it’s like in some cases. I had a friend in junior high.. who was often out on her own with other kids in her situation. Her parents were more involved in themselves than her. Despite appearances, to a degree I suppose that was the case for all of them, but her details I knew well.
She had a warm, wonderful nature. When she wasn’t at school or hanging out with friends, she actually volunteered at an animal shelter. When she and her friends were hurt and she died, there was of course an outpouring of grief, but there was also a lot of finger pointing going on. To me, it’s never “their own fault” that something horrible happens. Some lifestyles may put people at higher risk simply because of accessibility, but that doesn’t mean they’re to blame.
Pochoda did an amazing job of taking these separate threads and slowly, methodically twining them together. Each woman’s journey seemed to circle an unseen and magnetic core, spiraling ever closer both to that center and to one another, and the inevitable collision was grand.
Admittedly, I definitely saw the reveal coming early on, but it also never felt important. The killer didn’t feel like the motivation for the story at all. The women did. And their stories were the journey.. the best part. I never felt short-changed because I knew who was going to be responsible. I wanted to understand how we were going to get there. I wanted to know why.
What’s captured so beautifully in this novel, are the emotional effects of circumstance. Trauma and loss, of course.. but also the slow death of dreams, the peek beneath the illusions crafted around us, the lies we tell ourselves and other people, and the preconceived notions we might have.. walking into any situation.
The novel is gripping and I didn’t want to put it down. Ivy Pochoda is an author to watch and I highly recommend you pick up her book if you like mystery, drama, or suspense. ‘These Women’ is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year. I look forward to seeing much more from her.
(More reviews like this at Betwixt The Sheets.)
(I received this title as an ARC. All opinions are mine and freely given.)
A serial killer novel unlike any other, THESE WOMEN is told through the perspectives of six women, each with a connection to murders that have plagued Los Angeles for decades. The murder victims are almost exclusively sex workers, and Pochoda does a masterful job exploring the ways in which society casts aside such women, deeming crimes against them to be less worthy of justice than others, as well as how police departments particularly fail women of color. I was so impressed with how Pochoda connected the different threads and characters of this story, and how the killer’s motivation, once revealed, hammered home a terrifying but powerful message about the root of misogyny. Besides providing sharp social commentary, THESE WOMEN is a compelling, can’t-look-away story with uniquely dynamic characters, set against the raw, gritty streets of LA that many people would prefer to avoid—but, for many reasons, these women can’t.
These Women by Ivy Pochoda is a riveting and sobering read that takes the reader into very dark, real, harrowing, and lonely corners of humanity.
This book alternates between 1999 and 2014 dealing specifically with the women that were either murdered or affected by the victims of a serial killer. The police have deemed these victims disposable as several were entwined into occupations and habits that were sometimes less then “G-rated” (and we can leave it at that). This book shows us that these women were still human beings, still had hopes, dreams, fears, goals, and should have been just as important as anyone else.
As the story continues, all of what we think are individual voices and vignettes, become braided into a common theme. Yes, there is suspense, a serial killer plot that is answered, but this book is so much more. It gives us a window into souls. Souls that are just as worthy and you and I, and yet when they were living, and dying, their voice was silenced. This book brings them to the surface as it should have been all along.
Gripping, tragic, and quite frankly, stunning. This is the first time I have read anything by this author, and a new fan has been made.
5/5
Thank you NetGalley and Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
This is the gripping and raw story of the intersection of the lives of six women, all effected by the actions of a serial killer, and all dismissed because… well, you tell me why. Here, the author blends a mystery with social commentary. Do we want to know who the killer is and how they got caught? Of course. But the real mystery is—why did it take 15 years to do it?
This book flips the mystery genre on its head. It’s told from the points of view of the victims and is actually more of an ensemble cast. Through a brilliant blend of imagery and gritty street slang we’re taken into the underbelly of society in South LA and into the heads of these women, seeing what makes them tick. We don’t see the violence, but we see the aftermath.
In case I’m making this story sound boring… it is SO not. It’s actually unputdownable. The tension builds from page one and escalates to an amazing climax. This quick reading, well written story is something unique—a mystery that you will want to flip back to page one after finishing, to catch what you missed the first time around.
This is the sort of book that makes me IMMEDIATELY go out and buy an author’s backlist when I finish!
A beautiful-ugly, gut-wrenching, unstoppable, gritty, grimy, realistic story that I won’t soon forget. And won’t want to. A must read.