I received a free advanced reader copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.

I enjoyed the book which was quite unusual. There is no single main character, but instead the narrative follows the lives over decades of a group of predominantly women as they all converge on the opening night of a play. As well as an interesting story, it is also a window on how minorities have been accepted (or not) over the last century.

I enjoyed this account of intertwined women’s lives, and it was refreshing that they are all black. The narrative and lack of punctuation did take some getting used to. I think I expected too much because of it winning th Booker prize and wasn’t as enthralled as I hoped, but I am glad I did read it.

With all the hype, it could be easy to dismiss some aspects of this book, such as the stylistic devices, but I found the whole worked together wonderfully. Intriguing, intelligent without being patronising, diverse, and captivating in its storytelling - a great way to spend time.

This must be the first Booker prize winning book I have really enjoyed. The style of prose, lack of punctuation etc had become the norm a couple of chapters in, and whilst I ultimately think that stylisation didn’t add anything to the book it certainly didn’t detract either.
I spent a great many chapters enjoying the writing, the characters, the stories but the lack of any kind of plot nagged at me. The interweaving of the characters though was exceptionally well done... and by the end without wanting to give spoilers I felt that a plot had actually been there all along.
A strong, strong voice in contemporary literary fiction. I enjoyed this a lot. A commercial Booker winner, who’d have thought?!!

I have mixed feelings about this book.

The lack of capital letters and punctuation was an issue, for me. After initially wondering if there was something wrong with my Kindle copy (which does happen), I then became frustrated wondering if the whole book would continue in this way (it does). I just don't really understand why authors do these gimmicky tricks, without having a very, very good reason. Maybe there was a good reason, and I missed it entirely, that's definitely possible! But honestly, why upset half your readership to begin with and make them feel like
a. they don't want to both reading the book.
b. they are possibly too stupid to be reading such a book.
c. the book is clearly a bid for a literary fiction prize.

Anyway.

I persisted. I'm glad I did, because at least I know what people are talking about. And there were some parts which were really, really good. Once I'd read about a quarter in I stopped being incensed about the punctuation, though I still did find it confusing sometimes as to what was going on, who was being talked about, where thing stopped and started.

It's loaded with characters, and jam-packed with diversity. Sometimes it did feel a little bit like a tick box exercise...one of those...then one of those...and so there were characters who I felt didn't quite ring true. They didn't always talk like real people. Quite often they were talking like a prize-winning book. But then other characters really came alive, and I found myself much more interested in their lives, and the snaking, swirling ties binding them all together.

The final ending to the story was great, just really good...I would have happily read an entire book based on that part of the story. So that's why I came away with mixed feelings, as I felt some of the writing was really good, but other parts just left me a bit cold, or cross. So, mixed feelings.

I wanted to like this more than I actually did in the end. I struggled with the stream of consciousness style and the somewhat disparate stories - I've never been a fan of the short story generally as I prefer to stay immersed, so this is more a reflection of my preferences than the talent of the author. I read a review on Netgalley which described it at times as a game of 'woke bingo' and can't help agreeing. I felt guilty that I didn't connect, and who wants that?

Incredible. I can see why this book is an award winner. It’s fantastic to read great quality women’s fiction and know it is appreciated on a world wide stage

I found this so compelling to read. The style at first was a little strange, almost stream of consciousness, but it made the writing flow and took me with it. I loved the in-depth background to each of the characters and finding how they interlink. While at times each felt like quite separate chunks of story, I enjoyed how it all came together at the end and you discovered how all the characters fit together.

There was plenty in here that resonated with me as a female, but it also made me realise how fortunate I am not to have to deal with the additional challenges of being a person of colour in a predominantly white country.

I couldn't wait to read the next bit every night and would definitely recommend this.

I can't stress how much I adored this book. It's straight up there as one of my books of the year.

There are so many ways this book shouldn't work, but it absolutely does. It's really hard to describe without being incredibly off-putting, but there's no real plot, hardly any punctuation, sentences run into each other like a stream of consciousness and it spans a whole century while also being set entirely in one evening. Evaristo's prose, once you settle into it, is completely hypnotic. Having just finished it, I immediately want to start it again so I can spot all the connections and Easter eggs

I loved this book, although I was fully expecting to find it difficult/ worthy/ unreadable because of its recent success in the 2019 Booker Prize. Initially daunted by the lack of full stops and short groupings of phrases, I very quickly got into the rhythm and style of the writing, which genuinely carries you along with its enthusiasm, narrative and skill. It actually helps drive the reader's interest moving forward to the next character or situation. The book is woven from the loosely-connected lives of several women mainly from the present, but reaching back into the last century, exploring the histories and events that helped form their attitudes to life and love. They take us into very different worlds with backgrounds that are integral to their relationships with other characters and form the impetus of the novel. The richness and diversity are the joy of the book for me. This year's Booker judges have definitely done us proud!

This book dives into the stories of 12 loosely-connected characters, and brings them to life with considerable success. Each character felt distinct and convincing and elicited their own response from me, ranging from irritation to admiration. Most of the characters are black women, and the book extensively explores the issues they face in Britain - how they are weighed down and lifted up by race, class, gender, age. Each of these characters is alienated in some way, through malice and misunderstanding, from Britishness, family, friends and most tragically from themselves. It offers some hope for how to build a together in a time of alienation and divisiveness.

In the opening chapters the polemic hits you like a ton of bricks. There’s a striden,t sassy edge to the feminist view being shared. Racial, gender, sexual orientation, identity and cultural issues are also forcefully driven home. The author’s voice rings out loud and clear as the issues she discusses take centre place. No punches pulled. No attempt at subtlety whatsoever.

And then things change. Once the barrage of beliefs has bled out of her, she turns her writerly eye to the creation of story and better developed characters. Here I think she shines. Where the earlier chapters were overwhelmingly raw and robust, in the mid section we encounter a more reasoned rationale, with heightened emotion diffused through the lens of more fully fleshed characters we care about.

Individual stores help create a cohesive whole as they interweave and interlink. They add history, lend context and give substance to the framework of the book. But that thread gets tangled when the author appears to decide she hasn’t given due weight to transgender issues. There follows a rather political correctness pleasing account of Megan/Morgan which feels more like a tick box exercise than anything else.

However, this is redeemed by the tail end of the book, with a return to storytelling. I was particularly touched by Harriet and Grace’s stories which get the point across in a less heavy-handed way than before. It’s a confusing blend of strong opinion and irritating grammatical novelty, mixed with some compelling storytelling. I believe it succeeds best when it gets off its soapbox and simply relies on the power of a well told story.

Admittedly I first heard about Girl, woman, other when it jointly won the Booker prize and knew it was an anthology of stories. The first story from Amma is probably my least favourite, however all the others are so well written and interwoven I’m glad I stuck with it. Each one is so different and told from the narrators point of view, I like how the stories weave through time and bits of the puzzle fit together. A fascinating read.

As one would expect from booker prize winner and a writer as accomplished and interesting as Bernadine Evaristo, this book is full of wonderful observations and characters.

The punctuation in this novel is very unusual with only one full stop being used to each chapter. But, thanks to very gifted writing and clever use of spaces on the page, one's reading isn't disrupted at all. Which is as well, as you need to concentrate so as to retain the relationships between the main characters. Of the twelve main ones Shirley, a schoolteacher, is the primary link. The others being either her friends, pupils or their familyies all of whose backstories are vividly told by Evaristo. The novel starts with us meeting Amma - a black lesbian playwright - who is going along to attend the opening night, at the National Theatre, of a new play that she has written and directed. By the end of the novel we have met and discovered a great deal about many of the attendees at the after show party and what amazingly colourful lives they have led. All of them are female, all of them are coloured, all of them are incredibly feisty, all of them have survived really hard times and all, bar one, are permanently settled in England. Albeit none of their lives has been made any easier by the fact the majority are lesbian, binary, gay or they've been cruelly dominated sexually.
The narrative spans the last 90 years and is filled with humour, pathos, tragedy and heartbreak. The final chapter springs a surprising twist which brings real happiness to two of the oldest characters. Whilst the youngsters may well face traumas ahead one feels confident their feistiness, vivacity and love of family will see them safely through. Very observant writing, wonderfully interwoven stories and a bold theme make this a novel that, as with its punctuation, breaks the mould and challenges conventional thinking

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this, and when I found it was pretty much full-stop free, I thought I’d find that really off-putting – but no. The stories flow beautifully and we get a snapshot of the lives of 12 different people whose lives are somehow linked, although not necessarily closely. It’s a compelling and fascinating read, particularly when looking into the lives of black women living in the UK at a time when people were more openly racist and generally more conservative in outlook. The strength of the women in rising above this is awesome, the relationships between the characters are vivid and convincing. An excellent read.

This brilliant novel focuses on the lives of several women over the course of the past century. Each has their own story yet Bernadine Evaristo has also linked the characters, sometimes obviously and sometimes obscurely, so that we see them from others’ eyes as well as their own. Whilst many of the characters are based in London, some travel the length of the country and over to the USA.
To say that this isn’t a political novel would not be true; gender, sexual, class, and economic politics all affect these women’s lives and their cultural influences are central to their tales too. However, Evaristo’s skill in making the reader see the person first and foremost is one of the many strengths of this novel and why it should appeal to us all whatever our own backgrounds and interests. Her women are warm, witty, passionate and determined. They are flawed, selfish, scornful and opinionated. They feel absolutely real and utterly themselves.
All of these women experience periods of suffering. We see them isolated, discouraged and taken for granted. And yet, this is a joyful collection of stories. Friendships, ambitions, motherhood, work and community allow them to find out who they are and what they care about. Evaristo reminds us that the United Kingdom is a melting pot of multiple ancestries, communities and cultures and all the richer for being so. As one of her most confined and uptight characters recognises on the last page of the novel:
‘this is not about feeling something or about speaking words
‘this is about being’
Read this novel. It is an important and relevant reflection of our times, sometimes sad, sometimes troubling, often funny. Whilst acknowledging that we are living in an ever more complex world, Evaristo celebrates our capacity to rise up in so many different ways.
My thanks to NetGalley and Hamish Hamilton for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

Thank you to netgalley and Penguin books for the opportunity to read this prize winner! It took me a while to get into Ms Evaristos' style of writing, and I'm not sure that even by the end I particularly liked it or found it easy to read..However, I did enjoy the interlinked reflections of the life of black women in the UK from different eras with different problems and solutions.

I absolutely loved this book. I was worried I would find the almost poetic style disruptive, but I got used to it very quickly and felt it really added to the stories. It seemed to make the narrative flow more easily. I loved how all of the stories ended up being interconnected in different ways. It was a book that really made me think and really absorbed me. Probably the best book I’ve read this year.

Many thanks to the publishers for my review copy.

Absolutely loved this book. The first three characters stories were meh for me, just felt like typical London people being so different. But the rest of the stories? Wow. Shirley, Carole, Penelope, Morgan and the lady from Barbados their stories felt so real and rich that I was blown away. I wanted to hear so much more about them and I really just enjoyed reading about them.
I wasn't a fan of the crossed paths at the end but it wasn't something I hated either. Regardless this book has the substance, grit and emotion I never knew I wanted.