This is not my usual genre, but I loved the way that these stories connected to tell the larger narrative of a neighborhood in Los Angeles.

Thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley for my chance to review.

THESE WOMEN
BY IVY POCHODA

This is my second time around reviewing this fantastic new favorite read' of 2020 called "THESE WOMEN," by a masterful new author named, Ivy Pochoda. I am forever grateful to my dear friend Cheri S. for writing such a moving review which you can read here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... Cheri has a discerning eye for choosing books and pulling out moving quotes that make me rush to read the book with her touching reviews. This book blew me away with how much it changed my perception of how we are all collectively as people more of a whole than separate souls. This is a powerful story about women and no matter what they choose as a profession due to circumstances or poverty, that we are all have precious hopes and dreams, and it has educated me not to judge or stereotype all the more. Ivy Pochoda has crafted a slice of culture in Los Angeles that some of the women whose vocations we may judge, but her beautiful characterizations prove that all of us may not be defined by what we do to earn a living. Each person is beautiful at heart and need to be treated as if we matter. I am so grateful to have read this book because I can see more clearly that every single life is precious, and I am guilty as charged for compartmentalizing women who have chosen to make choices that formerly I couldn't understand. This book is valuable in its ability for me to have more compassion in the future, and recognize that nobody deserves to be defined by how they are forced to survive.

Essie is a shining example of illuminating that everyone deserves to be heard and taken seriously. She is an extremely intuitive Vice detective who takes the time to listen, and she sees that everyone she takes a statement from or everyone she questions has inherent value. She was a former homicide detective that because her former partner decided she was protecting Essie about a car accident that Essie's husband caused, has consequences for Essie. Her former partner has been promoted while Essie now rides a bicycle and is not taken seriously because of her height. The LAPD's blue code of silence, and their dismissive of a woman named Feelia as a throwaway victim whose vernacular is off putting, allows an obsessed man to go on to become a serial killer. It started in 1999 with Feelia who is a street walker who survives a vicious attack miraculously but is treated by the LAPD as not important to listen to. I loved Essie who in 2014, fifteen years later sees a link by the patterns described by many women and cares enough to look into the complaints Feelia and Dorian make.

I loved Dorian who owns a fish shack, and how she feeds the starving women who come to her through her alley. Dorian, like Essie sees the intrinsic value in all of humanity-- in all walks of life. Dorian's daughter Lecia was murdered in 1999, after tucking in an 11 year old Julianna in bed, who she babysat for before going out. Dorian has so much compassion for these women especially an exotic dancer that uses drugs to help her cope with the backroom lap dances and performing sexual gratification at the club she works. Julianna tires of the life and goes home to her parents but doesn't heed Dorian's warnings of being careful. Julianna is inspired by art and uses her phone to snap pictures that captures the culture. Ivy Pochoda has changed my compartmentalizing in what these women do to survive with her beautiful and insightful characterizations in this book. She illuminates that Julianna is not defined by her choice to be an exotic dancer by painting a vivid picture making me feel that there is also depth to each of these women. They all have families who love them and are grief stricken or left motherless to fend for themselves without the means of most of us as simply as a roof over our heads and food to eat when we are hungry.

I truly felt for all of these women whose different professions that I used to also stereotype has forever altered my thinking. After reading this gripping and addictive novel while at 496 pages felt like only 200. I devoured it in one sitting and was transformed into being educated that not everyone is as lucky as I am. I was like most of the LAPD who was quick to judge that people who sell their bodies for a living are different and therefore put their suffering out of my mind. I LOVED THIS BOOK and can't wait to read her previous two novels. Even though there is a serial killer targeting these women who make their livings by something I wouldn't do, I saw them as humans just as important and I grew to care for all of them. The serial killer is someone you will never have suspected and there isn't any gratuitous graphic violence. These women are much more important than the aspect of the mystery. They all stole my heart and I cared about them more than the mystery element. They are that compelling and complex. I think a book that has the power to alter my perception and feel warmth for the characters and become so invested in their three dimensional humanity is worthy of great literature. This is a favorite that I will be spreading the word and one I will revisit again in the future. As a fan of psychological suspense I was more impressed with the characters and felt warmth for most of them. Any book that expands my mind is so much more important than suspense. I am on to another book written by this phenomenal author and will be purchasing it when it becomes available on May 19, 2020. That is also my sister's birthday so I will be unable to forget.

Thank you to Net Galley, Ivy Pochoda, and to Harper Collins Publishing for generously providing me with my ARC in exchange for giving a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Publication Date: May 19, 2020

#TheseWomen #IvyPochoda #NetGalley #HarperCollinsPublishing

This is a novel you should go in without reading the synopsis - just know it's a gritty LA novel about the kind of women law enforcement overlooks. You will not be disappointed. Ivy Pochoda is a wonderful, moving writer.

This gritty, inside look at sex workers in Los Angeles is not only disturbing but makes you sympathetic to their plight. Overlooked by society, and shunned by police, they are slowly targeted by a killer in 1999. Cut to 2014 and history seems to be repeating itself.

Another example of how women are dehumanized by society if not in certain social classes. Their murders are not worth investigating because they are not seen as people. So not an uplifting book, but a glimpse into a slice of life you and I might never be exposed to. Pochoda's excellent character development tells each girl's story from a different perspective, which is compelling and sad at times.


All in all, a thought provoking book that gives meaning to the voiceless in our society.

I was very optimistic about the premise of this book. In the vein of other recent books like The Five, These Women tells a story revolving around a serial killer while focusing instead on the women being preyed upon and the people in their lives. It’s rare to see humanizing and sympathize portrayals of sex workers in most literature, and Pochado created several interesting characters caught up in the web of this thriller.

However, as the book progressed, I ended up somewhat put off by the treatment of those characters.

(Spoilers beyond this point.)

We get to know one point-of-view character very well only for her to be unceremoniously murdered with little mention or grief about her in the rest of the book. Many of her friends who are also involved in sex work are portrayed sympathetically, but remained very one-dimensional throughout the story even when they were the victims of the serial killer. The reader is told a few facts about the other victims that are unrelated to their work, but almost every chance to show depth while they are still alive and on the page is passed over. In the end, it felt like this story was more interested in portraying the characters as victims rather than fully fleshed-out people.

While These Women proved to be an interesting, relevant thriller told in excellent prose, I found it difficult to get over the feeling that it could have been so much more.

I started this book and found that it was not for me. I didn't want to rate a book that I wasn't able to finish.

This is a riveting read featuring strong women who face hardship and danger in their own town. While there is a serial killer that haunts these women and roams in the background of the story, "These Women" explores how the women live through their grief, struggles, addictions to fight back against society's expectation of them. With multiple narrators and a strong plot, this book would make a great read for any book club or just for yourself.

Familiar bones of a story (a person looking into a long-ago crime when everyone else has forgotten about it) with a fresh new voice, narrator and setting. A strong story.

For fans of true crime, especially murderinos.

This isn't, thank God, the type of exploitative true crime that's all about the killer (what would drive a seemingly normal man to do x, y and z? how smart must he have been to have hidden in plain sight for all these years? what tragedies must he have experienced to become this monster?).

No--this book is about the women and their stories. The women have names. They have loyalty to each other and their communities, and plans for their lives.

It's what Law & Order SVU should be.

Wow, I loved this book! It was honest and terrifying while also being thoughtful, insightful, and tender. It shines an important light on the lives of sex workers. I can't wait to read more from this author.

These Women completely surprised me (in a good way!). While there is murder and a mystery, what shined for me were the characters and their stories. It shows the harsh reality of how society dehumanizes marginalized women and silences their voices. The topics explored are dark and emotional and intense, but there is strength in the characters and hope in the story. The writing is lyrical and the way Pochoda depicts South L.A jumps off the page.

This is what I would call a literary mystery and something completely different than most books out there.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced readers copy.

I really enjoyed reading this book, the characters were great and I really liked Julianna she was my favorite character. It was a good story.

Gritty but somehow graceful. Really shines a light on how women, especially sex workers, do not receive equal justice when crimes are committed.

QUICK TAKE: looking for a #thriller with some teeth? This is the book for you. Centered around the interconnected stories of 5 women living on the fringes of society in Los Angeles while being pursued by a serial killer, Pochoda’s latest is suspenseful and thought-provoking, and opens the door to complex conversations about class and gender and sex and violence against women. I couldn’t put it down.⁣

I ran an interview with the author of this book in our 11 newspapers and websites. I ran an interview with the author of this book in our 11 newspapers and websites. I ran an interview with the author of this book in our 11 newspapers and websites.

This gritty, dark and disturbing read will show you the underbelly of the sex trade lifestyle. This is the ugly side of the street where women don't matter,and aren't these trashy women worthless anyways... These women are so human, so real.

"These Women" are 6 dismissed women who all, unknowingly,are part of one story with one common element; A Killer

Author Ivy Pochoda does not hold back with this frank, tough and claustrophobic story. Although this is a crime-thriller novel, it's also a platform for recognizing and fighting victim shaming, and the misogynistic attitudes towards female sex trade workers that "had it coming".

This is a must read...but go in knowing it's not for the lighthearted.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins and the author Ms. Ivy Pochoda for the opportunity to read this Advanced Readers Copy of "Those Women". The opinions expressed in this review are mine alone.

These Women was a book that not only focused on murder, mystery, but on character development and highlighting what led the women down the path of sex work. They all had a connection to one man without knowing it. It was interesting to see how it all tied in. While the mystery was predictable, it was almost lyrical the story about why the characters did the things they did.

These Women shows how the women are judged automatically. How they weren’t taking serious because of the profession they had.

Thank you Harper Collins and NetGalley for an advanced copy!

"These women who got what they deserved ..."

Sex workers are being brutally murdered in West Adams, an ever-evolving area of south Los Angeles. "These women" are the lost and broken, the used and abused. And these women are being targeted.

In Ivy Pochoda's new novel, These Women, a serial killer is on the loose, stalking and slaying marginalized women and leaving confusion, fear, and distrust in the wake. These Women shares the narratives of five women close to the crime - the mother of a murdered girl; an exotic dancer living life in the fast lane; a cop trying to make sense of the murders; a performance artist who emulates and exploits the crimes in her work; and a wife and mother trying to make the best life that she can for her family in a city racked with crime and chaos.

These Women is a dark, gritty, and atmospheric piece of literary fiction that utilizes the stories of five very different, but unwittingly connected, women to tell a tale of lust, obsession, and murder. A slow burn kind of novel, These Women starts off strong, drawing readers into the lives of those closely affected by the crimes, and giving a name, face, and voice to the women of the night. The novel begins to lose some steam about halfway through when the story becomes less engaging and inspired, but overall, this book is solid and provides a taste of something different and distasteful to the literary fiction genre.

These Women is a powerful read. The authentic voices of the characters resonate and the reader is helplessly swept away into the struggle of the characters.
Not for the weak of heart or mind, the stories in this book challenge preconceptions. This is not a book that I would recommend for superficial pleasure reading. Instead, readers beware These Women will knock off you out of your comfort zone.

Pochoda doesn't hold back any punches with her writing style. It's almost abrasive which adds to the grittiness of the tale. Ultimately, These Women was a wonderful mystery but a heartbreaking tale of familial bonds.