Two women, Eleanor and Mary, try to figure out who killed their best friend Nancy in this somewhat predictable mystery. I struggled with this book because I found all of the main characters to be unappealing. Don’t get me wrong, I love a nasty character I can dig my teeth into, but these women just weren’t that exciting.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

The imperfect women of the title are Nancy, Eleanor and Mary, who met at university and have remained friends for 25 years. Nancy is found murdered, and Eleanor is forced to tell Robert, Nancy's husband, that she was trying to break things off with a lover on the night she died.

This was a sad, ugly book, filled with sad, ugly characters. I am approximately the same age and had a similar university experience to the women in this novel and I do not recognize myself or my friends in them, their life choices, or their marriages. I did not believe in their friendship, and there was no warmth in any of the relationships portrayed in the entire book. It became apparent that the women were meant to stand for the experiences of all women, but they very much did not in my opinion.

The twist in the middle became inevitable just before it was revealed, which I suppose was good writing, but the twist at the end was obvious and sad, and I hated the ending, both for what it revealed about Nancy's death and for what it suggested the future would hold.

I am curious about the ownership of the flat with the ferns...

Predictable and slow. The only reason I didn’t DNF this one is because I’m low on reading material. I appreciated the themes in this book, but the execution was not appealing. It’s a shame, I was looking forward to this one.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn’t agree more about the title of the book. The characters are definitely far from the perfect. They’re truly dislikable, insecure and problematic ones! You may not easily connect with any of them. And let’s not forget those inglorious bastards (at some parts they were even worse than Tarantino’s vicious Nazis!) call themselves husbands.

I wanted to start a slapping contest between Robert and Howard the candidates of the worst husband characters in the literature world. I think Howard was the most despicable and disgusting one. (impregnating with one of the woman, marrying with the other, cheating the woman you’re married, iyk! I don’t know if I should hate him more than the women who accepted his unfaithfulness or I scream at the women’s face to advise them have some self-respect.)

So we’re introduced to three main heroines: Eleanor: in love with her friend’s husband, seems like strong and smart but she isn’t!! She gets jealous of her friend Nancy because she got married Robert who she’s in love for a long time even though he didn’t remember the first time they’ve met and she accepted his absentmindedness. ( Oh girl, grow the hell up, wear better big girl pants and move on!)
Nancy is the most freaking one, batshit crazy and more dislikable character between three women. So I never cared about her situation.

And Mary was the most pathetic one, married with Howard who seems like soul mate of Harvey Weinstein, suffering from her own insecurities. I wanted to hold her from her shoulders and shake her till she gathers her wits and learn to show some respect to herself! R.E.S.P.E.C.T. ! ( When I read her parts, I keep on listening Aretha Franklin to cool my nerves down!)

As a result, after brutal death of one of the characters, all those layered, hidden secrets start to emerge and the intercepted lives of those women and two scumbag husbands turn into a whirlwind complex misery. Especially I liked the bomb the author threw on our laps in the middle of the book but you expect more after a big revelation and better, moving, surprising, twisting ending but unfortunately we never get that one because the story’s ending was so predictable.

Overall: I didn’t have problem about the progression or the pacing of the story. Even though I hate the guts of the story, it still picked my interest and I wanted to know its conclusion. But a better and mot so predictable ending would fit better for my needs. So I’m giving 2.5 stars and round them up to 3 and I’m getting out of here to find more gripping story with better characterization.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for sharing this ARC in exchange my honest review.