Dear Miss Metropolitan is not a book that many will label “an enjoyable read.” And yet…. Debut author Carolyn Ferrell has written a daring and engrossing tale highlighting the traumas endured by three teenage girls kidnapped and unbelievably abused by their captor for over a decade.

The first- person narratives later turn to the grown daughter of one of the “victim-girls”and the sadistic captor called Boss Man.

The story is one that will be difficult to understand, yet it kept this reader pondering the motives, emotions, and survival instincts that were hinted at in Ferrell’s innovative presentation.

I appreciate receiving an advance readers copy from Henry Holt and Company, through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I was so compelled to read this book just by the cover alone. Come on…the face peaking out of the side of the cover and the bouffant hair…attention getting, curiosity. I won the book as an ARC from Goodreads and audio from NetGalley to provide an honest review. The (Advanced Readers Copy) is gorgeous with deckled edges, and flapped covers.

According to reviews on LibraryThing, you either loved the book or strongly disliked it, but nothing in between. For me, the book is full of lyricism but it tells the tragic story, gives voice to three young girls surviving an unimaginable kidnapping, according to the author, it’s inspired by real events. Well, inspired by real events caught my attention, and I quickly reflected on the Ariel Castro kidnappings that took place between 2002 and 2004 and held 3 girls captive in his home in Cleveland, Ohio. The three girls were imprisoned until May 6, 2013.

The book will be released for sale on July 5, 2021, and I wanted to finish reading and review this obscure novel before that date. I almost gave up on it, because of its jagged edges of storytelling, but I persevered to read with an open mind, and remembered what the main story is about. The novel inventively tells of the events before, during and after the ordeal. As this is Ms. Ferrell’s debut novel, is comical, chilling, and sad. Note, the pictures throughout the book add an element of unexpected charm.

This is a book that may require two readings to fully appreciate the characters and the heartbeat of the story. The writing style was not favorable to me, however, this was the epitome of creative writing at its core. Note, the pictures and illustrations throughout the book add an element of unexpected charm, but the audiobook was narrated wonderfully by Bahni Turpin, dramatic and clear. I dislike the fact that I have to rate the book, because I feel it diminishes the creativity the author has woven into this multi faceted story. It lost me at many points, but the need to understand remained to the very end.

#DearMissMetropolitan
#NetGalley

Let me start by saying this is an extremely unique book. The writing style is new to me and has been described as innovative by some and experimental by others. I definitely agree with these opinions. Unfortunately, for me it did not work. I made it to 25% in an ARC of this book and was feeling frustrated and lost. The story is nonlinear, leaving me confused in many moments when the story jumped forward or back in time. There are also no quotation marks, leaving you to wonder if things are being said aloud or not. Sometimes there were references I did not understand, entire paragraphs that read like nonsense to me, and many pieces that seemed simply irrelevant. Several reviewers have said the story makes more sense as things come together but I was so lost, I could not force myself to keep reading.

While all of this left me lost and confused, I think there is room for appreciation in this writing style. It is written as a stream of consciousness, exploring the thoughts of these girls who were kidnapped and held hostage. In the real world, the story behind tragic experiences is often hard to unravel for victims - they are unclear about what really happened and what didn't, they struggle to reason, their mind during the tragedy is that of coping. I feel that this book truly demonstrates that tragic mind. You are glimpsing into the rage, pain, and grief these girls face and it comes through the writing.

I would still say others should give this book a try, but they need to be aware up front that it is not traditional writing. The story unravels in a nonlinear, confusing way that requires a lot of focus to read. This book is heavy & deserves full attention and a lot of thought. Pick it up, give it a chance, and let me know what you think.

This book does not use quotation marks. I do not like this style choice. I was excited to read this book but due to the style choices I just couldn’t get into it.

Listening to this book via audiobook was definitely the more accessible move for Dear Miss Metropolitan. I was lucky enough to receive both an audiobook and ebook, but the ebook was super inaccessible to read, so I much preferred my audiobook experience. There were no quotations marks in the writing which was VERY confusing to read, and the formatting was very weird. The random pictures were sometimes interesting to look at, but other times I didn't find much correlation between them and the story.

The way the author handles trauma in this book was super respectful and realistic. I loved the way the author wrote from children's eyes; it's usually a hit or miss when authors do that, and this was definitely a hit. However I did think this book was really disjointed and didn't flow well. Some chapters seemed very random and they never tied together. Some futuristic culture references were a bit cringe to read (COVID-20? COVID-21? None of these are going to/have happened.) Overall I really enjoyed this story, but the mess in flow was very distracting.

Dear Miss Metropolitan by Carolyn Ferrell is a well-written and engrossing read with well developed characterizations. Well worth the time spent reading.

Dear Miss Metropolitan, by Carolyn Ferrell, is a novel of voices. A rotating cast of characters tell a complicated story about hidden horrors. This book is about our failure to notice crimes and bad things happening all around us…and our ability to deliberately not see those crimes and bad things. All of the characters live in (or spend years in) New York. With all those millions of people living cheek by jowl, one has to be selective about noticing or not noticing. We like to think that, if there was a terrible crime being committed near us, we’d do something, that at least we wouldn’t pretend not to see. These and other questions haunt the cast of Dear Miss Metropolitan.

The terrible crime at the center of Dear Miss Metropolitan is similar to what happened to Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight, and Amanda Berry at the hands of Ariel Castro. In 1999, one of our narrators, Fern, is kidnapped by a man she calls the Boss Man. We never really learn his name. Later, another girl named Gwindolyn is kidnapped. Last, Jesenia is kidnapped and joins the other two girls in what the press later calls the Queens House of Horrors. Over a decade, the girls were tortured and raped by the Boss Man. Even when they are rescued, Fern and Gwin carry the House of Horrors with them. No amount of therapy or pharmaceuticals will make their lives right again.

A lot of the book is narrated by Fern, who alternates with an old journalist who later develops senility (I think), Jesenia’s daughter by Boss Man, a group of the journalist’s friends in the neighborhood, and a detective who takes Fern and Gwin back to the scene of the crime in an effort to help them remember more. Back and forth. The 1990s to the 2000s to the 2030s. All of it told in distinct voices that create a chorus shouting at us to think about what we don’t see when we look around ourselves. All of these voices—and the things they say—are challenging. But Dear Miss Metropolitan feels like a book that many of us need to read, so that we can open our eyes to see what’s going on around us, so that we can relieve someone’s misery, solve a crime, and maybe save a life.

I am grateful for the chance to review and discuss this book, it is timely and important, which is, when you read the book, sad to realize. I requested this book after seeing the Henry Holt Publishing Company post about this upcoming release and appreciate that their post lead me to have the chance for this early read.

This book is both easy to read as it is fast paced yet hard to read because it is creatively challenging. What I mean is that this book has multiple perspectives, a dark (but respectfully handled) story based on the kidnapping and trauma of women in Ohio, and has a unique writing style. In some ways the writing style was hard for me to process BUT as I step back to review the book, I see value in how this plot was written, if the story is challenging and hard to process then the writing style should match this. I see the author trying to embrace, but not glamorize or celebrate, trauma and mistreatment of minority women and the writing style resonates with the importance of catching a reader's attention, of giving a space to explore tough topics, and I appreciate how challenges of the topic are perhaps present in how the author writes.

This book will not be for all readers but I think for those seeking to embrace a challenging book and who seek a voice working to highlight complex experiences, unique writing styles, and underrepresented voices, then this book is just right.

Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC. When I started reading, I had the initial feelings of ick that I had when I read My Dark Vanessa, but the author did a good job of describing the trauma without going into great detail. I am very plot-driven, and this book was more about exploring emotions in difficult situations than the storyline. When I finished I was disappointed that I felt nothing had been resolved, BUT also, like in life, things are often left unresolved so that after thinking about it for a while I thought it did end well. The cover should be a lot scarier!

Thank you to Henry Holt publishers and Net Galley for the eARC of Dear Miss Metropolitan by Carolyn Ferrell.

If I have to give an honest review, this one just wasn't for me. Dear Miss Metropolitan is loosely based on the 3 girls who were kidnapped and held in a home for years in Cleveland. The author has a very unique writing style and the book was written in a way that was very difficult for me to read.. The pacing of the book is fast; which I appreciated and the overall story is surely an important one. I appreciate the author for telling writing about such a touch subject matter. As they say; the beauty of books is that there is one for everybody. This one just was not the one for me!

Dear Miss Metropolitan releases on July 6, 2021.

Loosely based on the horrific real life case of the 3 women that were held captive in a Cleveland house for over a decade, this was a challenging read that was more than worth it.

Told from a multitude of voices, and with a unique writing style, Ferrell takes readers on a devastating trip through the lives of these young women- before, during and after their imprisonment.

What’s clear is that the so-called victim girls were already being victimized at the hands of men and society at large even before they were abducted.

This book shows how women are neglected and abused in everyday life but are glorified when they’ve gone missing, are murdered, or become victims for our consumption.

Ferrell skewers NIMBYism - or the idea that bad stuff can’t happen in your backyard. Bad stuff only happens in bad places to bad people. Somehow victims must have deserved it.

The theme of fairy tales is weaved into the novel in a way that it touches every aspect of the book. Ferrell lays open how we raise women to believe in fairytales, and how that plays right into the hands of men who abuse with impunity.

We also get to think about mothers’ complicity in abuse and neglect of young women and girls, and by extension, Ferrell asks, what do we owe each other? Should the neighbors have known? Could they have done something about it?

This novel also celebrates resiliency of survivors but also takes exception to the too-neat idea that victims will always be able to rise above it all. Happy endings are not guaranteed. See my fairytale comments above.

Despite the darkness, there is so much smart humor that brings readers through the pain and out to the other side.

Recommended for fans of ‘ripped from the headlines’ books, true crime aficionados, and readers of books with unique and poetic voices.

This is an odd novel, told from multiple points of view in an almost stream-of-conciousness style. My mind is still trying to wrap around the messages and the plot. The reader experiences the point of view of three victims who had been held captive for a decade by "Boss Man" who demanded that they be "MODEL EMPLOYEES" as well as submit to his abuses and rapes. We learn of the girls lives before abduction and after, in ways that take a lot of deciphering and interpretation. This is definitely not the book for everyone, but it is intriguing and leaves much for the reader to think about.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. I hate to be critical of a book, but this was just a slog. It was incredibly hard to follow and the style made it difficult to even enjoy at all. Ultimately, I can appreciate the creativity, but this just wasn’t for me.

As a Cleveland native, I’m very familiar with the Ariel Castro case. There are many correlations between that case and the fictional case that this book is based around. Three girls: Fern, Gwinnie, and Jesenia are held hostage by a sadistic man we only know as Boss Man. We follow their lives before the abduction, during their captivity, and after their escape. This book has a LOT of experimental stylistic choices, some of which are incredibly bizarre. Everything didn’t work and parts are hard to understand or inaccessible.
For example, there are no quotation marks used, but quotation marks are very useful for showing where dialogue begins and ends. There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense or isn’t fully explained until later, which I always feel is unfair to readers.
A little more than halfway through, the book completely changes. There’s a 30-year time jump, a totally different format, a new narrator, and a new location in Cleveland, OH (a clear nod to the Ariel Castro case). This time jump lends to some mildly sci-fi elements, as it takes place in 2039, and for me, it’s a bit too meta. This is the first time I’ve seen COVID-19 referenced in literature, but because it’s the future, the author also references COVID-20 and COVID-21. This part of the book did not work for me at all. This section also includes 51 endnotes that are elaborated at the end of the chapter. In ebook format, these absolutely did not work and I had to just ignore them.
The author does a good job of illustrating how the girls are stunted from the isolation they experience, though I wonder if this was over the top in places. There are random photos throughout the book that don’t really connect to anything. The constant changing styles makes the entire book feel disjointed. Though it’s well written and thoughtfully crafted, this book was unfortunately not for me. Its biggest flaw is that it’s ultimately not enjoyable.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lives of three girls and how they unfortunately intersect upon being kidnapped and held hostage and made to suffer absolute horrors for many years. Knowing the subject matter you know it’s going to be a tough read and it is when you read what they are put through.
The author is wholly original in how she approached the storytelling. It really is something special.
Much thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co for providing the copy.

A haunting read a book of girls kidnapped and held for ten years.A book so well written that kept me involved turning the pages even though the topic of trauma is a difficult one.A very talented author a book I will be recommending,#netgalley#hebryholt

This was a beautiful book, but not an easy one to read-- not an “easy” ready, that is to say, but should a book about the imprisonment and torture of young women be easy?

I found the author's use of time (and its incongruity), both in and out of the house, to be a powerful tool to show the endless, knowable and unknowable ramifications of trauma and abuse on previous and future generations as well as macro communities at large.

A powerful novel based on a true story worth reading! Three young women were kidnapped for over a decade. This book is a true page-turner. Dear Miss Metropolitan is an astonishing, innovative novel of trauma and connection and survival, and Carolyn Ferrell is a brilliant writer.

Ferrell's novel. Wow. This novel is remotely linked to the true story of the girls who were kidnapped and held hostage by this monster for ten years in Queens. The novel starts out with the readers hearing the stories from the three kidnapped girls. I could read the novel before bed before the kidnapping took place, but not after that. It's a harrowing story. The narrative and way the book is set up is intriguing. Oddly enough, the novel is named after an elderly woman who is an advice columnist, and I wonder if I am missing something, for the book to be named after this character. She enters the story in the last two thirds, when we also jump from 2007 to decades later, and the writing regarding this woman became a bit hard for me to follow (this weighs more on me than the author). This woman lives near the home where the girls are found and she wonders why she missed not seeing anything out of ordinary at the home.

The horrors in this novel are truly sickening. Ferrell does a wonderful job showing this. We learn a bit about Boss Man, the monster who kidnapped him, and learn that his mother would tie him to the tree while neighbor women would tell the mother to treat him better, and we are led to believe that this cycle of abuse carried on because of his experiences, but other than that, we don't learn much about Boss Man.

I liked learning more about the girls in the beginning of the novel, where they had desires and dreams. After they are released, Fern's brother is the only family member who gets involved with these lost girls, and offers them refuge. Don't want to offer spoilers, but I will say the prose is gripping, and pretty much works throughout the novel.

I’m judging a 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

I dunno. My scholarship is about the liminal space between necropolitical nonfiction and fairy tales so I love this beginning so much. Fairy tales seem a good place to explore grief and violence without the more pervasive threat of state surveillance… this beginning is fun “The mother worked the night shift, meaning we only heard her footsteps when dawn was about to crack. Sometimes she crept into our room and pulled the sweaty hair from our faces and kiss-kissed us. Sometimes she straightened the covers, the colonial bedspread, the tiger print throw from Dollar Haven. Slaap, kindje, slaap, daar buiten loopt een schaap. The night sky changed from a purple bruise to a rust-sweet surprise, and we often awoke singing along with her. Een schaap met witte voetjes, die drinkt zijn melk zo zoetjes. We rose, dressed without concern, ignored our bellies, opened the front door. Slaap, kindje, slaap. On a good day people would come up to us on the street and say, Lady, you got yourself some gorgeous kids! We loved that. Yogurt, eggs, fresh Wonder bread from CTown, a pair of Almond Joys—but only if we promised to always listen! I don’t want to tell you kids again! In another life, the mother had been a little Dutch girl—her father wore wooden shoes, just like a fairy tale—and because she had been disowned by him for falling in love with Zwarte Piet, we became her burden, her impossible dreams. To fight the impossible foe. Sleep, children, sleep. The three of us were colored three different shades of dark (think: coconut, fig, and raisin), but people on the street understood we belonged to one another: the mother’s nose was our nose, her crow’s feet ours, too. People would gush: Lady, can I steal one of these kids from you, the pair of them look so daggone cute!”

I need to read more. Now.