This book takes place in New York in the early 1900s during a time when women had no rights and the suffrage movement was just beginning to gain traction. It is a relatively short novel was situated in time and space with the triangle shirt factory fire and the dire conditions in tenements. The dialogue and narration was overall ok, but at time awkward and the author could have gone into much more depth and didn't quite live up to its potential. That being said it was a good read and I would recommend it to someone looking for a short take on this time period. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

The “Accidental Suffragist” tells the story of Helen Fox, who after experiencing a terrible family tragedy, finds herself a part of the Women’s Suffrage movement in 1910s America.

Oh boy am I disappointed that I didn’t enjoy this book. It tells such a necessary component of American history—the fight for women’s suffrage—but more often than not, I forced myself to continue reading instead of DNFing. We’re thrown immediately into the tragedy that allows Helen to become the “Accidental Suffragist” (such a brilliant concept) without a chance of to build any sympathy for the characters. The quick pace and time jumps continued to make it difficult for me to develop any emotional response despite interesting plot points.

The real historical events depicted within the text are fascinating, and so often forgotten to time, especially the story of the experiences in the prison. But even these chapters couldn’t redeem the novel for me.

This historical novel is set in the 1910s. Main character Helen’s daughter dies in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire at the beginning of the book, and when she is aided at the scene by several prominent suffragists, she ends up getting involved in the cause, with many real life figure appearing in this book.

I haven’t read many books set in this time period or about these subjects, and I’m definitely more familiar with the early suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony than this era, so that was interesting. The writing was kind of flat though, and as is not uncommon for books based on real life events, sometimes had a tendency to proceed in a bit of a “this thing happened, then this thing happened” kind of way. Indeed the chapter titles seemed almost more like an outline!

However, the book did feel well-researched, though I wish it had a historical note at the end as such books sometimes do to clarify how much was real and how much was fiction. But I really did enjoy learning more about it.

It also really makes you realize that as ordinary as voting seems now, it was just a little more than 100 years ago that not only did women not have the right to vote but that it was a pretty radical notion, so we really shouldn’t take it for granted!

1912, women, war and the rights of women are all a major part of this story and Helen is central to everything that is in this book.

The story of a strong woman in a complex and sometimes scary world. She immerses herself in making the world a better place.

A well written, easy to read story of historical significance. Loved the characters, the written, the times, the story. Would highly recommend this one.

Stories about the Women's Suffrage movement in America often captures the tales of the movers and shakers but seldom captures the ordinary women who filled the ranks. These women often paid a high price for their activism and unpaid work. What would motivate ordinary women, working class women, to risk their jobs, their families, and sometimes their health to fight for the right to vote? The Accidental Suffragist tells the tale of a mother driven by grief to work as a suffragist. Helen Fox, like so many other working class women of the time, lived a hand to mouth existence requiring her underage children to work in the factories. When her beloved daughter is killed in the Triangle Factory fire (another important historical event), Helen channels her sorrow and anger into a quest for change--the vote for women. A vote for women is a vote for a fire escape--a motto often chanted by suffragists to lure blue collar women into their movement.

Gichon creates a snapshot of urban life among the working poor when times were hard and people struggled every day to earn a living. Life was not kind to these poor families who lived in tenement apartments and never had enough to eat. Sickness, poverty, unemployment, unwanted pregnancies, cold, and a plethora of other societal ills plagued their daily existence. Often survival was harsh and luck eluded them. The women in Gichon's novel face the dreary reality of their bleak lives, trudging through life every day, hoping for a future that may never happen. Helen Fox knows that education of her children provides the escape they need. But as poverty overwhelms them, her children become pawns in the never ending grind of work. By sheer chance, Helen is befriended by some of the leaders of the suffrage movement and given the chance to work for them. Her dedication to the cause upends her life, forcing her to make choices that cost her emotionally and physically.

Using real life events as the backdrop, The Accidental Suffragist, chronicles the successes and setbacks that defined the movement and those involved. You meet the inspirational women who lead the suffragists on their quest. Helen, as their organizer and secretary, provides an insider's view but also shows the impact on her blue collar life. For the first half of the book, many of the characters seemed superficially drawn, lacking depth in Gichon's narrative. They move through the events without leaving an impact on the reader. Helen's husband comes across as a nice but misguided man. Only Helen's friendship with her hard luck neighbor provides some emotional fuel to the story. Not until the second half of the novel, do the characters develop into a deeper emotional link to the narrative.

As a Women's History professor, I liked the book as a quick, easy read of the suffragette movement and the importance of their mission. The Accidental Suffragist offers a different view often found in the texts and historical novels on this topic. You grow to admire Helen's dedication to the cause as a means of honoring the death of her daughter and insuring a tragedy like that never happens again. The movement gives meaning to her life and a channel for her grief. The storyline differs enough to give an often overlooked perspective that helped define an important era in history. So if you're looking for an engaging historical novel that's a little different, you'll enjoy The Accidental Suffragist.

This book sounded good and I was looking forward to historical fiction with a suffragist era setting but it was just okay for me. The characters were one dimensional and I just didn’t get pulled into the story enough -- even for the main character Helen. There’s a lot of dialogue that seems stilted. The pacing was also off with one point the book tells us a year and a half has passed but then makes reference to the main character as the new girl in the job she’s held for that time and you also can’t really see what has happened or changed in the time between. My interest in the era is definitely piqued but feel like I need to find the right book to satisfy it. I always appreciate getting copies to read and review and thank the author and Book Publicity Services for sharing a copy with me.

how i ADORED this book!!! as a very strong & proud feminist i love anything to do with the suffragettes and their movement. However there was so much more to this book than meets the eye; body positivity, sex positivity; even awareness about birth control and contraception during those times: the relationships and the characters were written beautifully & Helen has my heart always and forever. i would love to see this as a film or read a sequel.

Galia Gichon, The Accidental Suffragist, Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing 2021.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this uncorrected copy for review.

Winning women’s suffrage in America and Britain was an arduous journey, and even then, in both instances the vote was limited to women over thirty, and in Britain a property condition imposed another restraint. Since the centenary of each, fictional accounts of both fights for women’s suffrage have been published in celebration of women’s achievement. The Accidental Suffragist by Galia Gichon is a very worthy fictional companion read to Sally Nichols’ Things a Bright Girl Can Do, a fictional account of the British women’s fight for the vote, won in 1918. In America, women’s suffrage was initially won state by state, but it was not until 1920 nationally women were given the right to vote through a federal amendment to the Constitution. Gichon is celebrating that achievement in her book.

Where the fictional account of the British women’s fight combines the stories of women from different classes and backgrounds, giving each the opportunity to provide a first-hand account, Gichon takes a different approach. She bravely sets her story in the home of a working-class woman, letting the wealthy women with whom she interacts be seen through her eyes. This is a real challenge which Gichon meets with a wonderful character in Helen Fox who indeed deserves centre place. Her eyewitness account delivers a dramatic, complex, and heartfelt novel that is immensely readable, points up the difficulties working-class women experienced that differed from their middle-class companions, but at the same time highlights the similarities on the domestic front. Although there were enormous financial differences, both working-class and middle-class husbands’ expectations as head of the household controlled their wives’ behaviour and therefore their freedom to participate in a movement designed to win them equality.

Real characters such the British suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst are referred to, and Americans such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton provide an even earlier historical perspective with reference to the 1848 Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention. Alice Paul appears, and the fictional Helen Fox joins her in organising and participating in the 8000 women marching upon the White House on President Wilson’s Inauguration Day in 1913. The Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire is another historical event, given a personal aspect through Helen’s experience and subsequent political awakening. The combination of a real event and its impact on Helen’s life resulting in her involvement in the suffrage movement highlights the personal aspects of the tragedy, as well as speculating on the possibility of a general burgeoning of political activity related to such an event.

The development of Helen’s dedication, what it means for her, the Fox family, and her role in her working-class community makes this book a thoughtful account of the movement, and the class and gender relationships that were an important part of the movement then and remain essential to understanding later women’s fights for equality. So, too, is the recognition of the way in which women did not always agree on approaches, forming independent groups to fight for the same cause, coming together at times, and parting to fight for specific interests related to the feminist related whole, still seen in writing about the 1970s to current political endeavours on women’s behalf.

The known historical events and women make an important contribution to The Accidental Suffragist, but it is in Helen’s home and her thoughts that the important part of the novel takes place. Here a woman grapples with her love for her children and husband, and her desire to be truly involved in satisfying work outside her home and family. Helen shows the dilemmas that beset any woman who must juggle her domestic responsibilities, dependence on children to adapt to her working outside the home, and the need to foster her husband’s need for acknowledgement as head of household, and self-worth, sometimes at the expense of her own.

Although I found the writing a little awkward at times, this is an uncorrected proof so am not taking that into account in my assessment. This book has chapter titles – a useful indictor of the topics, and one I appreciate. In addition, the short Epilogue sets out the relevant historical events from 1918 to 1920. For the person unfamiliar with women’s fight for the vote, The Accidental Suffragist provides enough pointers to the historical events and personnel to be a useful source of information. Where a reader knows the background, the development of Helen’s character, her relationships with the women she encounters, her experiences in her home, her community and the political moment that is so graphically described provide valuable insights. Helen Fox is a character whose fictional experiences seem as real as her observations based on Gichon’s research of real events. How easy it is to think of thirty-eight-year-old Helen Fox, the vote won for women over thirty, going to the ballot box to cast her vote as a woman with the right to do so.

A heartbreaking yet empowering story of a wife/mother who worked with the women’s suffrage movement in NYC, dreaming of equality in a very male-dominated society.

💕A very quick and easy read.
💕Great story and family dynamic.
💕Chapter titles! Y’all know I feel about that.
💔Some scenes are hard to read when you think of the prices women shouldn’t have had to pay for the greater cause.

Galia Gichon has written a timely and important work that captures the heart of the women's suffrage movement and pays tribute to the women who committed their lives to the cause. The Accidental Suffragist follows Helen Fox, a working wife and mother who is struggling to make ends meet and balance all the demands of taking care of her family while working in a factory. Gichon shines a light on the terrible conditions, long hours, and little pay Helen and many women and children were forced to endure.

After a tragic event, Helen is presented with an opportunity to begin working for the two parties of suffragists fighting for the rights of women to vote. Thus, she becomes an accidental suffragist and quickly finds herself inspired to be a champion for women's rights alongside Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and other notable suffragists.

The Accidental Suffragist is a great book to read if you have little or no knowledge of the women's suffrage movement. Gichon takes you through the major events from 1912-1919 with the passage of the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote. I commend Gichon on featuring a protagonist from the working class as this adds another layer of complexity to the dilemmas Helen faces in her competing priorities of wife, mother, and suffragist. Even if you already have an awareness of these historical events you will appreciate the enhanced perspective from the protagonist's point of view.
Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy in exchange for my honest review!

Fantastic historical fiction. This is a time period that you don't see highlighted often. Not only was it a fantastically written story that was captivating it is also so so educational! Looking forward to more from Gichon!