3.75 ⭐️
This is a character driven novel with a unique structure. The tragic death of a high school girl is examined through the perspectives of 10 different women and children from a fictional small town in MA. I loved the writing and found myself wanting to highlight multiple passages. I also loved exploring the interwoven relationships between the characters and the dynamics of a small town. I think the novel would have been more powerful with a few less characters since I really wanted to stay with certain characters longer than 1 chapter. I also felt like the ending was too abrupt. Overall I enjoyed this and would read another book by this author in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

I love books like these, with interconnecting characters and storylines. I really did enjoy this one, even though I was left slightly unclear by the ending. I don't think the central mystery had closure, but maybe that's what the author intended. I also didn't really see what the overall message was, or common thread between all of these girls and women, beyond just that they lived through the same event. So while I enjoyed it and it was interesting and easy to read, I was left a bit wanting by the end.

This is quite a unique book, being both a mystery, yet also literary style prose. While the death of Lucy is the central theme, it is more the telling of its impact on ten different people that sets it apart. Some knew her well but others less so. A very interesting book

This book took a little getting used, as it read more like a collection of short stories that occurred around a defining event.
Each chapter focuses on a different female character, who is affected in some way - either largely or peripherally - to the death of a local high school girl.
Most of the chapters were good, but with a couple of the characters, it was hard to remember where they fit into the story.
My favorite part was the epigraph, a quotation by Jean Kerr - “The only reason that they say women and children first is to test the strength of the lifeboats.” I gave an extra star just for that.
Probably my biggest critique was that when a character’s chapter was finished, that was sometimes the last we heard of them (unless there was a passing comment about them from someone else), so I felt like it lacked some closure. All in all, though, I enjoyed it.
Thanks to #netgalley and #sjplit for this #arc of #womenandchildrenfirst in exchange for an honest review.

Really good, interesting and unique. I enjoyed reading this book a lot. I was on the edge of my seat and couldn't put it down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Zando for the eARC.

This was such a unique premise and was so very well done. Loved the multiple POV that shared their experience with the young girls death. So very good.

"Women and Children First" is a stunning novel! Voices, consciousnesses, and experiences converge masterfully. The characters are deftly and fully sketched, yet Grabowski expertly withholds explicit judgment. Grabowski really trusts the reader here, and the payoff really hits.

The story moved along and the characters flowed from one to the next with wispy connections. The tale unraveled quite nicely but didn’t feel complete when it was over.

Women and Children First delves into the lives of ten women in Nashquitten, Massachusetts, after a mysterious death at a house party. The shifting perspectives offer a unique exploration of grief, womanhood, and hidden secrets. While the narrative structure may be challenging for some readers, the interconnected stories make this novel worth considering.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thoughtfully detailed story of many characters bound together by a tragedy. It is colorful and covers many contemporary subjects. I liked the slow reveal of the full story. It was a little difficult to keep up with all the characters, so I did struggle a bit.

The sudden death of a teen girl is the central point around which Women and Children First revolves, but the book isn’t exactly about her death. We see the community and each life depicted through 10 chapters, each centering one woman, 5 “pre” and 5 “post” the pivotal death. The structure is unique and works best when the women closest to the teen, Lucy, are explored, as their stories interweave with one another in a compelling, cohesive way. However, some of that cohesion is lost when the book drifts further from Lucy including, somewhat inexplicably, in the very first chapter. That chapter is interesting and compelling in its own right, but comes across too much as a tool to introduce a secondary storyline rather than focusing on the woman herself. Another chapter in the post section, Rae, falls flat and not only didn’t add to the book for me but detracted from it. I feel like there’s some really great stuff here and a few more drafts could potentially have made this book dynamite, but as it is now; it didn’t quite work for me as a cohesive whole.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks Netgalley for an ARC of this novel. Unfortunately this one didn’t really work for me- it is told from TEN different perspectives and it’s very hard to keep all the characters straight. The writing was good though & I’d likely give the author another shot.

I'm finding it a bit difficult to write a review of this book, because I loved the premise of having 10 different women telling of how they were impacted by the sudden death of a young girl and I felt that it was beautifully written for the most part. However, while the stories did all seemingly weave together at some point, I found it very confusing. I had to keep going to back to remind myself of who particular characters were (thanks Kindle!). This may be because I read this during a busy time in my life, so I didn't dedicate a lot of time in each sitting.

I found some of the chapters very engaging, while others slogged along without ever really going anywhere and they all ended very abruptly. It was difficult to go from one character to the next because you had to totally readjust your mindset, but at the same time remember the characters from the previous chapters. One thing that I found particularly annoying was the author's reference to certain characters not by their name, but by such words as the Founder or the Girlfriend.

I wanted to love this book, but ultimately, I felt like there was no real resolution and that a lof questions were left unanswered. If I didin't have so many other great books to read, I would love to back and reread this to see if it becomes more clear.

I'm not sure why I struggled with this one so much as I usually love multiple points of view in a novel. When a teen dies after a house party, the entire town searches for answers but there are few clues. We get ten different perspectives from the female townspeople, all ranging in age from children to adults. It's nice seeing the vantage points from different ages as we all know how one scene can appear odd to one person and common to another. So while I enjoyed much of it, I just found my mind wandering more than it should.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Folks, this is a beautiful, beautiful book. This story of a girl's accidental death in a small town is told through the perspectives of a dozen or so different characters - all of whom are (as you can probably guess) women and children. Alina Grabowski's debut WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST serves as a reminder that no single tragedy has an isolated impact.

The writing is strikingly poetic but not ostentatious. I found myself scribbling down phrases as I read ("Memory is one of the easiest places to hide" still resonates!) This novel requires an attentive reader to follow the many entanglements between the characters. Be warned that each chapter is only a few days, if that, with a character and there are loose threads galore. This is not a book with resolutions.

If you're drawn to stories about communal grief, coming-of-age angst, and the experience of being a woman in an often uninviting world, this is a book for you. A must read for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance reader's copy. All opinions are entirely my own.

I wavered between a 2.5 and 3 on this one. I liked the premise but found it somewhat confusing. There were too many characters and I felt like I didn’t get enough from each to really make a connection with any of them. At the end of the book I thought “okay what was the point?” Ultimately rounded up to a 3 because of the last two chapters although the end left me wanting more because there were so many unanswered questions. Thanks to NetGalley and Zando for the opportunity to review this ARC.

I went into this book completely blind with no expectations and loved it! The format was so unique with each chapter being told by a new character, their stories overlap but never goes back to the same narrator. I started this as a digital book, but struggled a bit to relate to the characters then switched to audio and the narration was great. If you like a story about a small town tragedy set in a coastal town with intertwined feminine relationships then you should pick it up! Looking forward to more from this debut author!

The description of this book was intriguing to me and I was excited to read it. The story is about the death of a high school student in a small coastal town and how it affects the women in her life. Unfortunately, I found it disjointed and hard to follow. The book was told from 10 different women's perspectives yet I feel like none of the characters were fully developed and the story and characters were cliched. I give this book a generous 3 star rating-it should probably be about a 2.5 star rating.

Thanks, @netgalley, for this chance to read this book.

I have mixed feelings about this book, some parts I flew through, and others dragged for me.
There were a couple of characters I'm still not 100% sure needed to be in the story, and there were a couple I wish I had more to their story.
Overall, I enjoyed it, but it left me a little...meh

WOW! I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS BOOK! WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST by Alina Grabowski had me hooked from the beginning and never let me off the line. I can’t believe that this is a debut.

When Lucy Anderson dies under suspicious circumstances at a house party, some long buried secrets are unearthed while others are driven underground. What happened to Lucy, while the mystery of the story, is not really what this book is about. This one is about the interconnectedness of women in a small town and how an act of violence has cascading effects on these women; from Lucy‘s teachers, to the deli counter clerk, to her friends at the party that night and various towns people, we see race, class, privilege, and grief.

The writing in this novel is so clear and concise and full of beauty and hope. It proves, once again, that we are never truly alone in the world and our lives matter and touch others in ways of which we may never know. This is beautiful to read. I am shocked that it is debut and do not doubt that Alina Grabowski’s name will be at the top of every TBR pile in very short order. Bravo! I gladly give 5 stars for this one, I would give more if I could.

Thank you to NetGalley and SJP-Lit for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.