Despite still carving out a lot of time for reading, I find I miss one-sitting books. There's something magical about sitting down to read a book and finishing it before you get up again. So when I decided to read Women, I strategized. I wanted to read it one sitting. I picked a night when Mr. Nomadreader was working, and after I put Hawthorne to bed, I sat down with a glass of wine and this novella. An hour later, I paused because I didn't want it to end. This book had different ideas for me.

I put off writing this review for months. Sometimes when I love a book so much, I find I have little coherent to say about it. This novella made me feel like I was falling in love with a writer and a character. I confess to always being fascinated by what's 'true' and what's not, but in Women, I didn't really care. If Caldwell was writing about her own experiences or fictional experiences, it didn't matter. The emotions and actions on the page were so real, I felt comforted. This is a novella that made me feel like I wasn't alone in the world.

Favorite passage: "There is so much out there I don't know, never knew, have to learn, will never understand."

The verdict: Women is a bold, honest, raw novella. It's ostensibly the story of one young woman and her experiences, but there's a universality to Caldwell's prose I could not shake. Women changed me. It connected me to this fictional character in a beautiful way.

This is a nice and well written novella, but I think this book would've worked better as a novel. The themes were interesting and exciting. This book kept my attention and I liked the main character.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I'm surprised this missed my radar when it was first published, but I'm glad it found me now. This was a quick and compelling read about a hot and confusing queer love affair. Very relatable. Anyone who has ever even considered queerness should probably give this a read.

Super quick read! Blocked each other on goodreads!!! Even though this book was short I feel like it showed some much in such a short time.

I liked it! This book is a fairly quick read that delves into some really interesting topics, and I did tell a lot of my friends about this book once I was finished.

an interesting and compelling look into the psyche and life of what it's like to be a woman. also what it's like to have complex relationships with women in your life.

this one was truly a captivating piece of work. I would highly recommend this book to all women. This book left a profound impact on me and I see myself reaching for it for years to come.

‘Women’ by Chloe Caldwell is a novella about a woman who falls in love with another woman for a first time, and the drama and obsession that ensues. It seems to be a classic in the lesbian community, with a rich history of copies of the book shared between lovers and friends alike. I found the story to be interesting enough to want to see it to the end, but I did not fall for Finn or the main character in any meaningful way. Unfortunately I don’t think that it will leave a lasting impression. But I thought that it was well written and relatable to many women. It captures this specific kind of all consuming love very well (or is it love, really?) that just takes everything out of you and consumes your entire life. It’s a staple and I’d recommend it to any lesbian or queer woman feeling heartbroken.

I wish I liked this more than I did. Early into the book I was riveted, but by about 60% it felt like it was getting repetitive without adding depth or nuance. I felt detached from the characters and not at all invested in them.

It feels clumsy at times in pacing and plot in a way I might accept or excuse in a memoir, but knowing it’s fiction I wish it had another round of edits or pair of eyes on it.
The messy long-term breakup that makes up a portion of the book feels at times like a series of bullet points, with minimal emotion or clear reason why a character will suddenly start or stop talking to the other over and over again.
I wish I felt more emotions and less like I was getting a neutral update on interactions. I wish I felt their obsession and got wrapped up in it.

I’m glad this worked for many people, but if you’re looking for F/F toxic relationships and relationships with power imbalances and the breakups and recovery were handled, I’d highly recommend “We Do What We Do in the Dark” by Michelle Hart and “In the Dream House” by Carmen Maria Machado.

I received an ARC from NetGalley. My review is my honest opinion.

Lovely novella full of heart and wit. Caldwell's prose is so mystifying and impressive. I really enjoyed this short book and will recommend it to friends and customers !

The book is inspiring and moving. Author has splattered light about the most important aspect of life. The book is about self discovery, identifying yourself, and accepting it. The writing is poetic and compelling. Such a beautiful book.


Many thanks to the Publisher and Author

I'm so obsessed with this book it left me speechless😭 and feeling so seen.Shoutout to Harper Perennial for the reissue! It makes me wanna go out and be unapologetically sad and gay lol. "I watch stand-up comedy each night while waiting for the melatonin to kick in" This clocked me so hard! Def one of my fave reads for 2024

Women is a short book, but it packs a punch. It follows a writer through her year spent in New York in the early 2010s as she navigates young adulthood, her sexuality, and relationships. She meets Finn and the two begin an obsessive, tender, and toxic affair, as Finn is in a long-term relationship. The novella has a really strong sense of time and place and allows the reader to get deeply inside the head of the narrator. It is perfect for anyone who enjoys books about relationships or character studies.

This was a very interesting read and not quite what I was expecting. This is actually a republishing the first having been published in 2014.
The nameless protagonist is in her twenties and is at a point of rediscovery in her life. She has published a book and moved to a new city, but she really doesn’t know who she is. Shortly after moving she meets an older woman named Finn and thus begins the most toxic yet intense relationship she’s ever had. Throughout her teen years she often wondered about her sexuality and her passion and infatuation with Finn help her discover more about herself; it also helps her face the homophobia she has towards herself. We are right beside her during this year of self-discovery and have a front row seat watching her finally discover who she is.
I am most likely not the right audience for this book but I think someone who is would benefit from reading it. I think most late teens to early-mid twenties go through a period of not really knowing who they are and I feel this novella gives the permission to some need to allow themselves to try different things- whether it be moving to a new place, getting a new job, or even exploring their sexuality.
While this is a novella, it reads more like a memoir and I have a hard time believing Chloé Caldwell isn’t the nameless protagonist. Regardless of who the protagonist is she’s someone from who older teens and young twenties can learn a lesson.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for an advanced copy of this Women hit the shelves (again) on June 4th.

This novella about a woman embarking upon her first queer relationship (an affair with an older butch woman) apparently has cult status among queer readers everywhere, and I can see why - it’s a very well-written “woman vs. the void/sad girl lit” story which makes the genre’s often-subtextual queer desire into text. The main character is extremely well-realized and extremely frustrating to read about; the central relationship feels really authentically queer, even (especially?) in all its flaws. This will definitely appeal to anyone who had formative experiences with lesbian media like “The L Word.” I’m not sure it was exactly the right fit for me as a reader, but it was short and very engaging, and if it sounds up your alley, I would say it’s worth picking up!

Thank you to Harper Perennial and Netgalley for the advance copy!

An interesting lil novella on sexuality and toxic relationships. I see some reviews critiquing the stereotyping and view on same sex relationships... but I think it's a bit unfair to argue that this isn't a very real corner of the community. Enjoyable but I'm not sure it brings anything new to the topic. However, the size was perfect for the style.

〝I am facing the wall. I say, I need to change the way I live my life. she says yeah, or she says nothing. I do not remember.〞

★★★.5

thank you to harper perennial and netgalley for providing me with this arc.

women is a novella about falling in love with a woman, about loving women, about being a woman. it is a novella about a mother and a daughter. a novella about female friendships that blur the line of romance. a novella about a woman who, after having her first sexual relationship with a woman, goes on a series of (comical) online dates with other women. a novella about a woman in her twenties who doesn't know if she's gay or straight or bi. a novella about falling in love and having your heart broken and figuring out what to do next.

if you're a woman in your twenties or early thirties and feel like you don't have your life together; read this book. if you're confused about your sexuality; read this book. if you're new to a city; read this book. if your heartbroken; read this book. if you want comforting advice from a big sister; read this book. if you're sick of all the romance books and want a quick beach read; read this book. and if you want to get into nonfiction but if feels daunting; read this book because it's actually fiction (??).

I think everyone and anyone would enjoy this book and I think everyone would take something different from it. I loved it as a quick and comforting summer read with the takeaway that you don't have to have everything figured out right now. you can be a successful published author and everything can still go to shit. it's honestly a bit mind boggling finding out that it was all fiction because it truly read like nonfiction in the "everything I know about love" sense and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it was mislabeled on my tracking app because I will continue to label it as nonfiction in my head.

I don't have much else to say about it because I truly think it's best to go into this completely blind plot wise but I really enjoyed it and I think a multitude of other people will love it too. it was vague, comforting, dramatic, sad, relatable, interesting, informative and funny in all the right places and all the right doses and I really loved all the literary references and quotes throughout the whole thing. let's just say that my tbr grew while reading this instead of shrinking and I absolutely love that it gave me so many new book recommendations. it feels like I opened a new chapter instead of finishing a book.

ig: @winterrainreads

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

If you’re going to take away one thing from the book - it’s that girls are meanest to themselves.. and certainly it shows up in romantic relationships, friendships, or internalized.

I enjoyed this book a lot but it slammed me right in the feels. This book was quite toxic but for that reason I binged it! There is a lot to unpack in this novella but I was floored by the toxic push/pull of these women. LGBTQ themes, sexuality, mental health rep, and also be warned about cheating, internalized homophobia, and substance abuse. The main character working on boundaries with Finn was just heart breaking but also very relatable if you’re in therapy. Highly recommend reading this novella during release month (which is also pride month!)

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book!

Women is a book about identity, self-exploration, obsessive attachments and grief. It made me feel such a range of emotions and I can’t decide which one of those would describe my opinion the best.

I think what really affected my experience of reading Women was the main character herself. It felt as if we never explored her life and her thoughts completely, especially since she is a writer. Everything felt as if it was left at the surface level so I couldn't fully empathise with the fmc at all. After a point, I started feeling like the author wanted the reader to feel bad about their mc but there was no rational reflection or contemplation by the mc on her own actions; if the tone of the book is reflections on a past relationship, I believe it was fair for me to expect that. The characterisation did not set well with me in this regard.

Further, the fmc’s exploration of queerness and queer culture felt so out of depth? Even her conversations with other queer characters about her identity was just non-existent. The book is clearly about coming into being within one’s identity so this was kind of lacking. At the same time, I wish we explored Finn’s story more but I understand that this is a novella, and going into so much detail wouldn’t have been possible.

However, I will say that the way the mc and Finn’s relationship panned out made me miserable? I was constantly sad as the book progressed, and also mad at the same time. We know from the get go that their relationship is extremely toxic and the mc alternating from one addiction to the other did not help this at all.

Mostly, I wish the book was more substantiated because as much as I love no-plot-just-vibes books, I don’t particularly like it when books give you nothing at all. I wasn’t aware of the cultural relevance of this book and by the end of it, I enjoyed reading the author’s reflection on writing and publishing Women (the book was published in 2014) more than I enjoyed the book in itself; or at least her reflections are what I’ll be keeping with me more than anything else.

This book had a lot of good and not-so-good parts for me. I did enjoy the exploration of bisexual and sapphic relationships and the beginning to understand oneself or at least starting to take that journey and how that can affect someone in ways that aren't always positive as they have internal and external factors that can change the way their perceive themselves, their sexuality, identity, and the relationships they are in. It was a fast-paced book that kept you engaged, but I found at some points, the fast-paced nature of it caused characters and interactions to be rushed. I was very intrigued by the character of Sabine and her relationship with our main character, but I found it to be so rushed that I didn't get to fully understand the importance of their relationship to her development. I also found that the ending was a little abrupt. However, I did find that the relationship with Finn and the ups and downs were better paced and was an interesting dynamic because it didn't shy away from showing both the toxic and very real sides of their friendship/relationship. It was a good novella, and I did enjoy it; I just wish there was more development of side characters and how they affected our main character because their intros were so powerful, but they didn't continue throughout their times in the story.