A 35 page short story...and I regret not DNF'ing it. The whole story just felt clunky and so pointless. It was mostly just musings of this group of older women who potentially had an interesting past but we don't get much infrmation on that. I am unsure if these characters come from a different story but I felt unfufilled and bored of the whole thing.

Cut and Thirst is the latest short story from Margaret Atwood. I really enjoyed the previous one released through Amazon Original Stories, My Evil Mother, so I jumped at the chance to read this one.

This is a story of 3 old(er) women academics and writers plotting a long-overdue revenge on behalf of their good friend. The targets are 9 men - some more deserving than others - who purposefully criticized and attacked her every literary work due to the jealousy of their little group's leader. Of course, the obvious course of action is murder, right? Right.

The story is both thought-provoking and hilarious as the three find themselves debating the evolution of mysoginy, drinking G&Ts and misquoting Shakespeare. This is a very unlikely plot that I loved exploring and the ending was incredibly well suited. There's probably a lesson in there, but I was too busy having fun imagining the three making revenge brownies and planning to seduce people into eating them.

If you enjoy short stories as a format and wonder what old(er) ladies do after retirement with their knowledge of classic literature, feminism and French revolution, give this one a go!

✨ Disclaimer ✨ I received a free copy of this book and this is my honest review.

4/5 ⭐️
First read from Margaret Atwood (I know, I must be the last person on earth that hadn’t read her before!). I really enjoyed this short story, I can’t wait to read more of her books next! Thank you NetGalley fir this ARC

I adore the work of Margaret Atwood, and 'Cut and Thirst' is no exception. It is clever, witty, and to the point- it reminds me of a short version of 'A Man Called Ove', in the sense that they set out to accomplish an irreversible task, but something keeps coming up or getting in the way. While 3 older women ponder the difficulty that murderers face, they bond together over their unified fervor and protection of one of their own. Atwood's quip and writing style is always a pleasure to enjoy.

Three longtime friends gather weekly to sample cheese and muse about their lives as professors. But lately, they've been musing over murdering men who undermined the career of their friend, Fern.

This short story is a lot of fun as it's almost like the Marc Cherry series, Why Women Kill which was an anthology television series about women from different time periods who kill.

Cut and Thirst is a novella that uses feminism as a tool to question the status quo of careers where you never see women; garbage collection, mining, etc. It also uses shows the ugly side of publishing and how competitiveness is often ugly and demeaning when someone believes they're better than someone else.

This was a weird one for me. I spent most of the book confused what was happening and even now, I’m not really sure what I read. I see the underlying purpose of the story and it was an overall interesting idea for a story but it just didn’t hit the spot.

Cut and Thirst is a new short story that was a freebie for Amazon First Reads. I thought this story sounded interesting and I’ve been wanting to read this author at some point.

We follow three older woman who are plan a murder of 9 men. These 9 men have done something to their dear friend and they want revenge.

This book had an interesting premise. I always like when elderly characters are shown as being more than just meek or powerless.

However, there was really no point to this story. It just ended without much of a resolution and the story itself didn’t go anywhere.

I think maybe this story was too short. I think the characters could’ve been built up more. While I didn’t think this story was bad, I didn’t really like it either.

Thanks so much to netgalley and Amazon for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

"Karma's a bitch," says Leonie, "except sometimes it gets the wrong address."

We follow 3 women scheming for revenge for their dear friend. She was wronged, and her friends plan on doing something about it.

This book was super short but definitely packed a punch. It was very character driven, with each woman bringing something different to the storyline. It was a very enjoyable read, and the writing was amazing. It is my first story by Margaret Atwood, but it definitely won't be my last.

It is the perfect book to sit back and enjoy a G&T with.

Margaret Atwood's latest, Cut and Thirst finds a group of retired academics enacting a plan of revenge long overdue. One of their number's work was purposefully and harshly criticized by a group of young men writers held under the thrall of a wealthy man who considered himself a great artist.

Many years have passed, some have taken this collective action as actual literary criticism, and their friends health has declined. The rest of the friend group decides it has been too long with out retribution and make a plan and track down the men writers.

Like any work by Atwood, it is strongly character driven while also pursuing a clear narrative message. It is short, but fun, with a resolution questioning the need to hold grudges.

For fans of short fiction, elders misbehaving, or morality tales steeped with literary references.

Three older ladies plan revenge from old history...
And I think
They forgot
Time itself is the biggest revenge...

Chrissy, Myrna and Leonie seek to avenge their dear friend Fern from eight men, or nine...

The story is too short and I can't say much without spoiling it.
What can I say, except likable quick read?

This very much reminds me of Atwood's The Robber Bride, but there is no complaint, I am a very longtime her reader...

Thank you Amazon Original Stories via NetGalley for ARC. I have given my honest review.

What more could you want than a group of ladies getting together of cheese and G&T's plotting revenge murder? When three retired professors Myrna, Chrissy and Leonie get together and start reminiscing, the topic moves on to their fourth friend, Fern's declining health. Deciding that the decline was directly related to an incident that occurred many years ago, when a bunch of male colleagues undermined her. Little did they know just how hard it would be to plan the perfect murder.

Cut and Thirst delivers hilarious laugh out loud moments and gives you the good time feeling of watching the Golden Girls. Many thanks to NetGalley, Amazon Original Stories and Margaret Atwood for an advanced copy for review. Cut and Thirst is available now.

This was a DNF from me I couldn’t connect with the storyline or the characters. The entire premise was disjointed.

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

⭐️=3 | 😘=2 | 🤬=3 | 🍺/🚬=1 | 15+

summary: three old ladies plan to kill some guys!!

thoughts: this is fine? I’m not blown away, but it’s not like a couple dozen pages of an Amazon original short story was ever going to beat The Handmaid’s Tale or something.

I really like the idea of this group of women taking it upon themselves to put the world to rights. The justice league of the reaching retirement. But I could t understand the choices the characters made and the level (or lack of level) they go to bring justice.

I think the story had enough to it to be a whole book. It gave me How To Kill Your Family vibes but with a sassy, gin soaked group of women with a hit list. But as a short, it didn’t make sense to me.

My final thoughts? There is an idea here but it didn’t come together how I hoped. Whether I was meant to be putting more pieces together myself or if there was a nuance I was missing I don’t know. But this wasn’t for me.

Revenge short and sweet, served cold by your humble waitress Karma. Delightful quick read where misogyny and ego get just deserts, maybe ...

Being a short story, it was a quick read. So ideal if you’re after something to get through super quick. I enjoyed the humour between the character’s and did find parts of it quite funny.

I was a little confused at the beginning of the story. It started quite abruptly, and it took a while to really get what was going on. By the time I’d started to understand and enjoy it, it had nearly ended!

Cut and Thirst by Margaret Atwood was a really entertaining short story.
Witty, fun and definitely enjoyable.

Thank You NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC to review.

I am such an enormous fan of Margaret Atwood and this book did not disappoint.

Cut and Thirst is a delightful short story about female friendship which was a joy to read. I would describe the tone a dark humor, which I love and some parts really had me laughing out loud.

At first I thought I would not be able to relate as the book centers around a group of friends who are no longer in their youth, but I am so glad I gave this story a try.

If you enjoyed Margaret Atwood's other work, I would highly recommend it.

𝐂𝐮𝐭 & 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 is the new short story by Margaret Atwood and one of the new Amazon Original Stories from @amazonpublishing. At only 35 pages long this is a quick read but one that still tells the important event that changed a woman’s life.

Myrna, Chrissy and Leonie are retired professors who meet every Thursday evening to eat posh cheese, drink G&Ts and gossip. Their usual chatter takes a more serious turn when they decide to avenge their friend Fern, who many years earlier was the victim of a nasty smear campaign which knocked her confidence and triggered a decline in health. The men behind the literary attack on Fern were all mediocre writers themselves, who found a non-existent slight against their ringleader reason enough to destroy a woman’s career.

After a long debate on what the best method of taking care of the men that ruined Fern’s career the women find a new respect for murderers deciding that ‘it’s not easy, this murdering business’. Sarcastically known as ‘poetlings’ by the scheming women the most easily accessible of the men is picked as their first target. Of course, nothing ever goes smoothly and their plan goes wrong.

This was a quick and thought-provoking tale of how the literary world is full of people who take offence at the smallest things, feel the need to belittle and put down women’s literature in particular, and think that only one type of art is the right art and anything else is worthless. To me, the women’s desire for revenge is as much for slighted women in general as it is for their close friend, and shows that feminine rage never truly dies but is always simmering just below the surface.

𝐂𝐮𝐭 ＆ 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 is available now on Kindle and is part of the Prime First Reads and Kindle Unlimited selection or on Audible.

Cut and Thirst is a short literary fiction by the beloved Margaret Atwood. It is a humourous tale about retired women in the literary world planning revenge against some men who conspired to tarnish the image of a friend. Quite interesting. Thank you, Netgalley, for giving me this book in exchange for my honest feedback.