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Once I started I could not stop reading. I found the story compulsive and kind of suffocating. The husband was so appalling - so self righteous, so unreliable, so unappreciative - I kept thinking “how dare he?”. I was beyond anger and into claustrophobia. While her relationship was outside my experience (and I recognise more than ever how lucky I am in mine) the description of caring for a small child was very relatable. #ToB2025 👇

A reckoning of two people and a marriage in a pool. Well done!

I read this in a constant state of fury. The story of a woman in a marriage who gives up her career and her sense of self to man who belittles her and refuses to acknowledge her contributions to their lives and his own neglect. My blood was boiling but I couldn‘t look away . I saw so many things in Jane‘s marriage that I have observed in relationships around me. Another book I wouldn‘t have picked up without the #tob25.

Early on in this novel one of the female protagonists says in relation to marriage and divorce: “And if it‘s too easy to get out of, who‘d bother trying? […] In my day the worst thing you could imagine was being unmarried - you just went with the first fellow who asked you.”

This is a character study of what happens when marriage is the only option. How does this influence the women, the men and their children?

An amazing read

I loved the first 2/3 and the very end but the last third dragged and I kept wondering how it was going to end. It's a cool idea, though, to get a look at all the lives you could have had, had you made different choices along the way.

Didn‘t hate it, didn‘t love it. I‘m confused on how to rate this short book. It takes place during the FMC day in the pool. One day. Yet it reminisces upon past years. The storytelling is unique, fascinating in an odd way, though it doesn‘t go deep. As of such, I just don‘t know how I feel about this slow around the bush way that we find out this great family is falling apart.

The first half of this book could have been pulled straight from my life and I suspect a lot of women will relate and cringe. It was almost hard to read but then the second half moved away from what I would consider standard ways patriarchy shows in heterosexual relationships and towards how that extends in combination with a narcissistic spouse. I LOVE a book where you get to just hate someone and there‘s nothing redeeming about John here.

Do you want to know what it feels like to be metaphorically boiled alive? This book is doing that for me and I suspect any woman who‘s dated a man will relate to the quiet sinister parts of patriarchy in a relationship displayed in this book.

A book, a cuppa, and a quiet house (for a while). Ahhh Sunday, you're the best. 💜

That husband! He is really the worst, she must have lied to herself a lot to stick with him through all the years. Giving up her career and her freedom and it‘s never gonna be enough. I felt for Jane and for the child and I totally understand her anger.
Very well written and in parts recognizable and uncomfortable. Another light pick. #ToB25

📷 My hotel room 🤩 on Tenerife, Canary Islands