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Women Are Treated Very Poorly by Men: The Book
feat. Incest & Every Other Trigger Warning

Iffy for me in the first half. I almost didn't want to finish it but I'm glad I did as it picked up later on. Unfortunately very bleak throughout, one upsetting thing after another. Perhaps a little heavy handed/hammy with the symbolism and a bit predictable but the magical touches and the intergenerational connections were nice. I enjoyed reading Altha's POV the most but I cared about Violet the most as a character. Did not really enjoy Kate's POV, mostly because she griped about Simon almost nonstop, a personal pet peeve of mine.

(view spoiler)[The alleged "empowerment" themes from the summary don't really show up until about the last 1/4 of the book, but somehow those parts had the opposite effect for me. Not sure why but basing them on the sudden ability to command the animal magic just made it feel a little too convenient and unsatisfying to me. Very cool, but not empowering imo, I wanted something a little more practical idk. (hide spoiler)]

It did remind me of The Lost Apothecary with the whole “multiple POV’s where one is a vaguely witchy woman of a past generation and another is a modern woman fleeing a romantic relationship-gone-wrong investigating the vaguely witchy woman of the past� setup.

Somehow, through all of this, I grew to enjoy this book. The last third saved it for me.