Ceecee's Reviews > The Change

4.5 rounded up

This is marketed as 'Big Little Lies' meets The Witches of Eastwick ...oooh yes please! Let's chuck in three amazing women of an 'uncertain age' and create a feminist revenge fantasy in a great setting of Mattauk, NY which is utilised masterfully in the storytelling.

It starts in April with a view of 256 Woodland Drive, once an object of covetous desire but it's now neglected and abandoned, its owner harriet Osborne hasn't been seen since early November. However, don't worry, Harriet is fine, let's just say she's been developing those green fingers hidden behind some pretty spectacular plants. harriet has always been a driven woman but now her drive takes a different path. Harriet teams up with former nurse Nessa James who hears the voices of the dead and gym owner Jo Levinson who utilises her furnace like hot flushes and strength in an almost super human way. These three phenomenal women are on a collision course with some of powerful inhabitants of Mattauk and they wreak their own brand of havoc for the best possible reasons to take down the rot at it's core.

I love this book right from the start, what an incredible premise. The three central protagonists are amazing, the stand out is Harriet whose portrayal is simply phenomenal. Jo's daughter Lucy will definitely be a kick ass adult, she's that as an eleven year old! Some of the dialogue is brilliant and makes me hoot with laughter it's so clever. However, there is a very dark side to the plot and you shout encouragement from the literary side lines.

I love the feminist vibe too, so much the author includes resonates in my own working life - should have channelled my inner Harriet! The storytelling flows, it's very well written, there is never a dull moment as the plot deepens with many twists and turns. Some of the imagery as we wend our way to the end is mind blowing and eye boggling it's so creative and inventive. I like how the author gives a voice to the victims we often forget but remember the perpetrator.

I daresay the ending mirrors a recent real life situation a bit too closely but I guess also that's what makes it realistic.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to HQ for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.