Reviews

Promising Young Women by Caroline O'Donoghue

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tmlore's review against another edition

5.0

Honestly I picked this book up as a mistake. I was looking for “Promising Young Woman” (from the recent film that came out.)
But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and once I started I couldn’t put the book down.
The author I would like to congratulate on such wonderful work.
The editing team as well, did a fantastic job.
I found no errors in this book. Errors often catch my eye and distract me from the story, but if there were errors, I didn’t see them!
Truly, truly, thank you to Caroline O’Donoghue for writing this novel.
Thank you to everyone who made it happen. I know there are teams behind books that help them see the light of day, and I am thankful for all of them.
Without spoilers I can’t say all I’d like to, but I truly enjoyed this novel. The perils that Jane faces are so true.
Just stunning work!

cecereads__'s review against another edition

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4.5

I read the first chapter, then decided I was more in the mood for a mystery so I read Kala (loved it). Then I came back to this one, and I’m really surprised how I just kept turning the pages. (We all know that sometimes a book can drag and you just need to reach that next chapter to take a break) - well, I didn’t expect that this would be the very opposite. The writing was excellent; I raced through it. Even though I’ve read similar books in terms of the premise (office setting, three female friends-ish, younger woman/older man, a twenties London girlie, you get it), I was still so gripped by this one. And yes, I’m sorry for sounding so surprised but I had such high expectations for the Rachel incident (unfairly so) and went in with none for this one. I just know that Scenes of a graphic nature is fully calling my name now (from the shelves bc ofc I got these two after reading the Rachel incident bc I still really enjoyed it! - Just thought it’d be a five star and a bit different than it was).
Anyway, really loved the writing and the story was told so well imo, I couldn’t look away

Content Warnings

hjf95's review against another edition

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dark funny sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

lalilureads's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was another amazing character exploration of a lost woman in her twenties who gets into a big old mess. I loved the exploration of womanhood and the relationships between women and other women as well as women and men. The ending was hard-hitting and emotional and I might have shed a tear on the last page.

My only point of criticism is that I couldn’t fully grasp Jane’s physical and emotional breakdown throughout the book. I understood “right, this must be emotional and isolating for her to have this secret” but I felt like it wasn’t properly shown how that emotion and isolation developed and affected her until it straight up imploded.

I read this book right after The Rachel Incident so I think it is kind of inevitable for me to compare the two. While this was still a great book, I do feel like what I liked about Rachel, the fact that she felt so real, just wasn’t completely reached with Jane. Still, I highly recommend this book and will definitely check out the author’s other works too.

fricka's review against another edition

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4.0

Audio

lydiahephzibah's review against another edition

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3.0

Setting: UK
Rep: n/a

This was very meh for me. I'd heard tons of hype and eventually decided to try out the audio but I just don't get the mass appeal. It's mostly a very messy protagonist being very messy, and I didn't like her enough to care. I also felt that the book couldn't decide if it wanted to be chicklit or some kind of low grade domestic thriller? The vibes were a bit off.