A review by lalilureads
Promising Young Women by Caroline O'Donoghue

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.