What an ode to girlhood, unpalatability, selfishness, freedom, indecency, and taking up all the space in a room. The girls and women in these pages were by and large deeply unlikeable, hugely flawed, and certainly impressive in their sheer audacity. But damn if I didn't fall in love with them all and find them complex and compelling and even sympathetic. The relationships between them were also absolutely delicious with everyone locked in a twisted mirrored dance, I could honestly spend days talking about them (and sure took pages of notes about them) but for the sake of the review I'll just leave character commentary at this: I'm obsessed.

As far as the more technical aspects, the structure of the book was so fun with quick chapters (with titles!) and snappy simple cadence that just made it extraordinarily readable. Also so much rich imagery, metaphors, and even a dip or two into something approaching magical realism that I adored. The narrative voice I also thought struck such a good balance of scathing critique and deadpan sarcastic comedy. There's a ton of social commentary through this book hitting at class and gender with absolutely zero attempt at subtlety, and that really worked for me. I think in general my most appreciated aspect of this book was how well it layered satire and sincerity, where there was so much terribly and laughably wrong and yet so much keenly right, and all of it on the nose. Several featured characters obviously took inspiration from historical figures, but unfortunately I'm not very well versed in them so I'm sure a lot went over my head, and I do wish there was an authors note or something to get to dig into that more.

Finally, the plot itself was really solid too, for each thing I saw coming there were probably 3 others that had my jaw physically dropping. Especially the last 50 or so pages were exhilarating with tension that had me on the edge of my seat and twists and reveals that were both shocking and yet made complete sense once they happened, and which offered a totally new lens to the story. We end in a very different place we start, but I think I'm okay with that. In general everything was always looping back onto itself - reflections were a huge theme - so I feel like if I reread the book I'd get to find so many more parallels and passages in conversation with each other than I did on this first pass.

Just a really rich and ambitious book; I thoroughly enjoyed it and will almost certainly be returning for another read. "I support women's rights and wrongs" may have feasibly been the mantra and guiding light for this book, and I'd very much recommend it to all others who appreciate that sentiment.

never have i read anything quite like this and i fear i need more ......

reading this felt like a fever dream i never wanted to wake from. you know when a book is soooo good, it's like you've been wandering the desert for a while and suddenly there's ice cold, crisp, delicious water right in front of you that came out of nowhere and you're not looking back!

i love when women are deranged and evil and obsessive and boy did this book deliver it all to me on a silver platter.

apart from the utterly unhinged antics, i love the way this book discusses oppressive systems and urges for critical thinking of these systems we partake in from the second we're born. it's hard to believe a book as wild as this one also covers communal justice and systemic change so masterfully.

this is definitely now on my top reads of 2026! i know without a doubt this book will live on in me for a long time to come and i'm so very thankful my library let me experience this.

This book achieves exactly what it sets out to do. It is a satirical depiction of class struggle, revolution, feminine rage, and consuming relationships wrapped in a confectionary, almost fairy-tale-like style. Sharp, witty, provocative, excessive, and completely aware of what it is doing, the novel leans fully into its theatricality and never once apologises for it.

Marie and Sadie are absolutely unhinged in the best possible way. And most importantly, this is how you write unlikable female characters. The novel never tries to secretly redeem them or convince the reader that they were good all along. They are obsessive, manipulative, selfish, cruel, intoxicating, and completely addictive to read about because of it. Their relationship is messy, consuming, toxic, fascinating, and impossible to look away from.

O’Neill’s writing is wonderfully strange. It feels lyrical, dreamlike, unsettling, and at times almost feverish, with a dark fairy-tale quality running through the entire novel. The contrast between the whimsical prose and the disturbing subject matter creates an atmosphere that feels both beautiful and deeply uncomfortable. There’s something almost decadent about the way the story is told, like sweetness disguising poison underneath.

I also appreciated how unapologetically loud the book is with its themes. The symbolism is obvious. The satire is exaggerated. The feminist commentary is direct. But that feels intentional rather than clumsy. This is not a subtle novel, nor does it want to be. It pushes everything - femininity, violence, class, obsession, sexuality, power - to grotesque extremes in order to force the reader to sit with them.

Weird, shocking, clever, unsettling, and compulsively readable, this is a story about power, desire, privilege, and the intensity of girlhood. If you enjoy character-driven stories filled with messy women, toxic relationships, feminist themes, and beautifully written chaos, this is absolutely worth picking up.