These Women: A Novel

Product Description

A Recommended Book FromThe New York Times Book Review * The Washington Post * Vogue * Entertainment Weekly * Elle * People * Marie Claire * Vulture * The Minneapolis Star-Tribune * LitHub * Crime Reads * PopSugar * AARP * Book Marks * South Florida Sun Sentinel
From the award-winning author of Wonder Valley and Visitation Street comes a serial killer story like you’ve never seen before—a literary thriller of female empowerment and social changeIn West Adams, a rapidly changing part of South Los Angeles, they’re referred to as “these women.” These women on the corner … These women in the club … These women who won’t stop asking questions … These women who got what they deserved … 
In her masterful new novel, Ivy Pochoda creates a kaleidoscope of loss, power, and hope featuring five very different women whose lives are steeped in danger and anguish. They’re connected by one man and his deadly obsession, though not all of them know that yet. There’s Dorian, still adrift after her daughter’s murder remains unsolved; Julianna, a young dancer nicknamed Jujubee, who lives hard and fast, resisting anyone trying to slow her down; Essie, a brilliant vice cop who sees a crime pattern emerging where no one else does; Marella, a daring performance artist whose work has long pushed boundaries but now puts her in peril; and Anneke, a quiet woman who has turned a willfully blind eye to those around her for far too long. The careful existence they have built for themselves starts to crumble when two murders rock their neighborhood.
Written with beauty and grit, tension and grace, These Women is a glorious display of storytelling, a once-in-a-generation novel.

Review

”
These Women doesn’t hinge on the killer’s identity or the logistics of catching him. Instead, the central question is whether anyone will ever listen to the women, victims or survivors…. In fine-tuned and affecting prose, Pochoda captures the women’s voices, the way they use cracked humor or street smarts as coping mechanisms.” —
Los Angeles Times

“Pochoda stuns with this disquieting literary thriller rife with descriptive street language and violence. It is complex, intense, and enthralling.” —
Library Journal (starred review)

“
These Women is full of resilient and undaunted characters that society often doesn’t give a second look to. But Ivy Pochoda does and in these pages she gives us the small story that grows so large in meaning and emotion as to transcend genre. It tells us how to look at ourselves and at what is important.” — Michael Connelly, author of
Fair Warning

“These Women is a gritty murder mystery with a feminist twist. Ivy Pochoda’s LA-set noir is the perfect summer read.” — O, the Oprah Magazine

“Ivy Pochoda is the empath of the overlooked, writing thoughtful, nuanced novels about individuals whose voices frequently go unheard in the real world…. A feminist-weighted piece of crime fiction…. While serial killers dehumanize their victims, and true crime reportage reduces them to before and after photographs, here Pochoda restores their humanity, giving these women identities beyond their relationship to the killer.” — Los Angeles Review of Books

“Pochoda’s unconventional crime novel probes whom we listen to and why, and whose voices are deemed worthy of being heard.” — Vulture

“Ivy Pochoda’s 
These Women is, to put it simply, brilliant. I usually hate it when people use the term tour-de-force but in this case, it applies.” — Crime Reads

“This stunning, thought-provoking novel set in Los Angeles is about a group of women connected in terrible, tragic ways. The narrative flips the lens of a traditional serial killer novel and focuses light on the women with an unabashed authenticity.”
—
Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Heartbreaking…. This deep dive into the lives of women too often unseen in the shadows makes them vividly unforgettable.” —
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

“If women are the victims in this intricate, deeply f