The Change

 

I received a copy of this release from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Change

Author: Kirsten Miller

Publisher: William Morrow & Company

Release Date: 5.3.22

Publisher’s Summary 

Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick--a gloriously entertaining and knife-sharp feminist revenge fantasy about three women whose midlife crisis brings unexpected new powers--putting them on a collision course with the evil that lurks in their wealthy beach town.

In the Long Island oceanfront community of Mattauk, three different women discover that midlife changes bring a whole new type of empowerment...

After Nessa James's husband dies and her twin daughters leave for college, she's left all alone in a trim white house not far from the ocean. In the quiet of her late forties, the former nurse begins to hear voices. It doesn't take long for Nessa to realize that the voices calling out to her belong to the dead--a gift she's inherited from her grandmother, which comes with special responsibilities.

On the cusp of 50, suave advertising director Harriett Osborne has just witnessed the implosion of her lucrative career and her marriage. She hasn't left her house in months, and from the outside, it appears as if she and her garden have both gone to seed. But Harriet's life is far from over--in fact, she's undergone a stunning and very welcome metamorphosis.

Ambitious former executive Jo Levison has spent thirty long years at war with her body. The free-floating rage and hot flashes that arrive with the beginning of menopause feel like the very last straw--until she realizes she has the ability to channel them, and finally comes into her power.

Guided by voices only Nessa can hear, the trio of women discover a teenage girl whose body was abandoned beside a remote beach. The police have written the victim off as a drug-addicted sex worker, but the women refuse to buy into the official narrative. Their investigation into the girl's murder leads to more bodies, and to the town's most exclusive and isolated enclave, a world of stupendous wealth where the rules don't apply. With their newfound powers, Jo, Nessa, and Harriet will take matters into their own hands...

My Review

All the stars! 

Seriously, ALL. THE. STARS!!!  

I am absolutely RAVING to everyone about this one. This is the kind of book that I've been waiting for--a feminist revenge fantasy featuring mature women. Jo's rage and razor-sharp tongue take down men twice her size, Harriet's unapologetic sexuality and understanding of plants have the town talking, and Nessa can see the ghosts of murdered dead girls. This trio bands together to not only solve the murders that have taken place in Mattauk but to take down the web of people who've allowed them to happen. Seriously, these women are badass! The storylines hooked me immediately, the excellent writing had me flipping pages way past my bedtime and, despite the serious nature of the novel, the witty banter and dark humor are Grade A. The Change is currently holding the top spot as my favorite novel of the year and it is going to take a freight train of a book to knock it out of that spot.