Great format that allows you to drop in and out of the book, with lots of powerful messages to take away. A little something in at least one of the stories, for surely every woman to relate to.

I can sympathise with the woman you was fed by the ducks, and there are definitely times when I would have loved to be swallowed up by the floor. Some of the stories were interesting and felt relatable to me, but too many were just a bit too weird and silly. There were quite a few repetitive themes and it seemed like they were saying that all women feel incomplete without babies.
I was disappointed by this book as I usually love this author's work.

Thank you Netgalley for this review copy.

Im sad to say this book wasn't for me. I get the point of the book and love the short story concept, but as I said.. I'm sure it was me and no the book itself what made me give it a low rating.

Some stories were indeed funny, some others I couldn't see the point at all.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book of short stories. They’re all stories about women who are unhappy about some aspect of their lives, have lost their way and are working out how to get back. They’re all a bit magical realism, and just plain fantasy sometimes (this is not a bad thing for me, by the way!), and ‘Feminist Aesop’s Fables’ kept popping in to my head. It’s definitely a book to dip in to, and I did so whilst reading other books - I could see that reading all of these in one go could be overwhelming.

I think that these stories have a bit of something for everyone. I didn’t enjoy all of them, but I did have my favourites: The Woman Who Grew Wings is about a woman who flees her country with her family to live in the West, and the negative attitudes of the other mothers at the school gates (they’re not nice people) - this brought me to tears actually. The Woman Who Was Swallowed Up by the Floor and Who Met Lots of Other Women Down There Too - because who HASN’T had this happen to them at least once in their lives?! The Woman Who Ate Photographs was another tear jerker about how visual prompts (the photos) can bring back feelings connected to smell, touch, and the memories of our children before they grew into hairy teenagers (this one did for me, I’m afraid!).

I think all of these stories will resonate with someone.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book to read and review.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting from this book of short stories but I found it quite thought provoking with some interesting twists. I will definitely be reading more from Cecelia Ahern.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy of this title in exchange for an unbiased review.

Roar is collection of thirty short stories, each telling the tale of a woman dealing with challenges. It is a quirky book, with wide ranging appeal, that tells the stories in such a way to make you laugh, cry but mostly think…… and then think some more.

I believe the type of stories here will have readers viewing them from their individual perspective – friends may get something totally different to you from reading the same story. For instance I could identify with some whereas others were not quite my style whereas others who have read this book feel differently. That is what reading is all about after all. We all delve into a book to get our own little piece of another world….

Overall the book is very well written and enjoyable. I would recommend this to friends who enjoy short stories rather than full length novels. Due to this being short stories I missed the gripping urgency I enjoy when reading a book and need to know what happens…. I kinda missed that feeling with this one.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this collection.

I love Cecelia Ahern, I love short stories, and I love fiction that focuses on women, so I was very excited to receive this book!

The stories are just as excellent as I had hoped, covering a wide range of issues and offering some interesting insights on what it's like to be a woman in a variety of different situations. Most of them have a moral to them or a deeper meaning, but they also work as quick enjoyable reads in their own right if you're not in the mood to get analytical.

I do feel, as one of the other reviewers here mentioned, that the central characters in each story could have been a bit more varied, as they started to feel a bit uniform after I had read a few. However, overall this is a fab collection that I'll be sharing with lots of my female friends.

These stories from Cecelia Ahern are a departure from her novels (which I have a lot of time for) and they are chilling. If you look at the list of the stories, some of the stories are a literal as their titles suggest. The stories underline how women are invisible, whatever age: invisible once elderly, put to one side once married.
My one bugbear would be that the characters were all uniform. There was not a great variety in there.

Perfect. Short stories are not my favourite but I loved these, and they give you plenty to think about without leaving you mystified. Just what I didn’t know I was looking for!

Cecelia Ahern is a fantastic author and not one of her books have ever let me down! This is just as good and is a wonderful collection of stories. Highly recommended #Roar#NetGalley

‘’I’m here, I’m here, I’m here, I’m here.’’

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book.

I love Cecelia Ahern and I love feminism, so this book appeared to be perfect for me. I loved the idea of this book, the short stories appeared to be just what I was looking for and a change to something that I would normally read.

Sadly this was not the case. Whilst a handful of the 30 stories were ones that I enjoyed, the vast majority of these I did not. The stories in most cases irritated me and felt like they were pointless.

This is so disappointing for me as Cecelia is one of my all time favourite authors all the way from my early teenage years.

This is a beautiful selection of short stories about women.
I often struggle with short stories, but i felt that i could pick up and later come back to this book which I really liked.
The individual stories are often moving and poignant and are always thought provoking.
I really enjoyed the author's writing style and found myself empathising which each character even within a short amount of time. Cecelia Ahern was able to grab my attention in each story straight away and i was often laughing or crying alongside the characters.
I really would recommend this wonderful book for everyone!

A collection of short stories by award-winning author Cecelia Ahern.
What's not to like?
This was a collection of 30 well-written stories, all woman-centric, with a moral behind most.
I could have read it in one sitting, but I didn't want, to as it felt better to read a couple at a time and digest them.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

I thought this book was great. I loved the short stories and the way they all featured strong women - the only thing I wasn't sure about was the way they were all called woman! Felt they needed a name.

Excellent book. I have read many books by this author and they always deliver

Excellent storyline, exquisite writing and superb pace.
Nothing negative to say at all
Excellent in every way

<b>An Unapologetic Literary Masterpiece</b>

This literary fiction is an absolute masterpiece!
It’s uplifting, goosebump-inducing and completely unapologetic.

<i>‘Women need to see women too,’ Professor Montgomery says. ‘If we don’t see each other, if we don’t see ourselves, how can we expect anyone else to?’‘Society told you that you weren’t important, that you don’t exist, and you listened. You let the message seep into your pores, eat you from the inside out. You told yourself you weren’t important, and you believed yourself.’</i>- Roar by Cecelia Ahern -

Early on in the book I read this excerpt, and I was gutted! This is exactly how I’ve been feeling lately and this book pointed it out so clearly that I could no longer deny it.

<i>‘I have to believe in myself.’‘Society always tells us to believe in ourselves.’ She says, dismissively. ‘Words are easy, phrases are cheap. What specifically must you believe in?’ She thinks, then realizes that this is about more than getting the answers right. What does she want to believe? ‘That I’m important, that I’m needed, relevant, useful, valid… Sexy. That I’m worthy. That there is potential, possibility, that I can still take on new challenges. That I can contribute. That I’m interesting. That I’m not finished yet. That people know I’m here.’</i>- Roar by Cecelia Ahern -

With lines like that you can’t help but feel powerful. I feel new hope for myself, and for women in general. We are perfectly capable of doing anything we want to.I’m usually a big fan of smutty books, which is how I got drawn to this specific one, but I was (pleasantly) surprised to find that it wasn’t that type of book at all. There is even one story that is written more in a satirical style, which I enjoyed very much.

The cover of this book is simply the book title, in strong, bold letters. After reading the book I realized just how perfectly that fits, as every story is about women being stronger than the world believes we are, and stronger than we believe ourselves to be.

These stories have some bizarre plots but it gets the message across to the reader. One of my favourite excerpts is this:

<i>“A woman in a bright red coat, with matching lipstick, is holding the door open for a man, who is extremely agitated by this.‘Penis!’ the man says, holding up his arm to reveal his blue wristband.‘Nice to meet you penis, I’m Mary,’ the woman in red says, irritated. ‘Go ahead, I can hold the door.'"</i>- Roar by Cecelia Ahern -

If you are a woman, a feminist, or any human with feelings, you should read this book! It’s also trans-friendly!

Cecelia Ahern has written this collection of stories with obvious passion, and I’m now eager to look into her other books.

A collection of 30 short stories all highlighting how women are portrayed and how we hold ourselves back too. The message for me was that as women we need to support each other more! Some of the stories really resonated with me.

These 30 short stories each feature an anonymous female protagonist and a moral dilemma she is facing. Whether it be an embarrassing moment at work (The Woman Who Was Swallowed Up by the Floor and Who Met Lots of Other Women Down There Too), a strong feeling of guilty (The Woman Who Found Bite Marks on Her Skin), or being new to a country and facing the mums in the playground (The Woman Who Grew Wings), each story revolves around an everyday problem that women may face and how they tackle it head on/learn how to overcome.

The stories are empowering, uplifting, and imaginative, with whimsical interpretations that combine comedy with life lessons. Most have a moral to the story which gives each one a unique angle. The women are always anonymous which I liked because it means readers can relate to the stories back to things that have happened in their own lives.

I would definitely recommend reading this one in short bursts - reading it all at once is a bit repetitive. Some stories made me laugh, some stayed with me, and some lacked substance but I expected this - it was unlikely that all 30 stories would have a profound effect on me. I praise Cecelia Ahern for taking a risk and going against conventions.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5⭐️ rounded up to 4

This is a collection of 30 short stories about women. They centre around an anonymous woman at different stages in their life. This woman could be any one of us.

We hear from women with body issues, women being mistreated, women who want children, women who don't, women struggling with their age etc. This is a book that all women can relate to. They will either be the women with the issues or know of women who do. It's an eye opening insight into the things most women think about. How women identify themselves. It's well written and a quick read.

I would like to thank NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and the author Cecelia Ahern for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Utterly amazing collection of short stories, all with titles beginning: 'The Woman Who...'
Most of the stories here take some kind of metaphor or idiom as their starting point, then play with a literal take on the expression. So the woman who slowly disappeared literally begins to become transparent, and a woman having a meltdown becomes a puddle on the floor. The device of taking expressions like this literally, then extrapolating out to absurd extremes, takes a biting and hilariously entertaining swipe at some of our society's attitudes and social mores.
Perfect for book groups.