Interesting book, i was a bit sceptical at first because of all the hype around TW and the author. It's deserved and has paved the way for other writers in this genre.

I began this story over my breakfast and all I can say is that it totally put me off my food and after reading the first few pages I realised that it wasn’t a book for me! A rather unpleasant beginning which I really didn’t think was necessary but that’s just my very humble opinion!
Sorry, definitely not my cup of tea!

Such a beautiful read- your taken in from the first chapter, be prepared for your emotions to go all over the place,
Thank you to both publishers and NetGalley for gifting me a copy to read.

I enjoyed this book immensely, although I found the characters very difficult to like.

It was a disturbing - but enjoyable - tale.

I think that the students in our school library need to hear lots of diverse voices and read stories and lives of many different kinds of people and experiences. When I inherited the library it was an incredibly sanitised space with only 'school readers' and project books on 'the railways' etc. Buying in books that will appeal to the whole range of our readers with diverse voices, eclectic and fascinating subject matter, and topics that will intrigue and fascinate them was incredibly important to me.
This is a book that I think our senior readers will enjoy very much indeed - not just because it's well written with an arresting voice that will really keep them reading and about a fascinating topic - but it's also a book that doesn't feel worthy or improving, it doesn't scream 'school library and treats them like young reading adults who have the right to explore a range of modern diverse reads that will grip and intrigue them and ensure that reading isn't something that they are just forced to do for their English project - this was a solid ten out of ten for me and I'm hoping that our students are as gripped and caught up in it as I was. It was one that I stayed up far too late reading and one that I'll be recommending to the staff as well as our senior students - thank you so much for the chance to read and review; I really loved it and can't wait to discuss it with some of our seniors once they've read it too!

An absolutely fascinating read. Taddeo really has a fantastic grasp on how these women think and feel. This really felt like a deep dive into the psyche of other people. Exquisitely written. Can't wait to see what she writes next!

A fascinating look at female sexuality, through a very small lense, where the tragedies and traumas of the past unfortunately bring about our present desires.

I really enjoyed this book and would read more from this author. May have been first but won't he the last.

Three Women is an incredibly powerful read that shines an unflinching spotlight upon the intricacies of female desire and sexuality, and the way in which female desire is portrayed, shaped, and responded to by the world at large.

It is also an incredibly raw book that, at times, is very difficult to read. Two of the women featured by Taddeo suffer sexual violence and the all three narratives examine issues of consent and power within sexual relationships, as well as the conflicting ways in which the women think about such matters - and the judgement placed on them by society for acting as they do. There is also mention of eating disorders, physical and sexual abuse, and suicide, and the book does not shy away from the grim realities it portrays at times.

Unfortunately for me, Taddeo's style - a sort of dry reportage - didn't entice me to keep reading despite the compelling subject matter and the undoubted importance of the topics under consideration. Although the three narratives contained within are powerful - and at times powerfully painful - I found myself putting the book down and feeling absolutely no compulsion to pick it back up. I understand that Taddeo wanted to keep her distance - and to let the women tell their stories rather than reflecting them through herself - but if often felt as if I was reading a report rather than a narrative.

I'm also not sure how well the book succeeds in its stated aim of conveying 'vital truths about women's desire'. Taddeo doesn't really draw any conclusions - or even really any connections between narratives - and some of the statements that are made about desire feel overly broad given the very selective experiences portrayed in the book. Possibly this is because, as Taddeo has admitted, she originally intended to write a broader book about desire but ended up writing about it solely from the perspective of these three women. This is not to say that the perspective of these three women is unimportant, but I think the book still feels, at times, as if it wants to paint that broader picture but is constrained by the relative narrowness of its lens.

Such unflinching portrayals of women's sexual experiences and desires are rarely found on the page and, although ultimately not for me, I can understand why this has connected with so many readers and it is indeed a very powerful read.

This was definitely an interesting read and a style of book that I haven't read before. I did enjoy the reading experience, however something about it just felt a little flat. Maggie's story about her underage relationship with her teacher stood out to me the most, but the other two faded a bit into the background for me. I think this is because Maggie's story has a proper arc - you see her relationship with her teacher begin and develop, then end, and then you see years later the trial against the teacher. I felt like the stories of the other two women lacked structure and so I struggled a bit more to relate to them. That being said, I think it's very important to tell the stories of women like these and I admire the book for doing so.

Wow. I haven't devoured a book like this in years.

Non-fiction which reads like fiction, Lisa Taddeo spent almost a decade living and spending time with three women, all with very different approaches to love, desire and sex.

Would recommend highly!

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

An Incredible Feat of Narrative Non-Fiction

This is an extraordinary book. Lisa Taddeo spent years really getting to know the "Three Women" of the title and the time she invested in them and their stories really shows. It's beautifully written and utterly captivating. I still find myself thinking about these three women even 18 months after reading it. Highly recommended.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

A strange one. I think I found the faction treatment of this subject matter quite exploitative. It could have been so much better.

A gut-wrenchingly raw exploration of sexual desire and female sexuality, masterfully told. So easy to read that, in parts, it felt like fiction and the empathy I therefore felt for the characters was so strong.

Based on years of immersive reporting, Taddeo narrates the real-lives of three American women's sexual experiences. Lina, homemaker and mother, embarks on an extra-marital affair with a childhood sweetheart after her marriage deteriorates. Sloane, a confident and out-going restaurateur, is in a happy open marriage with a man whose kink is watching her have sex with other people. Lastly, we first meet Maggie - a 17 year old teen - in a clandestine relationship with her married English teacher; years later, we watch the ensuring criminal trial.

I have found it difficult to review this book. I enjoyed reading the story of three women's experiences of sexuality and sexual politics and found myself embroiled completely in their stories. It's heartbreaking reading in places, and fun and gossipy in others, whilst staying clear of exploitative titillation. It was very entertaining and I raced through this one. At times, it feels like a shockingly intimate account; it felt like the three central women were my friends by the end of the book. I particularly enjoyed Maggie's story - a powerful and provocative account of statutory rape and the repercussions this has had in her adult life.

However, I think the marketing of this book perhaps lets it down in how it has depicted Three Women as an authoritative mediation on female sexuality and desire. Instead it reads more as a narration of these three women's lives. While I'm sure it would be a great book club read, sparking lots of conversations about women's sexuality, I did not feel like it presented a wider thesis on the nature of female sexuality. Indeed, I felt that one of the major strengths of Three Women was the light authorial voice - Taddeo functions as a platform to get these women's stories out into the world but she draws away from making conclusions or judgments. She is a presenter but not an analyst. Through this, she effectively challenges misconceptions and generalisations.

To conclude, open this book expecting a gripping tale of the sexual politics of three women living in a patriarchal world - and ignore the bigger statements rolling around.

I devoured a review copy of Three Women by Lisa Taddeo this week, and wow. Documenting the stories of three American women, this book reads like fiction and is entirely heartbreaking. I wasn't sure what to expect but I was left challenged and achingly upset for Maggie, Lina and Sloane. What a powerful read, do get your hands on it if you can.

A non-fiction book that reads like fiction, the author interviewed three women in great detail about their sex lives and wove a narrative about them. Reading this book feels like eavesdropping on someone's world without their permission. It's had a lot of critical attention but I was less keen.

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo has been everywhere. Bookshops, billboards, on the tube. For a few months, even Instagram became just one big advertisement for it. But, unlike many others I did not feel any of that ground-breaking, earth-shattering regard for its content. And, ultimately, I can pinpoint why into one specific reason: the titular women and their experiences present a very two-dimension look at heterosexual sexuality. All three white. All three conventionally attractive. Two straight (one possibly bi). All three cis. Two Catholic. Two in the Midwest. Two in their forties. Two married.
More importantly, they are all victims of sex; unwilling participants; pushed into relationships and fetishes by their partners, with no regards for their own enjoyment. It is almost a book dedicated to the opposite of sex positivity; a chorus of women admitting that they do not actually enjoy sex that much and they only undertake it as a chore at the benefit of their domineering, and sometimes even abusive, partners.
And, yes, it would be naive to argue that a lot of women do not experience sex in that way, but Three Women claims some sort of universality to the fact. That, like in so many 1950s sitcoms, all women lay back and think of England whilst their partner fulfils their own sexual desires.
But, is that all of our realities? Or even, just some? Are 100% of heterosexual women tied to unsatisfying sex that they have been coxed into by coercive, sexually-perverse men? For a book about modern-day sexuality, the book certainly falls into old tropes: female virgin (or even just one that is sexually repressed) at the whims of sex-mad, testosterone fuelled men. It is 1950s sitcoms on acid; Carry On movies shining bright for the world to see. Its normative views on gender (and more importantly, on sex) give little very credit to either and I worry that, instead of being informative or eye-opening, Three Women will continue to impound old, tired feelings about how each should approach sexuality.

I'm sorry i just couldn't get in to this book and gave up. Was looking forward to it as it sounded really interesting but I didn't enjoy it