Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

The premise of this was great and I found this to be quite a unique and chilling thriller. A great concept executed really well

I was intrigued by the concept of friends being murdered for their decades old commitment to remaining childless. In 'The Others' some university friends pledged to remain childfree or as others see it, childless. Twenty years later, two of the women are brutally murdered and left holding a baby doll. The others know that they are at risk too.
It is a more brutal book than the ones I tend to read and there were times when I was certainly shying away from the pages due to the graphic content. It should be a fundamental free choice of whether to become a parent and the premise of being murdered so violently stayed with me for a long while after reading.
Im not sure this book is for everyone, though it certainly addresses some feminist issues that ought to be brought out into the open
3/5

Wow, this book was such an entertaining read, I couldn't wait to finish it. Can't wait to read some more by this author. Recommended.

Israeli writer and journalist Sarah Blau takes the social expectation of having children and cleverly turns this persistent and outdated narrative into a crime fiction novel about a serial killer in her first novel translated into English.

In Tel Aviv two women are murdered in a gruesome, ritualistic manner. Both are found tied to a chair, a baby doll glued to their hands and the word “mother” carved into their foreheads. Sheila Heller knows both women and she might be the serial killer’s next victim.

Full review on blog: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2021/08/22/the-others-sarah-blau/

I really loved the premise of this story. Just from reading the blurb I knew I’m in for a ride, and I wasn’t disappointed.
The Others is translated from Hebrew by Daniella Zamir, and with how the story flowed, I don’t think there was anything lost in translation. A win!
The Others is a well told story. With characters with distinctive personalities brought out so well, I didn’t know if I wanted to love them or hate them. I loved how each had their own story and how we got to learn it.

Sarah Blau writing is so good. With chilling plot points, others thrilling and some mysterious, I love how she wrote all these scenes, I was hooked. I wanted more.

The plot twist in The Others was one I didn’t see coming which made the whole reading experience even better.

The only thing that I didn’t like was the pacing. The book starts out with a punch and I thought it would keep at it but some points lagged before picking up pace near the end.

The Others is a mystifying read, one that I enjoyed and found quick to get through. And this a perfect pick for Women In Translation month.

An entertaining creepy read! It was a bit strange to read at times but it definitely follows an interesting Murder mystery.

The novel opens with detective, Micha Yarden, turning up at the door of forty-one-year-old Sheila Heller in Tel Aviv regarding the bizarrely staged murder of one of her university contemporaries and former close friends. The victim, Dina Kaminer, was a polemical feminist theorist who achieved notoriety for an essay on childless women in the Bible and having neither married or had children had become a leading advocate for this “controversial movement.” Found hog-tied to a chair with the word “mother” carved into her forehead and a baby doll glued to her hands, the message for Sheila seems starkly clear with someone having made a mother out of Dina in the end. As students Sheila, Dina and two other women, Ronit and Naama, made a pact to remain childless following a Purim party where all four went dressed as childless women from the Bible (Miriam the Prophetess, Lilith, Michal the wife of King David and the Witch of Endor).

The book is narrated in the first-person by Sheila and her reliability is doubtful throughout as she flirts with detective Micha, battles low self-esteem and seethes with jealousy at her former friends successes, most particularly about Dina having stolen her original idea about childless women in the Bible. Whilst Sheila is less academically successful than Dina and now working at the Bible museum, Ronit became an actress and Naama tragically committed suicide early on in the years after they all graduated. Given Sheila is either a prime suspect or needs to watch her back I found her very inconsistently characterised and impossible to understand. I was never sure how firmly on board with the pact to remain childless, despite the friendship group having disintegrated, she remained and how much of a part in her thinking over the years it had played. I would also have appreciated learning the rationale behind the pact and although the novel threatens a discussion about the choice to remain childless it fails to transpires. An uptick in pace roused my enthusiasm into the close but in the main I found it a slog to wade through the backstory and Sheila’s whiny narrative before the next update in the investigation by which time the delay has impeded the build-up of any meaningful suspense.

Set in contemporary Israel and translated from the Hebrew, the book makes frequent references to Judaism and attitudes in Israel to different denominations (Haredi, modern Orthodox). I did wonder if maybe I just didn’t know enough about the country and culture to appreciate these distinctions and why the idea that someone would remain childless was such a big deal. The novel seemed so busy trying (and failing) to shoehorn in feminist theory and a message about remaining childless that Sarah Blau seemed to forget about the thriller component. The result is a poorly executed novel and a plot that, on scratching the surface, lacks any depth with a central protagonist that I could never believe in and dialogue that is so overwritten it feels scripted.

What is actually marketed as a mystery thriller is more of a twisted monologue. This is a strange read, following a group of women as a member of their old friendship circle is murdered, centered around our narrator and her every strange manic thought.
It takes a deeper look at middle age, sexuality, motherhood, sisterhood, and feminism.
I would have enjoyed this more had I know what I was getting into, the characters were very flat and their interactions bizarrely unrealistic, all in all, it was a bit of a fever dream and lacked the horror and thrills I was expecting.

This book is not my usual choice and took a bit of getting into. About a third of the way things began hotting up for me. The women’s connection, intellectual rivalry, guilt, and, very obviously, murder. All these elements were highly attractive to me, yet the novel ended up not satisfying me completely, although it was a decent read. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to review this book and I look forward to seeing what the author next book is about. This story was a ⭐️⭐️⭐️ For me.

The Others by Sarah Blau initially seemed like it would be a straight forward thriller about a group of female friends who all get picked off one by one by a serial killer. But it's actually much more complex than that. I was increasingly intrigued yet appalled by the toxic friendship these women had. Their lives were intertwined in unique ways which led to each of them to be in a sort of love/hate relationship with the others in the group. And to be honest, that is exactly how I felt about the main character, Sheila. I didn't like her but I also did like her! It was a very weird connection. What I found fascinating about this story was how the author wove Israeli culture and a deep connection to the Bible into the story to create something that comes across as really unique. With the plot focusing on the topics of strong women and their right to make the choices in life that they deem are best for them, it definitely felt like the book was a commentary on society rather than just a fictional thriller.
All that being said, there was just something that didn't quite click for me. I think maybe the book was a little too long and the pacing was a little slow. Which is a shame as it started out so strong and initially had me gripped. However, I would still recommend it to others, especially those who are looking for a new take on the thriller genre.

Dina is found dead, tied to a chair with the word 'mother' written across her forehead and a baby doll glued to her hands. The investigation is linked back to Dina and her three college friends - Sheila, Ronit and Naama, who bonded over a controversial opinion that they didn't want to become mothers. They all had other ambitions, and in a country where reproduction is often seen as a duty, this opinion caused a lot of opposition.

As Sheila was one of the last people to see Dina alive, she finds herself as one of the main suspects. However, as she reveals more information to the detectives working on the case, a link is found to a party the group of friends attended at college where they dressed up as Miriam, Lilith, Michal and also The Witch of Endor, strong (mainly biblical women) without children, they aspired to. It soon becomes clear that Sheila is more likely to be the next victim than the killer.

This is the first book I have read which has been translated from Hebrew and it was a complete surprise to me. It had a very unusual, almost bizarre feeling to it, but the thing that surprised me the most was that despite being a disturbing and dark story, it was also filled with humour. Laced with stories from the Bible, the mix of these traditional views and more controversial arguments about femininity and motherhood made it a really interesting and complex thriller.

First of all, thank you Netgalley and Pushkin approving my request. I've never read a book translated from Hebrew so asides the blurb I had no expectations.

I'll admit it's a slow burnt. But once it picked up, I couldn't stop reading it. The way the mystery is unravelled blows me away. I love when I can guess the unsub early in a crime thriller and I appreciate it more when the writing isn't shallow. The novel kinda has an unexpected but expected resolution.

Also, I love the ending a lot.

This story is okay, but I found the first few chapters a bit hard work and I wasn’t instantly inthralled by the story. However the story got going eventually and it was an okay read.

The Others of the novel’s title are four female friends at an Israeli college. They bond over a common intent not to have any children, in defiance of societal norms. Two decades or so later, the members of “the Others” have drifted apart. Sheila Heller, the narrator, works at the Bible Museum, giving lectures to visiting groups and classes. Dina Kaminer, the self-appointed leader of the group, is a Bible scholar who, pilfering an idea from Sheila, has become famous (or notorious) for a controversial study about the childless women of the Bible. Ronit has left biblical studies behind and is now a relatively well-known actress. The fourth member of the “Others” was Naama, once the closest of Sheila’s friends before she committed suicide a few years after college.

Death revisits the Others when Dina becomes the victim of a murder most gruesome – she is found tied to a chair, with a baby doll glued to her hands and the word “mother” inscribed on her forehead. It seems to be the work of a deranged killer, meaning that the feisty Sheila might soon become both suspect and victim…

Sarah Blau’s book was a bestseller in Israel and is now being published in English as part of the Pushkin Vertigo series. A college background, ritual murders, buried secrets… I’m quite surprised that the marketing for the book has not invoked the seemingly inevitable comparison to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. Some similarities (including the feminist theological strands of the novel) also reminded me of Rachel Mann’s The Gospel of Eve, which I greatly enjoyed last year. Ultimately, however, Blau’s novel has a quite different feel to it. Despite the more shocking and violent aspects of the novel, what gives this novel its distinctive character is Sheila’s wisecracking narrative voice, well-captured in Daniella Zamir’s translation. A sort of Israeli feminist version of Bridget Jones, her humorous asides are endearing and hilarious. But the jokes and the thrill of the mystery should not mislead the reader – the novel raises some earnest philosophical and theological questions about femininity and motherhood.

The Others by Sarah Blau is a once in a lifetime kind of novel. I really liked the main character Sheila and thought that the overall feeling of the novel was very very well done. Pacing was brilliant. The chapter broken into short scenes was fantastic. For someone who hasn't actually visited Israel before, I feel after reading the Others that it should be on my bucket list; the narrative and the strong sense of place made the location feel the place everyone should want to be/ go to. I'm excited to see what Blau will publish next. Simply brilliant. It has everything a thriller should have.

The premise of the novel is extremely interesting. The rather typical "past impinging on the present" has here a rather feminist, novel take. A group of university students pledged at the start of their course not to become mothers, and sixteen years later... The story is set in contemporary Israel; there is a Biblical connection, intellectual rivalry, guilt, and, very obviously, murder. All these elements were highly attractive to me, yet the novel ended up not satisfying me completely.

My main disappointment with this psychological thriller was that the narrator's voice (one of the women in the original group) became after a while rather rattling and predictable. She had some wit but I fell with her rather relentless narrative which was not in the end gripping enough for me - ultimately, the actual reasons, even culprit of murder became unimportant, which I think that in view of subject matter it was a fault. That said, I enjoyed the glimpses Blau gives us into a traditional sector of society where women's motherhood is paramount, and a motherless-by-choice woman, a dangerous anomaly.

I would still recommend The Others (not the best of titles regardless) but if you are impatient you may find it a bit too long.

I really enjoyed this it was quite a complex storyline, however it was well written and the characters interesting and relatable. The plot was clever and kept you guessing until the end. The story based around a group of women who vow to each other that they will never have children, rings with a modern bell. The biblical reference gives the story depth. A really excellent read for those who like a multilayered thriller. Would certainly recommend.

I received an advance reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

I think I appreciated the metaphor more than the actual novel. The writing is funny as hell, but it felt like I was reading the script to a comedy show, and not an actual narrative with characters that grow and develop. If this author had a little more editing this could really be something. 3.5 rounded up

This was a really good quick read! This is basically a book about motherhood. Becoming a mother the pressure of having kids!
I sometimes couldn't stand the main character Shelia! Yikes!
But this was a good I enjoyed the plot! It was quick and enjoyable.