Originally picked this up in January and picked up again yesterday. I realised why I hadn’t gone back to it.

I’m not sure where the plot was going and I just didn’t like the MC enough to carry on. Felt like a fever dream.

When a book makes you fall asleep it’s time to quit. DNF @ 29%

Average star rating given for fairness.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC.

So this is marketed as a mystery/dark comedy. The dark comedy was there but the mystery felt very very half baked. Renata doesn’t even go missing until around 60% in and then the “mystery” is solved so quickly it doesn’t even really feel like she went missing at all. This is a literary fiction novel through and through and nothing can convince me otherwise. There is absolutely nothing “gothic” or “psychological” about this book.

That being said I did enjoy my time reading it and I liked a lot of the commentary and dialogue. Dani was an interesting main character to follow and most of the book was just her day to day life. If you enjoy books that are more commentary than plot then I think you will like this. I’m still not sure whether I liked the ending or not and whether the ending negated the “message” this book was trying to convey but overall it was a good time. It was released on 4th January so it’s already available.

Unfortunately this read just fell a little flat for me! I really enjoyed the beginning and the language used, but felt like the actual storyline was quite disappointing.

It definitely had potential and this is likely a personal preference, maybe I was expecting a bit more out of it. It also took me a while to finish, but this could be my fault and not the books!

2.5 stars overall.

the cover and themes of this novel definitely appealed to me but i just found the execution average and not as thought-provoking as i'd hoped

I went into this book thinking it would be such a standout, page-turner that I would eat up, but unfortunately, it just fell quite flat for me. I love fiction like this, but I do think that the trope of unhinged women breaking out of domestic rigidity has become an almost over-saturated topic in contemporary fiction lately, and so to stand out, I think Normal Women would have had to do something truly out of the box to stand apart from its contemporaries, and I just didn't find that with it. I can see what Hogarth was trying to do by bringing in the 'cult' element, and having that as a contrast to Dani's mundane interactions with her fellow mum friends, but I felt as though its potential got lost once the book became more of a mystery than a commentary of maternity in society, and I just wasn't as interested in it from there.

I was so excited to read this book! I missed the boat for mother thing and joined the party late.


As a mother myself, I LOVED the way Ainslie did an amazing job. PPD is a hard thing that so many go through and I love that books/shows/movies/and media are making it less taboo to talk about.

You are either gonna love this or hate it.

Normal women was an interesting read by the very talented Ainslie Hogarth, who has given us the excellent Mothering previously. In this story we follow Danni as she tries to grapple with becoming a mother, moving back to her hometown, her friendships with the other mothers in her friendship circle as well as the impact all these things have on her marriage. I had my ups and downs in terms of how I felt about Dani but thoroughly enjoyed not being able to guess where the story will take me. I found all the characters very memorable and there were loads of laugh out loud moments.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for my free review ebook, all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this, after reading Motherthing last year I was keen to try something else by the author.

This was a spot on reflection on wellness culture, gender dynamics in relationships, motherhood and feminism.

The characters were brilliant and the plot really pulled me in.

The last section was a little bit rushed but otherwise this really was a near perfect book!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this book

This book just further cements my dislike of motherhood.

The issues in this book brought up with the touch of dark humor is what makes this an easy read to get into for me. It was humorous. Hogarth is an author to be watched.

A burgeoning voice for a generation. Whip smart and wickedly clever. She is absolutely one to watch.

A sharply satirical story about modern life, mental health and suffering with a chaotic and unhinged aura that was something undeniably compelling. It's odd, with a narrator who is both painfully unlikeable and strangely endearing as she goes on her journey to figure out why she's on the outside of the normal women and what that even means.

The daughter of the 'Trash King of Metcalf', a man who revitalised a struggling town with his business acumen and philanthropy, Dani has spent her life waiting to discover her purpose. When she becomes a mother, she thinks she may have found her calling at last, and she relishes the fact that her property developer husband's lucrative job allows her to stay home and devote herself to their baby daughter. That is until the realisation hits her that, if her husband Clark were to die, she would be left with no job and not even any marketable skills with which to provide for her baby. This epiphany sparks a chain of events which leads Dani to The Temple, a mysterious establishment in town, and its proprietor Renata, who opens Dani's eyes to a whole other world and shows her how she could really make a difference. Then Renata disappears, and Dani sets out to find the truth about what happened to her before the opportunity to be something more than Clark's wife and Lotte's mother is lost forever.

I must first state that I have not read Motherthing, Ainslie Hogarth's debut adult novel, and thus came into Normal Women without any particular expectations. That said, I feel the only way to review this book is to separate the writing - which is often stellar - from the plot - which I found disappointingly weak in contrast.

As a social satire, Normal Women really works, with Hogarth delivering a breezy but biting commentary on the social (and parasocial) pressures of modern motherhood, gender roles, gentrification, and the struggle to reclaim your identity after having a baby. Dani is tormented throughout by an internal Greek chorus of momfluencers and forum moms, as well as by comparisons she makes with her real-life mom friends - the titular 'normal women'. Hogarth knowingly skewers the Instagram 'momfluencers' and their performance of real motherhood, even their supposed candour about how hard being a mother is setting daunting expectations for Dani.

Dani feels her own purpose and potential fusing with her baby's, her sense of self-worth bound to the age at which Lotte took her first steps or the number of languages she has mastered before she is out of nappies. This dissolution of her self into motherhood, along with the sudden recognition of Clark's mortality, is the catalyst for Dani to approach The Temple for the first time.

Dani's interactions with her husband highlight the hidden, often dismissed, labour of childcare, and the resentment which can fester between the parent spending their days at home with the baby and the one working outside the home, both feeling under appreciated and taken for granted. When she bitterly notes that Clark does not thank her for preparing dinner, her internal rant will surely resonate with any reader who has been a stay at home parent for any length of time.

'All he had to do was say thank you. He didn't have to comment on the flavor or the cook or anything- both perfect, by the way. But just say thank you, just acknowledge that Dani had once again done it all, as she did every day, without complaint, far, far more impressive than answering emails, attending meetings, signing off on other people's hard work. For this Clark got money, independence, and respect; he got to feel genuinely productive and connected to other human beings in the world. Meanwhile Dani was all alone, as always, a shameful necessity, tucked away, like the bulky wad of cords that kept their television working. Juggling, among many other things, carrots and lemon and onion and poultry seasoning, all while protecting Lotte from toddling into disaster.'

Hogarth's language is sharply observant - the tone switching between dry humour and age-old truisms written in a way that makes them feel fresh and painfully accurate.

On mastitis: 'This resulted in hours of flu-like aching, shivering, nausea, a swift and harsh retaliation courtesy of the hormones leftbehind by master Lotte, the master she loved, my god, how she loved her, loved her more when she relieved the suffering, her warm body on Dani's sore breast, draining
the infection for her with the merciful maw of her powerful little jaw, thank you, master, oh god, thank you, thank you, good girl.'

On working at a Blockbuster store in its final days of operation: 'Dani felt like some sort of cursed guardian, tasked with protecting this blue-and-yellow corpse from the mites and
maggots drooling at the door.'

She captures the earnest, self-seriousness of Clark - Dani's husband - in hilarious vignettes, allowing his behaviour to speak for itself: 'Clark held the belief that grown men shouldn't be seen eating ice cream, that it was lurid, unseemly.'

In a scene in which Dani's friend Anya is wearing 'an enormous kaftan she'd ordered with a promo code from a reality TV star', the writing is peppered with brilliant descriptions of said, item to the point where it is almost its own character: 'An amount of fabric that wasn't worn so much as haunted by a human body,' and 'A warm wind passed. The swing set creaked gently. The kaftan fluttered at the hem like a stingray.'

A motif which is used cleverly throughout is the affogato, which is introduced at the beginning of the story as a symbolism of the inexorable gentrification of Dani's home town of Metcalf. It is referenced numerous times throughout the narrative, to the extent that when it makes an appearance at the very end of the story, the reader knows exactly what it is supposed to represent.

Conversely, the mystery plot touted in the blurb is thin and unlikely. It is unevenly paced - only really picking up momentum about 70% of the way through - and the book drags in the middle under the weight of the exposition needed to set it up. This whole storyline just did not resonate with me at all, and the ending in particular is downright preposterous. Those readers drawn in by promises of a mystery will be underwhelmed, while those who enjoyed the other elements of the book will feel that it is an unnecessary subplot which detracts from what had the potential to be a wonderful study of a character, a community and a culture.

Rating based on writing: 4*
Rating based on plot: 2*

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

As a fair few other people have said, it's quite difficult to describe this book in all its glory without giving the entire plot away. That being said - without spoilers, I read this cover to cover in one sitting. Ainslie Hogarth has me hooked!

Hogarth’s writing style is exceptional. Sometimes, you read a book and you feel comfortable in the authors writing – and Hogarth is definitely one of those authors. Her writing flows beautifully.
I appreciated how Hogarth addressed many women’s issues; postpartum depression, body positivity (and also not-so-positivity) and how we see our independence. I really liked the theme of female empowerment in Hogarth’s novel, turning the sex work featured in the novel into something admirable instead of shrouded in shame. In Normal Women’s world, it is something necessary, something to be proud of, which is empowering in and of itself.

I rated this 4.5 stars as I just felt there was something missing from the story. To me, it felt like it should’ve gone deeper into its storylines and unfortunately it did not. However, this being said it is a wonderful book with (in my opinion) much potential to be award winning.

BRB, going to go and buy all of Ainslie Hogarth's books.

Thank you to NetGalley UK and Atlantic Books for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This had every ingredient for a cracking read. I was wildly entertained by Hogarth's book Motherthing and really enjoyed her style of writing and I loved the sound of this book, great premise, fab cover , I was excited to read it.
Unfortunately that excitement waned pretty quickly once I started reading. It just never grabbed my attention fully. I didn't care for the characters nor the plot and I had to wade through a lot of this book. It just wasn't for me.
While there were elements I enjoyed in the social commentary and there were some flashes of greatness, I just didn't connect with the main character at all and found it quite a depressing read. The curse of the tricky second novel perhaps? I look forward to her next book.

2 stars.

After absolutely adoring Hogarth’s debut, Motherthing, last year, I had high hopes for her second novel.

It felt like an entirely different novel to Motherthing.. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting, and obviously wasn’t expecting a complete copy of Motherthing, but I was kind of expecting that same level of fast-paced witty humour with dark themes.

We certainly do get the taste of Hogarth’s wit and sarcasm throughout the text, and there are some very cleverly written social commentaries scattered throughout. I found these really interesting and loved them at first, but then I was left wanting more from the plot and less of the social commentary overarching everything else.

I did really like the plot, although I found it confusing. I wasn’t really sure what was going on in some places and felt like it was becoming overly convoluted. I’d have rather had a much simpler plotline with Hogarth’s trademark humour and a sprinkling of social commentary. But the balance felt all off to me, and I found the book to be extremely slow paced compared to her previous novel.

That being said, I did still tab plenty of quotes because there was a lot of very clever observational writing and I did mostly enjoy the book.

It’s unfair of me to compare the book so closely to Motherthing, but sadly my weird horror loving brain wanted more of that bizarre horror-esque nonsense and less of the clever, witty, more high-brow stuff.

It’s definitely still a good book and I do recommend giving it a try for yourselves! Just go in knowing it’s a completely different vibe to Motherthing!

A well plotted, dark humorous and a satire of a the myth of reaching-the-full-potential. Plenty of twists, sharp and witty remards, well plotted characters.
Loved it
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

With a cover like that, you’ll know that I was completely powerless in resisting giving it a read. I haven’t actually read Hogarth’s previous novel Motherthing, despite seeing it making the rounds on social media but it is on my TBR. This was my first 2024 release and I’m really excited to see what the rest of the year has in store!

Dani couldn’t wait to be a stay at home mum to little Lotte but now she is worried that if her husband Clark should die, they would be destitute. But then Dani discovers The Temple, a yoga studio run by the alluring, mysterious Renata who tells Dani that it’s not just yoga classes that The Temple offers. It also offers its visitors the chance to reach their true potential and allows them to take whatever steps they need to get there. Could this finally be the career path for Dani? Just as she is about to get started, Renata goes missing and Dani becomes determined to find out what’s happened.

The book talks about traditional gender roles and how men and women wish to be perceived. Clark cares about being the voice of reason in the family and would never dream of going along with the hare-brained scheme that has his wife so captivated. However, Clark doesn’t enforce this dynamic -it appears that he and Dani have naturally fallen into it whether that’s due to societal expectations or not.

Dani also compares herself to her female friends, their experiences of childbirth and subsequent relationships with their husbands. This culture of constant competition and comparison between women is so recognisable and yet so unhealthy. Even though we know it’s unhealthy to compare our lives, we still do it.

Hogarth writes about motherhood a lot and I can only imagine there is much of the same commentary in her other book Motherthing. Normal Women paints a largely positive picture of being a mother, despite admitting that it is all-consuming and potentially a huge identity sucker. However, Dani loves being a mother and the tone of the novel is very much that everything she works for is worth it.

The Temple is a unique place and I have no idea whether anything like it exists in real life. It’s not clear whether the thought behind their mission is based on anything scientific or whether it is just observational but it is a really fascinating idea. There’s not really any denying the truth in what they preach but whether it can be fixed via their methods of teaching them compassion and sensitivity is questionable. Again, it doesn’t really become clear over the course of the novel but I’d like to think it goes some way to ‘healing’ these men.

The humour and voice is snarky and therefore probably isn’t to everyone’s taste. I laughed a few times and could definitely relate to various parts of Dani’s narration but it was also tinged with a bit of sadness. It was the same melancholy that often descends when a marriage or long term relationship is depicted as a 'habit’ rather than a choice but I understand that these relationships definitely exist.

'Why couldn't you get a job like your husband?'
And Dani lowered her head, stared up at Renata darkly. 'I can't.'
'Why not?'
'I'm not... good at this world,' she said, and her voice broke at the end, eyes filling with tears.
Renata understood this completely too. 'It's not a good world.'

There are some really profound parts that really resonated with me and the above exchange between Dani and Renata was one of those. These women actively reflect on their place in the world and how it affects their lives. I am certain that there are so many readers (not just female ones) who genuinely feel that they are 'not good at this world’.

Normal Women was a funny, honest look at female labour and how it’s treated by capitalism. I was actually quite disappointed that the mystery wasn’t a more prominent part of the book or that the resolution wasn’t more dramatic, as I think that could have delivered further, darker messages about the treatment of women. However, I really enjoyed following Dani through the course of the book and reflecting on its themes.

I am normally picky enough with my Netgalley ARCs to avoid disappointment, but I got it wrong and I was disappointed.
I found the premise interesting and promising: Dani, a young woman who has just moved back to her hometown with her husband and baby, worries she is completely economically dependent on her husband and starts considering sex work at The Temple (apparently a yoga centre, in reality a brothel) when the owner of The Temple, Renata, goes missing. It did not start well for me as Dani is having lunch with her interchangeable friends and discussing how motherhood ruined their bodies (in itself, not a bad topic but I thought it was poorly executed). I liked some parts of the book, comments about the drudgery of parenthood and being a stay-at-home mum. Unfortunately it also took a long time to get started, with endless secret excursions to The Temple, chats with Renata which felt hollow and unoriginal - I could not believe that Dani actually listened to it like any of it was revolutionary... And Renata goes missing in the last third of the novel, and the plot is resolved very quickly.
I struggled to finish it, and I found the story not particularly compelling in the end - and the characters not enough to get me interested, with the secondary characters especially poor, despite several pages devoted to them.

To preface this I want to say I loved Motherthing so maybe my expectations were too high? Because I… did not like this.

Dani and her husband Clark have just welcomed their first baby and moved back to her home town, where her dad was once a local hero. The town is rapidly changing aka a lotta gentrification at work but Dani is drawn to a mysterious building called The Temple. The Temple is a yoga/sex studio run by Renata, who Dani becomes immediately enamoured with. Then Renata disappears.

I think my first problem was expecting the Renata plot to be central to the book. She doesn’t disappear until what, 60% of the way through? Which is mercifully when things start to pick up. Before that the book is more of a character study of Dani which is unfortunate because Dani is dull. Beyond ‘I love my baby’ and ‘I hate my husband’ there’s not much there!

I enjoyed the writing and when the plot kicked in I was invested. Unfortunately it just wasn’t enough to leave me anything but disappointed. Will absolutely read whatever Hogarth writes next but it’s not off the strength of this.

I was really looking forward to this one as I'd loved motherthing by the same author, but this one fell a bit flat for me sadly. I loved the cover and at the beginning I enjoyed some aspect of the writing. I thought the writing at times was quite funny and relatable i terms of women sometimes feeling completely alien to their friend group. However the story veered in a direction I wasn't really expecting and it began becoming incredibly unrealistic. There were elements of a thriller in the making which didn't really materialise and I just found the plot extremely odd by the end. I would still be interested to read more from the author as I had previously enjoyed her work and enjoy her humour, however this one just wasn't for me I'm afraid.