This book was a compelling and enjoyable read from start to finish. The writing was engaging, the pacing kept me hooked, and the characters felt authentic and well-developed. It struck a strong emotional chord and left a lasting impression. Highly recommend to anyone looking for something thoughtful and impactful.

Did not finish - the first line of the book was very gripping, overall I was neutral on the book but it was just not for me sadly

This book is about a community of women in California that decided to live together, support each other with no ties. They are also lesbians and somewhat witches. Not in a magical realism way, but more reclaiming the term for feminism.

I loved the sense of community and the nuances of how a society like this would work. I think it would be very accurate how the disagreements would work and might be solved.

The part that I found the weakest was the characters. They felt incredibly young, like high school girls with messy love lives. They felt very two dimensional and I didn't connect with anyone or care about anyone. Which made a lot of the topics discussed feel very surface level.

Overall, it was fine, not terrible, not offensive, not memorable.

I want to go to there!

I am totally down to live in this world of a feminist commune!

The dynamics of the group are fascinating and help shape these women in different ways.

A Circle Outside is a tender, funny exploration of queer community, magic and chosen family set in the 1980's in California. I loved the setting and the characters, the interpersonal moments between them were there own kind of magic in this book. Some moments drifted in pace but the charm never falters.

The premise of this got me so excited but I was so disappointed that it didn’t hook me at all. Perhaps I went in with too high expectation, however I despised to DNF as it put me into a bit of a slump and never had to urge to keep going. I couldn’t connect with the characters and was struggling to decipher who was who when talking. Thank you to NetGalley for the arc, it’s a shame it wasn’t for me however I am grateful for the opportunity to give this one a go.

I REALLY wanted to like this book, but ultimately I put it down more times than I actually read it. The scenario felt forced and there were too many characters that I couldn't keep them straight (pun intended). I felt like I was working too hard to understand all of the plot lines. I love all of the ingredients, so maybe I will try again another time, but it wasn't for me.

As a younger lesbian, I fell in love with [book:The Hadra|2679310] so was up for revisiting a book about lesbians using their power. However, A Circle Outside is about a whiny group of 1980s lesbian witches who share-house with the same difficulties faced by other group of women who live with and have sex with each other: "But don't say the lesbian community is incestuous. There's nothing wrong with women coming together and acting on their lust."

The supposedly revolutionary part of this group's practice is that this coven massages the whole body of their members on their ritual days, including genitals: "each of the Elements freely massaged their Fire women, never avoiding her breasts and vulva as massages did in Patriarchy." A coven that plays together stays together apparently...

However, as you might expect from the time period where in lesbian space projects toppled over the inclusion or exclusion of trans women, separatism rears its ugly head: "They must be talking about separatism again. Women got so political about it. Why think about men when you're on women's land?" You'll even get tired of hearing about the patriarchy (it's laboured) including the internalised patriarchy women bring into women's spaces. Maybe deciding wanting a tractor as patriarchal was a bridge too far...

The writing is pedestrian. Too many characters are introduced in one big swathe so you're constantly trying to remember who's had sex with who, and who's wearing the ridiculous ears. This impacts character development. I spent most of the novel finding Wren, the lead protagonist, annoying: "Wren never made art that challenged anyone. She thought living as a lesbian witch was enough." Wren thrusts herself onto flatmates who are not attracted to her: "Wren, you keep inviting me to do things I can't. It hurts both of us to tell you no all the time." Her flatmates are gentle about it, but do point out the way she is attracted only to women who are emotionally unavailable. It's manipulative, and I hated the ending as a result. We shouldn't reward coerced sex, even on the astral plane.

The author writes in the acknowledgements that this is an 'psychedelic lesbian feminist pagan utopia novel', and that is exactly how I would describe this book. I just felt that it dragged for too long, with too many conversations between the girls and not enough 'psychedelic' vibes for my taste. Contrary to other reviewers I didn't have any problems connecting with the characters or remembering who they were (although I did write notes in a piece of paper in the begining, but I do that all the time). I felt it was an okay book and I had fun while I read it. Also, justice for Wren and Robin was a bit of a POS.

The premise of this book sounded so interesting but I did not like any of the characters; they all seemed to speak on witchy things like an early 2010's indie film. The writing style of the author was intriguing and honestly kept my attention, but the no plot and dialogue was just not for me.

Alright, thank you so much to netgalley for this arc.
This book wasn't as good as it sounded, in fact It wasn't good at all. The writing was shallow and honest very annoying, it had a lot of potential but it threw it away. It just was objectively not that good to me.

This reads like a badly written and developed fanfiction - no descriptions whatsoever, most of the novel seems to be boring dialogue, the writing about feelings and motives feels like that of a third grade student. The premise was highly intriguing - lesbian feminist witches, i was so excited to love this novel - but the execution is extremely and insurmountably lacking.

A fast and fascinating read. I've recently become interested in the history of separatism and the women's land movement in the US (with its many issues, including transphobia and the predominance of white, middle-class women in these groups), so I was already curious about the world of this story. I feel that the writer draws you in very quickly, establishing and explaining the structure of this alternative community while also engaging you with the characters' personal stories and journeys. I found Wren's relationship with her mother and subsequent romantic connections especially interesting.

DNF

I just couldn't get into this one. I had to fight to pay attention and eventually i had to just admit defeat. I don't know if it was the writing style, the story or what but it clearly just wasn't for me.

DNF unfortunately, really disappointed. I wanted haunting and heartfelt, but got melodrama and missed potential. This book was a big disappointment for me. What promised to be a fun yet emotional exploration of feminism and gay witches (!!?!) ended up feeling forced and, frankly, a bit cheesy. It was hard to take the story seriously. I kept hoping it would turn a corner, but it never did…

I dnf'd this book. It was all over the place. The premise sounded amazing. A group of lesbian witches all living together??? But I was bored and confused rather quickly....

thank you so much netgalley, linda rosewood and beread ltd. for the eARC in exchange for my honest review! ♡

i have never dnf'd an ARC before as i usually like to come to a final conclusion knowing i gave the author and proof an entire chance to prove themselves, but i really struggled with this. definitely needs more time and editing!

i was initially really drawn in by the cover art and the concept - i love queer reads and witchy vibes, but the structure and the writing are very chaotic and clunky. i had a really difficult time finding the entertainment/enjoyment due to how hard i was working to read it.

the eARC formatting quality also didn't help the overall reading experience - the chapters and sentences got broken up and spaced out a little strange.

key points to highlight:
- couldn't connect with the setting or the characters (confusing and flat)
- too much over explaining that broke the 4th wall for me
- it seemed like most areas for this were underdeveloped and the author was trying to figure it out as they wrote (needs more depth and grounding)

DNF'D 23%

this needs more editing. Pull this back and put some love into these characters... a group / coven of lesbian Witches buy a house and try to fix it up. The banter never stopped, I personally don't need a plot- but holy heck nothing happened except not funny banter from some 30something year old women. I had to stop because trying to keep each character straight in my head was giving me a migraine.

I loved the premise but I had a hard time keeping the characters straight or connecting with them. I think I needed a little more depth.

This book just was not for me I’m not sure if it was the setting but I just couldn’t connect with what I was reading I hope it does well