I Tried the Shortlist of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025 🏆 Taste Testing Book Awards

For me personally, I ended up liking this a lot more than I thought I would and finding it was a lot more touching. Like I said, a lot more moving than I expected it to be.

However, I actually found this hilarious. I found this very funny and I felt like it managed to balance the serious subject matter and a lot of moments of vulnerability and heart and honesty reckoning with the complexity of the situation that Nadia has found herself in and managed to have some pretty biting commentary and satire while also being funny.

Again, I thought the pros was gorgeous and I thought that it was at its strongest when it was exploring Nila's experience as a second generation immigrant. And I just wish we'd spent more time with that part of her, with that exploration, with her coming out of this portion of her life and that transition period instead of so much time feeling like we were trapped in amber in this dysfunctional moment of her life.

There was nothing about the story that was drawing me in. I found the constant switches between points of view jarring, especially early on.

I was very unimpressed both by the writing style, but also by the content and the way it was framed. I just found it incredibly off-putting.

And I thought the book itself was gorgeous and beautiful. And as I have said multiple times on this channel now, so many times, this is my favorite read of the year so far. I adore it.