Member Reviews
The Glass Woman is one of those novels which grows on you with every page. By setting this novel in 17th century Iceland, Caroline Lea takes us back in time to witness the hardships that her characters face on a daily basis. Rosa marries Jon ensure her her mother's survival even if it means leaving her village and the boy she has known all of her life and has grown to love. She finds herself alone, her husband doesn't want her to make new friends and she finds herself haunted by her husbands first marriage.
This is an evocative and atmospheric novel features characters you will care about and who will remain with you long after you've finished it.. It reminded me of Jane Eyre, The Miniaturist and Burial Rites.
The Glass Woman was a pretty good book though it felt rather like wading through treacle much of the time. I didn't feel a bond with any of the characters. Possibly Katrin, she was the most interesting, though we didn't delve into her backstory beyond scratching away a layer of frost. It was a slow tale that seemed contrived, at times, and I wasn't terribly interested in what happened to Rosa in her new life, married to Jon. Her character lacked any ability to solicit feeling from the reader. No sympathy, no empathy, no kinship, not a sausage.
But, possibly two-thirds of the way through, things took a more provocative turn. It still seemed like a put up job but the tension and the sense of angst rose to a higher level. Not sure the Anna angle helped much. It seemed silly but there was room for the story to grow with this development. The last bit was by far the best. Very gothic, rewarding and piqued my interest. Instead of counting down the pages waiting for the book to finish I actually wanted to know what would happen and felt some real emotion for Jon and Petur. If the rest of the book could have carried that level on engagement, I would have been hooked. A promising start that was saved by a powerful, memorable ending.
I am always drawn to books set in Iceland, particularly historical ones, since reading the brilliant Burial Rites by Hannah Kent a few years ago. I think it’s the rich folklore the country has which together with the extreme climate makes for an endlessly fascinating setting. The Glass Woman makes full use of this great setting and instantly transported me to the unforgiving landscape of 17th century Iceland.
I have to say I went into this book fully expecting to like it but it actually surpassed my high expectations. It is just so beautifully written from start to finish.
The story follows Rósa, a young woman who moves across Iceland to marry a wealthy man she barely knows. The author slowly builds a real sense of unease and threat through her lyrical prose. There are definite echoes of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca in the sense that Rósa feels haunted by her new husbands first wife and the atmospheric feel to the book but it in no way feels like it’s been done before. The Glass Woman feels authentic and original. There is so much interesting folklore and tradition weaved into the plot that I found so intriguing. The way these characters live is a million miles from modern times but feels completely relevant because of the way the author has brought the characters fully to life.
One of the biggest strengths of this book is the relationships between the characters. Each and every one is incredibly nuanced and so compelling. Rósa is a fantastic woman to read about. The oppressive patriarchal society woman of her era lived in forces her into a situation she feels she cannot escape. It was fascinating to examine the complexities of what it mean to be female in that time and place and how woman still managed to demonstrate their strength even when they are consistently told they are weak and feeble.
I have to be honest and say that The Glass Woman is not a particularly cheerful story - it is harsh and complicated - but there is also so much beauty and so many layers to it. The ending was perfect in my opinion. It both broke my heart whilst still feeling like the exactly right way to end this story. I highly recommend it.
Caroline Lea plunges the reader deep into the frozen heart of an Icelandic winter in the 17th century. The writing is so evocative that as you read you strain to offset the effects of the wan light reflecting blindingly from the snowy expanse, and turn the heating up a notch as you feel your breath icing on the pages.
Life is hard for Rósa. It is a struggle to carve a living in a small village and bleak conditions, but the fault of being born female restricts activity further still, and with suspicion falling on anyone who can read or write and accusations of witchcraft hanging in the air like a poisonous fog, her days offer nothing beyond hunger and housework.
Forced to trade herself to a wealthy outsider in exchange for her mother’s wellbeing, Rósa finds herself isolated further still by a controlling husband simmering with suppressed violence and suspicion. Naturally, the enforced isolation paired with the intrigue of dark secrets half-suspected causes her grip on her meek wifely facade to slip dangerously, along with her fear for her sanity. Of course, the noises in the attic don’t help!
I was reminded very much of Gothic and/or feminist classics such as The Yellow Wallpaper, Rebecca, Jane Eyre or even (older still) the story of Bluebeard and his wives. It is not only the frigid setting that casts such seemingly familiar stories into a fresh perspective however, but the characters themselves. Jón, Rósa, Katrín, Anna, Pétur and Páll all have a complexity of motive and morality that renders them almost unfathomable and their actions unexpected, layering an addictively disorienting mystique over events. Lea shows a knack for presenting the reader with people and monsters, and then monsterising the people and humanising the monsters. It doesn’t do to judge on first impressions here.
The plot begins at a critical and climactic moment, then slips back to fill in the events that lead to that point and beyond. The story creaks along with glacial slowness for the first two-thirds of the book – claustrophobic, repetitive and achingly cold – really emphasising the gradual erosion of the main character’s spirit and will. Then, with the suddenness of a thrown snowball, events begin to cascade, and the last third of the story is an avalanche of action and revelations that will leave you breathless and reeling. Once the snowstorm settles it reveals that whilst life may never be the same for our characters, the land and its culture continue majestically on unchanged by the specks of warmth that flicker on the surface.
The Glass Woman is a fascinating and chilling Gothic tale that will entertain and reward the patient reader.
He remembers carrying the heavy body in the winding sheet, weighted with stones; remembers his wound paining him as they scraped through the snow and smashed the ice with long staves before sliding the body in. The sea had swallowed it immediately, the flash of white vanishing into the darkness. But the knowledge of the body stayed, like the blood-spattered scenes at the end of the Sagas: those age-old, heat-filled stories, which are told to children from birth and fill every Icelander with an understanding of violence.
Six days ago, he had muttered a prayer over the black water, and then they lad laboured back to the croft. The ice had crusted over the hole by moon-down, and by the time the pale half-light of the winter sun seeped into the sky, the snow concealed it. Weather masks a multitude of sins.
But the land in Iceland is never still. The grumbling tremors or the sucking of the waters must have dislodged the stones, and now the body has bobbed upwards and broken through the cracks in the ice. And here it is. Waving.
– Caroline Lea, The Glass Woman
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
This is a historical fiction set in Iceland in 1686. While I enjoyed this book overall, I thought it was a little too drawn out and slow. I loved the setting and the author did a good job at creating some tension. The introduction of a second perspective later in the book was a little jarring at first but it added more depth to the story. Overall I enjoyed this book.
An historic murder mystery set in harsh 17th century Iceland. Life is hard and stark. A young Anna is suddenly betrothed to Jon recently widowed and had hurriedly and secretly buried his wife. By this marriage Anna’s ailing mother would gain food . Anna moves to Jons village but not is all it would seem. Anna is kept apart from the villagers and her husband remains remote from her spending much time with Petur and trading. Anna is lonely, alone and frightened. How safe is she? Secrets and lies abound. The book is as chilly as the surroundings it portrays my thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for an Arc copy of this book to review
I have read books set in Iceland before but never one set in the 1600s. I imagined it to be similar to one set at the same time in the UK, but I was wrong. I have never read a book like this before.
There are many reasons, the snow is just one. The book takes place between October and December and the weather is pretty grim. I just can’t imagine anything like the conditions described. How you could cause damage to your skin by wiping away tears.
There are the sagas, the folklore, the superstition, the attitudes towards them by the more religious people. The threat of execution for those who believed in something different. The way of living and coping with extreme poverty and the ways in which some would use that to their advantage to get what they want.
I felt tense at times reading it, mainly because I couldn’t work out which way the novel would go. Was Rósa safe from Jon and Petur or would they do her harm? Would she be able to make friends in the community or would she be regarded with suspicion and resentment.
Most of the time it is about Rósa but there are increasing accounts from Jon and it is was these that gave insight into what happened with Anna, Petur and the way he dealt with the consequences.But it was Rosa’s story I preferred. I admired her will, her passion and her loyalty. And I found what happened towards the end of the novel concerning what was in the loft one of the more moving parts of the novel.
I loved this book, the claustrophobic atmosphere, all of the characters and the loyalty, emotion and stubborness shown by Rósa and her friend Katrin was remarkable.
Absorbing 'historical' fiction but, as many reviewers have already pointed out, a strong feeling of Jane Eyre/Rebecca and The Miniaturist in the story.
Dark nights, deep snows and a living landscape that seems to reject or embrace its human settlers makes seventeenth century Iceland a stunning setting for this novel, however. There is an underlying and strong sense of the 'pagan' versus Christian beliefs of the time, of the threat of runes, sagas and witchcraft that underpin the actions of the characters, as well as the suspicions, superstitions and xenophobia of the small village communities.
The additional chapters from Jón's point of view added to the story, but it felt as though they were inserted belatedly, once Lea realised she needed another POV for the ending.
On the other hand, there was nothing in the novel that didn't need to be there - some of the historical fiction that I've read has been drawn out and tiresome, but The Glass Woman, much like its physical setting, kept things short, engaging, immersive and to the point.
I was initially intrigued by the title and the synopsis. A dark tale set in a time of superstition and somewhat harsh Christian beliefs in the depths of an Icelandic winter.
It is beautifully written with quite complex characters and captures the period and landscape of the time excellently. We find the central character Rosa facing extreme circumstances after the death of her father who was a church pastor. In an effort to save her mother who is failing in health she agrees to the proposal of a dark stranger to move to a village far away to ensure the wellbeing of her mother but forsaking the man she truly loves.
Rosa can read and write in a time when it was unusual for women to be educated which makes her a person to be frowned upon and she has also read the sagas. What are the meaning of the runes she finds. The understanding of runes themselves could be an accusation of paganism and she could be severely punished for that. The villages seem hostile to her and she is strongly advised to keep away from them by her husband . Nothing is as it seems, everything is strange and frightening she can feel the village is full of secrets and lies. Something happened to her husbands first wife but what? The story is told mostly from Rosa’s perspective and Jon the man to whom she is married. Eventually the two stories come together giving focus to the true events of what has transpired.
Delving into this book is like reading an Icelandic tale with echoes of a dark Mr Rochester or Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. Having said that the story has more than enough of its own merits.
The Glass Woman is an extraordinary novel that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. It manages to be atmospheric, gripping and very dark which makes it the perfect book to snuggle up with on cold nights.
Firstly the Icelandic settings is superbly described so that the reader can picture the scenes vividly. The dark, volatile landscape almost becomes another character as it sits brooding in the background and seems to reflect Rósa’s mood as the book progresses which I thought was very clever. I also loved learning more about Icelandic culture and a bit about their myths or legends which they used to believe in. I’d not read much about rumes so I found that bit particularly interesting.
Rósa was a very interesting character but one that took me a little while warm to. She seemed quite full of herself at the beginning and I didn’t like how she threw everything away even if it was meant to be for selfless reasons. However she soon grew on me and I found I admired her bravery and determination.
This book was surprisingly gripping and there was always an underlying feeling that something was going to happen which helped add to a lot of the tension in the book. I found myself gripped pretty much from the start as I wanted to find out how the story would develop. As I grew to like Rósa my concern for her welfare increased and I wanted to keep reading to make sure she was ok.
I absolutely loved the ending and thought it was the perfect way to end the book. I was so pleased this is worked out how they did though wish it had maybe continued a little further as I would love to have read more.
This is unbelievably the author’s debut novel and I’m very excited to read more from her. This is definitely a book I’ll be thinking about for a while.
Huge thanks to Jenny Platt from Michael St Joseph for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book which I received in exchange for an honest review.
I was sent a copy of The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea to read and review by NetGalley.
Set in the year 1686 this is a story that reads like a saga, the main protagonist being the landscape, weather and traditions of Iceland where it is set. The human characters are quite believable and the descriptions of the settings, both inside and out, do well to conjure up the scenes in your mind. I wasn’t totally sure I liked the format of the book as the chapters named Rosa are written in the third person in a linear form but the chapters named Jon are first person and these are set at a later time, which I have to admit confused me for a moment or two! I got engrossed in the story and enjoyed it very much but by the end of the book things were being tied up rather too neatly hence the four star rating.
The Glass Woman is a compelling tale set in Iceland in the 17th century when small communities battled the elements and themselves. Rosa a young woman educated by her late father is forced into an arranged marriage with Jon whose first wife died under mysterious circumstances. The novel is atmospheric and well researched, and I became immersed in the story.
My thanks to Penguin U.K./Michael Joseph for an eARC via NetGalley of Caroline Lea’s ‘The Glass Woman’, a historical mystery set in Iceland during the final months of 1686.
Following the death of her father, Rósa is betrothed to Jón Eiríksson, a man she hardly knows but who will provide for her mother and extended family. His first wife, Anna, had only recently died and there were widespread rumours about him. When she joins him in the remote village of Stykkishólmur, Rósa soon finds that she is the subject of gossip and it also becomes clear that her husband has many secrets. The Prologue has already indicated that very dramatic events will take place in the near future.
I grew up with the romantic suspense novels of writers such as Victoria Holt and Daphne du Maurier, who took their inspiration from earlier writers in the Gothic tradition. In such novels often an innocent young woman marries an older affluent man, who clearly has secrets. A sense of threat overshadows her.
So I settled in for what emerged as a very worthy successor to these writers, one that powerfully evokes its period and setting. Iceland is a country of extreme and savage beauty where an awareness of the huldufólk remain very much part of their culture. The sprinkling of awareness of the Sagas, runes, seidr (witchcraft) and yes the huldufólk contrast throughout the novel with the stern tenets of Christianity during a period when the accusation of witchcraft could be a death sentence.
The setting is haunting and claustrophobic, especially as winter draws in. Rósa’s loneliness is very palpable. While set in the late 17th Century there is a very timeless feel to the novel.
The text contains Icelandic words and phrases and a helpful glossary is provided at the end. In her Author’s Note Lea includes titles of a number of books on Iceland’s culture and history that assisted her research. I am always keen to read of the influences that drew an author to a particular time and place.
I was also pleased that Lea mentioned Hannah Kent’s ‘Burial Rites’ as an inspiration for the sense of place. I feel that the many readers who were drawn into the world that Kent described will find this another fascinating journey into that harsh yet magnificent land.
‘The Glass Woman’ is a beautifully written work of historical fiction. Given this and its themes I wouldn’t be surprised to see it nominated for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Also, I would expect it to be a popular choice for reading groups.
A novel set in 17th Centuary Iceland where people live in small isolated villages and the old beliefs of runes and pagan worship are outlawed.
The pages of this novel are imbued with mystery and superstition as we travel with Rosa to her new home and new husband far away in a strange settlement. There Is a huge mystery at the heart of this novel and Caroline Lea draws out the tension to the very last chapter. You will feel the deep cold and icy winds and experience the unsettling events of Rosa’s new life as you turn each page of this well written historical novel. Recommended.
The Glass Woman is a deceptively bleak tale set in the vast icy expanse of seventeenth-century Iceland, and what I enjoyed the most was how very dark it was; the atmosphere was ominous, to say the least, and completely oppressive. The beautiful, brutal setting added to the atmospherics wonderfully and the Icelandic cultural references were intriguing to me. Perhaps it's the harshness of the landscape that has fuelled the suspicion running rife in the small communities who look on outsiders with mistrust, or perhaps there really is an evil waiting to be unmasked.
A haunting novel that is richly-imagined and full of mystery, intrigue and melancholy. The characters are beautifully drawn with sadness about them, but be warned nothing in this novel is quite what it seems. The writing style was beautiful and immersive and the descriptions, in particular, were stunning. I fell hook, line and sinker for this mesmerising tale of superstition, fear, paranoia and wonderment. The setting is as much character as the cast, and it provides the backdrop to the perfect menacing tale for a chilly winter evening.
Many thanks to Michael Joseph for an ARC.
I was drawn in by an intriguing title, a beautiful cover, and the promise of a dark tale set in a cold country.
Then I was captured by a striking image.
On the coast of Iceland in November 1686 a a tremor cracked the ice and a body floated to the surface of the sea. One arm was raised and its bone-white fingers waved, as if it was alive.
A group of villagers gathered to watch and talk, but there was one man among them who remained silent; because he knew the who the person under under the ice had been and he knew how that person had come to be there ….
Some months earlier, a young woman named Rósa was living in a small, impoverished community with her widowed mother, Sigridúr. She knew that her mother was growing frail and would not survive the winter if she could not find more money to buy food and fuel.
She had received an offer of marriage from Jón, the wealthy leader of a settlement some distance away. He promised to look after her mother and the local community; and so, though she didn’t want to leave her mother, her home and Páll – her childhood sweetheart who she had always thought she would wed – she knew that she had to accept the proposal.
When she travelled to her new home in Stykkishólmur with her new husband, Rósa was concerned that her husband was taciturn, that he had them sleep in the open rather than seek lodgings, and that when they did meet other people he gave a false name.
She hoped that things would be better when she was settled in her new home, but her husband made it clear that she was to be subservient and remain at the their croft to keep house and leave only at his bidding.
He told her that he didn’t want his wife mixing with the people in the village; and when she approached her neighbours she found that they were reluctant to speak to her, that there was a mystery surrounding the death of the death of Jón’s first wife, and that they would say to her was that she should obey her husband.
Just one woman, Katrin, tried to do a little more to help her.
Rósa couldn’t help being fearful of her new husband, and of his apprentice, Pétur. She tried to please Jón, and sometimes she succeeded, but she struggled to cope with staying in their croft alone, with little to occupy her time.
She loved reading and writing, she loved the old sagas, but her mother had warned her that her husband would not approve of any of that, and so she wrote only a little and hid her writing very carefully.
She wondered what was in the loft space he insisted must be kept locked at all time, about what made the floorboards creak at night when her husband was away and she was in her bed alone, and about what had really had happened to the wife who came before her ….
Rósa was a wonderfully engaging character and I really felt that I was living through this story with her. I understood her feelings, and I appreciated how carefully she walked the line as she tried to please her husband and to establish a life for herself.
The storytelling kept me close to her, and while it moved slowly at times I realised that it had to, to catch the reality of Rósa’s situation.
The writing was dark and lovely, and it caught the time, the place and the atmosphere wonderfully well.
I had reservations though.
My first reservation was that the time and place didn’t seem that specific. The setting was beautifully realised, the landscape had a significant part to play in the story; but I couldn’t help thinking that the story might have been set in any isolated community in a cold country, at a point in history where there were tensions between old and new traditions.
My second reservation was that the structure didn’t work as well as it should. At first the story was told purely from Rósa’s point of view, but some way into the book another perspective was added into the mix. I completely understood the need for that second voice, it enriched the story but I wish it had been introduced a little earlier and that the transitions had been done with a little more finesse.
Luckily, there was much more that I loved.
I thought I might be a retelling of a traditional story, and I might have been in the beginning; but in time that story was subverted quite beautifully, and I found that the truth of this story and its characters were not at all as I had expected.
I was caught up in the story from the beginning but in the later stages, when it reached the time when the body emerged from the icy sea and the consequences of that played out, I realised how real Rósa, the people around her and the world that they lived in had become to me.
This book, with its secrets and its silences, worked so well in this dark, cold winter.
The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea is a mesmerising novel full of intrigue, folk tales and superstitions. Perfect for fans of Jane Eyre and The Bear and the Nightingale.
I ‘read a chapter’ after having to get up at 4am when my son wasn’t sleeping but one chapter turned into five and I finished the book before the day was out.
The Glass Woman is about a young woman named Rosa living in a village in Iceland in 1686. The heads of the villagers are filled both with the ancient sagas and the teachings of the church. They practice pagan runes in secret whilst preaching that the practice of witchcraft is a sin and will see you burned.
Rosa and her mother are struggling to survive since her father died two months previously of a disease or subject of a curse depending on who you speak to. Too proud to beg they have to rely on handouts, but food is scarce and when Rosa learns the boy she secretly loves is going without food to feed her she knows she must take drastic action.
“It had taken Rosa very little time after her pappi’s death to see that their situation was desperate.”
Her mother has become ill and Rosa knows that the main things she need to cure her are food and fuel for the fire, neither of which they can afford.
Then enters Jon Eiriksson, a rich fisherman, businessman and farmer who is looking for another wife after his died earlier in the year. He wants to marry Rosa and she knows that marrying him would ensure her mother and the boy she loves will last the harsh winter.
She has her doubts though because rumours have followed Jon from the remote village in which he lives, rumours in which his wife didn’t die of a fever but was killed by him.
Rosa’s mother is blunt when he calls on them.
“I heard you buried her in the middle of the night, then went out fishing the next day. As if your wife cost you no more grief than a dog.’
She warns Rosa afterwards that she is too naïve to see there is a darkness in that man but both of them know that if Rosa doesn’t marry him then they will both starve.
“When a stone is caught in a rushing river, what choice does it have but to move?”
Rosa’s father taught her to read and write and Rosa enjoys writing sagas, but she knows that when she soon realises when she marries Jon that she must put all that aside. A woman must honour and obey her husband and women who write are often accused of witchcraft.
Then there is the strange glass figure he gives her as a wedding gift.
“It was cold, like frozen water, and shaped into the perfect form of a woman: tiny hands clasped in introspection, gaze meekly lowered…’I had it from a Danish trader,’ he said. ‘Beautiful. Fragile. Humble.’ He touched her cheek. His hand was burning on her skin. ‘It made me think of you.’
A woman made of glass and stillness: perfect but easily shattered.”
That is what she must become if she is to please her new husband, but Rosa finds life with her husband hard. He is gone from the croft most days but forbids the lonely Rosa from inviting the villagers to visit or from visiting them. He says he doesn’t want to end up like Anna and be made worse by the local gossipers.
On top of this Rosa often feels like she is not alone in the house, like someone or something is watching her and there are strange noises coming from the locked loft she is forbidden from entering.
Is she going mad or does she need to be careful that she doesn’t end up like Jon’s last wife?
The cover of The Glass Woman beautiful and definitely the kind of cover book lovers would buy just because it is pretty but luckily the story within makes it worthwhile as well.
The book begins with a body being pulled from the ice and a man feeling the weight of accusing stares upon himself.
“The day the earth shifts, a body emerges from the belly of the ice-crushed sea. Bone-white fingers waving, as if alive.”
Caroline Lea paints a vivid picture of the harsh landscape in which the villagers exist, and it is easy to see why the land is steeped in ancient sagas.
“The land is black-toothed and raw, occasionally stippled with rough scrub and coarse yellowed grass. The haunting desolation stops her breath in her throat. In the distance, the mountains look like gathering storm clouds. There is an old belief that each mountain contains a spirit, and perhaps this accounts for the itch between Rosa’s shoulder blades as they move into the craggy landscape.”
The Glass Woman is full of warm and engaging characters living in a harsh and wintery landscape and is a novel you won’t be sorry you picked up. A perfect winter read.
Rosa finds herself far from home, far from everything and everyone she has known, and married to Jon, leader of a remote Icelandic community. Given the mystery surrounding the death of Jon's first wife, hints of madness and a loft she is forbidden to enter from which strange noises seem to emanate at night, Rosa could be forgiven for thinking she's in some 17th century Icelandic version of Jane Eyre or Rebecca. Add to that Jon's reluctance to talk about his past and his command that Rosa should not mix with the other villagers and you've all the ingredients for a deliciously atmospheric Gothic-style mystery.
The author does a brilliant job of creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia and suffocating seclusion as well as bringing to life the realities of the harsh life of the remote community, the endless domestic drudgery and battle against the elements. There's also fascinating detail about Icelandic culture of the time including the food, language, household routines, customs, social order and mythology. It's a society in which the expected role of women is obedience and where any deviation brings the risk of accusation of witchcraft.
Alternating between the point of views of Rosa and Jon, the narrative switches between past and present until both storylines converge and all is finally revealed. When it is, it's a story of cruelty, forbidden love, madness born out of grief and unfulfilled desire, dark nights and even darker deeds.
The Glass Woman is an atmospheric, intense and powerful story and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating read. Set in the stark and desolate landscape of Iceland in the 1680's it is at once both atmospheric and gripping. Steeped with the superstition and folklore of this unique setting there is a deep sense of isolation which adds to the intrigue and mystery as the story unfolds. The reader is immersed in the landscape itself as much as the tale being told. This wild and unpredictable setting is essential to the whole atmosphere of the story which is narrated in the third person interspersed with Jon's own viewpoint as the tale weaves through differing timelines towards its conclusion. A beautifully dark narrative exploring a multitude of themes this is the perfect winter read.
This is a fascinating read. It is atmospheric and gripping. It was really interesting to read a story set in Icelandic history. I enjoy reading stories from different cultures and this one was definitely worth reading.
Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.