“Lioness” by Emily Perkins is a thought-provoking novel. The story centers around Therese Thorne, a woman in her fifties who has grown accustomed to a life of luxury after marrying into a wealthy, empire-building family. Her affluent existence is disturbed when her husband’s property development faces corruption allegations. Living in the flat below Therese is Claire, her neighbor, who represents a stark contrast to Therese’s polished life. Claire has embraced a lifestyle of freedom, rejecting the traditional confines of domesticity.

“Lioness” is a powerful and engaging read that offers a deep dive into the life of a woman at a crossroads. Emily Perkins has crafted a narrative that is both a critique of societal norms and a celebration of the potential for change and growth at any stage of life.

DNFed at 25%. Couldn’t get in the story, found the characters and especially the narrator very bland and very one-dimensional. Couldn’t keep up with who was who and what the point of the story was.

A blistering takedown of upper class greed, mixed with a hint of female-led cult action. The way the facade of Therese's life cracks and splinters before eventually giving way to the corrupt and rotten core that is capitalism was stunningly done.

This was an interesting premise but I just couldn't find my way into it. There were elements that were intriguing. But overall it never really felt like it was heading anywhere specific, even once we got there. Definitely something interesting in the corruption element and this other life Therese finds herself in but it left me wanting.

Lioness is an enthralling novel of family wealth, female rage, obsession and corruption. The hints of weirdness here & there were brilliant - unexpected and fit well within the narrative.
A book about being alive and grappling with the problems it all causes, the is the first book of Emily Perkins I’ve read, but I’ll certainly be looking into more of her work.

I found Lioness to be an engrossing read, but it didn’t stay with me. As a middle-aged woman, I could identify with Therese’s questioning of herself and her life, and the urge to break out, smash everything and live more authentically (I mean, who doesn’t, right?). I also fell somewhat under the spell of the misfits she falls in with.

Lioness is beautifully written, often vivid and evocative. I did get sucked into the atmosphere. But the problem with writing about a woman who is something of a shell of a person, is that the creation is ephemeral. Therese does not have enough substance in her own right to stand out and stay in the mind over time. I did feel some force emerging but not enough to get a grip on.

I did reflect while reading that Therese is something of a limpet, looking for a rock to stick to. When the rock of her husband starts to dissolve, she needs to find a new rock, and for awhile at least she is lured by and attaches to Claire. While I could see the pathos in that, it makes her hardly likeable or admirable. Or memorable.

I think what ultimately makes this book lose a couple of stars, for me, is that it’s just not ‘modern’ enough. It could have ben written in the ’70s — think Fay Weldon. But while in the ’70s it might have been new and radical, today it feels rather been-there-done-that-bought-the-t-shirt. Hell, that t-shirt is so old and soft it’s now a duster.

Thanks to the publisher, author and Netgalley for the ARC. All my reviews are 100% honest and unbiased, regardless of how I acquire the book.

this was just a soft three stars for me, nothing was particularly spectacular but I didn’t hate it? I think probably as it focuses on middle-aged marriages, it just didn’t resonate with me 100% - i would’ve liked more info on Therese’s childhood/backstory. I definitely didn’t see the twist coming as to where Trevor’s fraud originated, and that was quite engaging, but it ultimately felt to me like quite a standard and predictable novel in terms of feeling and emotion.

Claire as a character really irked me - I didn’t get the whole unleashing freedom vibe & it felt quite immature and unrealistic to see Therese join in with it in the way she did? I guess maybe that was the whole point, for it to be unexpected and fresh in her world, and to show how quickly it can go wrong - although how she can go from swimming in the sea/getting lost to just having a cold and everyone being chill about it I do not know. That whole sub plot, which really didn’t take up enough of the book for me to be the focus, seemed a little ragged and random?

Overall, as a book Lioness was fine, and did grapple with some interesting issues on feminine agency and finance and love, but it felt quite surface level and false at times. I didn’t particular feel desperate at any point to pick it up, but I think my issues mostly just come from having a different age bracket - my mum would’ve enjoyed this much more than I did.

I've heard some people praising this recently, around the time of its release at the start of the month, so I thought I'd pick it up and I'm glad I did! I haven't read much fiction set in New Zealand, if any, so I enjoyed reading about life there and how it differs from city to city in the continent. I enjoyed Therese's narrative voice for the most part; she was self-serving but felt guilty for it, and for the life that she had married into, at least to an extent, and I found it interesting seeing how she tried to counteract that in other ways. Her anxieties in her relationship with her husband and his adult children are juxtaposed by her newfound liberation within her friendship with her neighbour Claire, but I found the latter plotline to be what I became much more invested in, and unfortunately just became confused at the whole family dynamic she was embroiled in.

I found it quite challenging to engage in this story. I don't know if it was because of the narrative style, the protagonist or my general disinterested in privileged people's drama. The cast of characters felt like an unintended parody of wealthy individuals and their cluelessness in times of hardship.

The premise of this book sounded fascinating and the writing was clear and well paced but unfortunately I couldn’t seem to gel with any of the characters- I found everyone really unlikeable and couldn’t empathise with them. The ideas/themes about what makes us happy and roles in our lives (especially gender roles) could elicit some interesting book club conversations but I can’t really say I cared about the story.

Drama within a wealthy privileged family in follows accusations of corruption. We follow the events that slowly unfold through the eyes of Therese, the much-younger wife of a property magnate. Therese comes from a humble family and since she met Trevor and has found success and material comfort but she has also molded every part of herself into an image dictated by his age and power. The surface appearance of her contentment is shaken by the repercussions and reactions of those around her, from fair-weather friends to Trevor's first wife and their adult children, all of whom see Therese as an interloper and exclude her from much of their lives. As all of this happens Therese gets to know her neighbour Claire, who is making radical changes to her life and perspective in search of fulfilment. Claire seems free, brave and wise and Therese feels a magnetic pull towards her and the eclectic people who visit her flat.

There were lots of interesting ideas about what happiness needs and what it is worth, the difference between fulfilment and contentment. Perkins eviscerates late-stage capitalism and those it benefits. But none of these are very significantly addressed. The relationship between Claire and Therese is an odd one, intended to challenge Therese's life of perfect white, heteronormativity, but I also found it unconvincing, particularly when considering the reason that Trevor's first marriage failed. Lightning striking twice like that was silly and unnecessary.

The focus of the novel on the fall-out rather than the build-up to Trevor's possible disgrace would have been more satisfying and given Therese more room to grow and Perkins more opportunity to develop her themes.

I really - really! - appreciated Perkins' crafted writing. And I also appreciated Therese and Claire as fictional characters. On the other band, It was hard to keep up at the beginning - maybe a different structure, not sterctly chronological could have been better?

This was a frustrating read. I empathised with her very much, and so couldn't help but hating her surrounding characters, while also thinking some of her behaviour was quite bizarre.

In Lioness Emily Perkins effectively depicts a woman who has reinvented herself but then struggles with feeling authentic in her new life as a more middle class wife, businesswoman, stepmother to adult children. She develops a new friendship with a neighbour who has also been questioning the status quo which forces her to re-evaluate.

The reader meets Therese Thorne, the fifty-something wife of a construction magnate 20 years her senior, on the brink of a lifestyle change. They are planning to relocate from New Zealand to Sydney as her husband Trevor steps back from work for a more relaxed pace of life when a scandal hits. Trevor’s last hurrah, a huge hotel project is hit with allegations of cronyism and historic fraud investigations.

For the last 30 years Therese has been building a lifestyle brand Therese Thorne whilst juggling being the second wife to Trevor and playing house with his adult children. The aspirational lifestyle boutique has grown successful (with Trevor’s backing) but it pales in comparison to the wealth and success of her husband. Together they have lived a charmed and privileged life which is a far cry from Therese’s upbringing. When the scandal hits the couple’s friends and associates dwindle and Therese relies heavily on neighbour Claire for companionship.

Therese seeks the authenticity that her brand emanates so easily but in her gilded life is hard to come by… except Claire. Claire seems free, unbothered and untethered in Therese’s eyes and she hungers for that herself.

This is a transformative story that captures the many roles women play throughout their lives. We see a gentle unfolding of Therese’s experiences as her outlook begins to shift, a series of decisions made with no regard for input where she is dismissed, exploring the time in a woman’s life where she begins to feel invisible. Will Therese break free of the mould of privileged banality she has made for herself or will the lure of old habits prove too strong?

Perkins seeks to cherish the power of female friendship with Therese and Claire’s relationship and explore how feminine companionship can elevate, soothe and foster a sense of belonging.

I enjoyed this book although I found the prose juddered at times. Scenes would be building only to stall and flash back in time which could be challenging to follow. But overall I felt it was a carefully measured and thought provoking story that examines how each decision and exchange filters down through our lives.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bloomsbury and Emily Perkins for providing me with a digital ARC in return for my honest review.

I confess, I found it hard to engage with this book and get a handle on what it's trying to do: there are lots of strands to the story but they never really cohered for me. Therese is in her fifties and has been married to an older, wealthy man for over thirty years when they are hit with a financial scandal and accusations of cronyism that upend what she thought she knew about her marriage. At the same time, there's her relationship with Claire who has the flat downstairs, and the extended story of all the step-children who have grown up with financial privilege, as well as the ex-wife who comes back into Therese's life. It all feels a little like the Forsyte Saga for the 2010s but in a fragmented way.

This just didn't work for me, sorry.