Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was one of the most unpleasant books I’ve ever read, and I should have DNF’d it. I’m assuming this book is meant to be a blunt portrayal of a first-time mom suffering from PPD, but I had zero empathy for the main character. She may have suffered from depression, but she was also a terrible person who should not have had a baby. She made one horrible decision after another, and this continues to happy throughout the entire book. And that whole trip she made with Penny? I can’t believe Penny stayed friends with her after that, and I can’t believe Owen didn’t leave her.

Marriage is hard, I get that. And having babies is hard. But Estie was an extremely unlikable character from the start. There isn’t one thing I like about her. All the other characters (with the exception of Penny) are unlikable- Owen, Alice, and Estie’s parents. What even was the point of this novel? It’s very depressing and overall, extremely frustrating as the main character does not make good decisions throughout the entire book. I finished it with a bad taste in my mouth.

this was a really well done novel, it was a unique take on motherhood and how it was told in this storyline. I was invested in what was going on and was engaged from the first page. The characters were so well done and was that feel that I wanted. Danit Brown has a strong writing style and am excited for more.

Danit Brown Television for Women Melville Publishing House, June 2025.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

I found this a profoundly disappointing reflection upon a woman’s first few months home with her baby. To Estie, her newborn remains ‘the baby,’ until well into their departure from the safety of the hospital. Their home, in which the baby’s parents harbour disappointments, the baby at last becomes Rosie to her mother. This is a clever acknowledgement of the distance between Estie, the only source of food, and Rosie who is dependent upon her mother’s presence. That this is only a physical presence is conveyed well by the distancing language. However, this is the redeeming feature for me. Unfortunately, Estie’s self-regard, referred to herself as ‘hormonal’, and later, her behaviour the result of ‘depression’, was a stumbling block for my becoming immersed sympathetically in Estie’s undoubtably distressing and challenging first months of motherhood.

Estie and Owen have chosen parenthood with little thought to its consequences. The birth although not easy, becomes of infinitesimal concern after their abrupt release from the hospital into their car carefully fitted with its safety baby capsule, and then into their home. Here, the cat, a source of Owen’s allergies, Estie’s love/hate feelings, and her mother’s prognostication of threat to Rosie, is a symbol for Estie’s dependence on her relationship with Alice, a college friend. Her need for her friendship, and Alice’s need to deflect this is an important part of Estie’s past. Also impacting on Estie’s present is her parents’ marriage and divorce. Penny, another friend, and Dan, a past lover, all feature in Estie’s attempts to come to terms with the adulthood forced upon her as the most important source of comfort for her daughter.

The never-ending accumulation of soiled laundry, unwashed dishes, unvacuumed and uncleaned surfaces is well depicted. The grinding despair of never having enough sleep, resentfulness at lack of assistance or help inadequately provided all rings true to parents. Even the jealousy of the first smile being given to someone other than herself, and Estie’s fear that her college lover, Dan might be involved with Alice, are understandable. However, driving a force through this is Estie’s relentless ability to place herself first. Becoming mother is not easy. It is also difficult to make legitimate demands. However, this novel, while addressing the first, does not persuade me that Estie is unable to do the latter, making it difficult for me to always engage sympathetically with her story.

I'm going to be so for real, the cat storyline ruined this for me.

Estie becomes a first time mom and realizes she does not have motherly love for her baby. She's not even sure she likes her husband anymore. We follow her as she battles postpartum depression and watch as it impacts every part of her life.

This was a very dark, but real novel about postpartum depression. It's an important read, and one that I did enjoy, but to be honest [her putting the cat down for no reason[ really took me out of the story. I have a hard time reading or watching media with storylines like that and this one really bothered me. This would be higher than 3 stars if that was not part of the novel. Overall, it was very well written.

I had learned a couple of things about postpartum depression during college that surprised me. This book sums it all up; if you want a good understanding of what some people go through after giving birth, it’s a great read. The nonstop impulsive and unhinged things Estie would do made me want to put the book down. But I couldn’t stop; I needed to know if things would change, if Estie would ask for help, or if she even knew what was going on. Out of everything, I cried during the cat scene. I don’t know why I had to read that; I guess it emphasizes her complete spiral into instability. I love the reality of the story; there is nothing set in stone, and nothing magically fixes everything in the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Melville House Publishing I received a ARC for an honest review !

I love a book about motherhood, the shock of postpartum, and the unfair roles and expectations of women within it, and this book had all of that.

Television for Women was an extremely realistic portrayal of the postpartum experience; of adjusting to just how much your life has irrevocably changed. The main character, Estie, bravely showed us how suffocating and overwhelming it can all be as she stopped recognizing herself more and more each day.

This book comes out next week, June 24, and I would recommend it to any mom - present or future. I think the more stories we read about how difficult the experience can be, the more comfortable we can all be sharing our own.

Thank you @netgalley @melvillehouse for the opportunity to read an early copy of this book.

A propulsive emotional important novel about a woman struggling with post partum depression- and no one is paying attention to her. Esti didn't think it would be this way but does anyone? She's got an especially difficult situation because her husband is actually awful and her mother is no help. There isn't always the village, a rough truth that Brown bares in this novel that will resonate with many. It's not always an easy read and you like me might want to reach through the page to hug Esti and take some of the chores off her shoulders and shove her into a shower. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. An excellent read.

This book is a blunt, unvarnished look at motherhood that doesn’t try to soothe or sugarcoat. From the beginning, it’s clear that Estie’s journey into pregnancy and parenthood is going to be difficult, emotionally, physically, and relationally. The writing is quick and sometimes sharp,heavy in moments, but never indulgent. It tells the often glossed over and often unsavoury parts of motherhood out loud: the identity loss, the exhaustion, the resentment, the disconnect from your partner, your friends, even your own body.

For all its raw honesty, though, I didn’t always feel connected. The characters felt deliberately unlikable in that “real people are messy” kind of way, which I can respect, but it made it harder for me to feel fully invested. Estie’s misery is vividly drawn, but sometimes it drags. Some parts of her story felt repetitive while other, potentially deeper moments were glossed over too quickly. I appreciated the intention, to show how parenthood can be isolating, even dehumanizing at times, and how difficult it is to find your way back to yourself. But something about the execution left me a little cold. I didn’t dislike it, I just didn’t love it either.

That said, the book’s refusal to be sentimental is probably its strongest suit. It resists turning Estie’s pain into a teaching moment. Instead, it presents the mess, lets it breathe, and trusts the reader to sit with it. If you’re looking for something comforting, this probably isn’t it. But if you’re looking for something unflinching, even confrontational, this story might land harder.

Thank you Melville House Publishing for the eARC!

For fans of Nightbitch, this novel reads like a post-partum spiral where our main character is unconsciously destroying everything on her way down. Estie, our main character, is wildly unlikable, experiencing the isolating and maddening emotions many women share but few share out of caution of appearing "unfit.”

It is always enriching to read about a feminine experience that differs from mine, especially those that are considered taboo. While I found I wasn’t necessarily rooting for Estie, I still found it a fascinating story. If Estie were someone I knew in real life, I’d kill for this kind of a fly-on-the-wall eavesdropping opportunity!

Television for Women Explores the lack of having "a village" after the baby arrives, postpartum anxiety and depression, and the imbalance of labour put on mothers compared to fathers.

A very raw and realistic look at postpartum motherhood and the struggle of those first months. While I deeply disliked every single character, I could still empathize with our MC Estie and found her story to be important for understanding PPD and PPA. I also empathized with Alice especially in light of a lot of questionable shit Estie was doing/saying pre-baby. Estie didn’t have much of a difference between pre and post baby, based on flashbacks she’s always been self-centered, insecure, fatphobic, and desperately needed therapy even before the PPD hit.

Despite empathizing with Estie and Alice, I found absolutely nothing to like about Estie’s mother and Owen 😂 I kept chanting “leave your husband” as Owen is the stereotypical man that I wouldn’t even wish upon my worst enemy to have to co-parent with.

Huge trigger warning for pet death and just general negligence toward a pet. I almost DNFd at 80% because of this, I was furious and felt like it was added for shock value but I also had to remember that PPD affects everyone differently and while I find it inexcusable, Estie’s actions were coming from a dark place where she felt there was no way out.

It was an engaging read that had me wanting to come back for more at every opportunity for most of the novel. It started off really well but started to lose me as I realized the novel was not going the direction I expected (and hoped for). Plus a certain scene made me want to DNF despite being nearly done with the book.

It’s definitely a dark and depressing book, and while it’s compared to nightbitch and said to have dark humor I found nothing of the sort. I haven’t read nightbitch yet but based on things friends have said and how they’ve described it, this isn’t comparable (the only thing they share is the PPD). I still enjoyed it and thought it was important for understanding postpartum depression and anxiety, and I might check out more from Brown in the future.

Rating: 3.5 stars

TW/CW: dubious consent, pregnancy, medical content, blood, postpartum depression and anxiety, body shaming, fatphobia, pet death, emotional abuse, gaslighting, toxic friendship, vomit

This was a really well done novel about motherhood and postpartum depression. I have never read a book like this one that was so brutally honest and so realistic about the dark side of motherhood. I really loved the main character and rooted for her and the entire team. I look forward to reading more from Danit Brown.

Due to life circumstances, it took me three months to read this book - but I want to stress that that is not a shortcoming of this novel, but rather an unfortunate reality that prevented me from reading this as quickly as I would have liked to.

What this story lacks in plot it more than makes up for in its insights into the reality of postpartum for some mothers, myself included. Those first weeks and months after having your first baby are already such a whirlwind of life adjustments made in a sleep-deprived haze, and it's made even harder when you're looking around you feeling like every other mom is doing it better than you, with confidence and calm and a body that snapped back better than yours. In the middle of this huge life adjustment, you want to have your friends to lean on, and instead you find your child-free friends looking at you like they're just so glad it's not them. How much of it is real and how much are you extrapolating in your head? Why does everything that comes out of your mouth sound so combative? WHY CAN'T YOUR HUSBAND WAKE UP WHEN THE BABY IS CRYING NEXT TO HIS HEAD???

This book managed to hit on so many thoughts and feelings that I had in my own postpartum experience that at times it brought up memories I'd forgotten (or maybe suppressed?). While cringing at Estie's ill-advised antics, she'd also be narrating an internal experience that was so relatable to me I wanted to be able to press "I'm in this photo and I don't like it" and put the book down. At the same time, I was so invested in finding out if Estie was ever going to leave her husband, or what direction her friendships would take, or what she was going to do about her job, that when I did finally get to pick this book up again after nearly three months, I read the final half of it in one evening (ironically, while rocking my daughter to sleep).

When I say that the plot of this book is lacking, it's moreso that the style of this book differs from what many mainstream books aim for. There aren't going to be epic, twisty, action-filled moments, but the draw instead comes from watching through slitted fingers while Estie drags her pregnant friend, infant daughter, and unwanted cat on a roadtrip to spring a surprise visit on her childfree friend, succeeding in nothing but putting all her friendships in jeopardy. I was still hooked, just in a totally different way. I thought we were heading for trouble when Estie decided to leave her daughter with an ex-boyfriend she hadn't spoken to in years while taking her food-poisoned friend to the ER, but little did I know the real trouble would come about because Estie's rehoming attempt for Herbert didn't pan out on the first try. I still haven't forgiven her for Herbert's fate!!!

All of that is to say that this isn't a traditional novel by any means, and it's actually really uncomfortable to get through. But that's the beauty of it - it's supposed to make you uncomfortable. We need more books that are honest about the postpartum experience in this nitty-gritty detail, because if I felt uncomfortable reading this as someone who has been through it, imagine what insights it could bring to the many people who haven't. For all of that, I have to give this book four enthusiastic stars and a strong recommendation to men everywhere, especially fathers, to read this book and then take their wife, girlfriend, or baby mama out to dinner or a massage or something.

I enjoyed this book but hated so many of the characters. I think I really liked the main character so anyone who sort of was against her just irked me.

Estie is struggling; she is eight months pregnant, and struggling to find the good in it, her husband got himself fired right before the baby's birth, and her best friend has been mysteriously busy all the time ever since she told her about the baby.

A very real, hard-hitting, raw portrayal of early motherhood, definitely doesn't hold back from showing even the worse of it. It's definitely not a feel-good read, and things don't look up, but it's real. So real it can be pretty unsettling at times. It pulled me in very quickly, and it had me hooked (almost) the entire time, but definitely not a book for everyone. HUGE TW for pet death because that truly did take me out of it for a long moment, to the point I considered DNFing.

A great addition to the influx of recent novels about modern motherhood. Betty Friedan would totally relate but she would also be depressed that we haven't made much progress.

I honestly cannot remember much about this book. Therefore I cannot give it more than an okay grade. I think it was about motherhood or the lack thereof?

I found Television for Women to be well written and relevant, but it didn’t add much to the conversation about new motherhood that prior works haven’t already said. I would definitely read more from Danit Brown and look forward to future releases.

It was an excellent read! I think Brown did an amazing job of showing the harsh realities not only of parenthood but of getting older when you haven’t fully “grown up” yet. Women are often thrown into adulthood and told to get married and have kids as soon as possible but no one tells them how hard it can be when their selfhood isn’t developed yet. Estie’s scramble to cling to something (Alice’s love life, Dan’s food blog, etc) as she descends into a deep depression after Rosie’s birth was raw and jarring. I found myself getting angry on her behalf at the people around her. A husband who won’t do dishes? A mom who prioritizes the movies over meeting her granddaughter? But this is real life, not the story sold to us on tv. I will absolutely be recommending this book to my friends. This is a must-read for women in their late 20s, early 30s!

I did not think this book would turn dark. Postpartum depression is someone's reality out there and it's not talked about enough. People often misunderstand moms who go through PPD and it only worsens the situation for the mother and baby.

I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who is sensitive to depression or death of a pet. Not gonna lie, as an animal lover, I was livid.

I found myself disheartened and irritated at Estie, and especially her husband. It was like watching a train wreck over and over again. This was one of the rare times I actually empathized with a character I did not like.

However, I have to give credit where credit is due. The writing style is easy to understand, pacing was great, and the themes hit hard. I would definitely read more books by this author.

This felt like a raw, honest portrayal of postpartum depression; immersive, and emotionally intense. I found myself rooting for Estie, hoping she’d find some sense of peace, but also felt frustrated by the people around her and the stark absence of support or meaningful communication. The story is deeply realistic, almost to a fault—it lingers with you in a way that’s powerful but heavy. I’m glad I read it, but I don’t think I could revisit it anytime soon.