Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Categories
Thriller / suspense fiction

THESE WOMEN

Ivy Pochoda

From the award-winning author of Wonder Valley and Visitation Street comes a serial killer story like you've never seen before - a literary thriller of female empowerment and social change.

In West Adams, a rapidly changing part of South Los Angeles, they're referred to as "these women." These women on the corner... These women in the club... These women who won't stop asking questions... These women who got what they deserved... In this masterful novel, Ivy Pochoda creates a kaleidoscope of loss, power, and hope featuring five very different women whose lives are steeped in danger and anguish. They're connected by one man and his deadly obsession, though not all of them know that yet. There's Dorian, still adrift after her daughter's unsolved murder; Julianna, a young dancer nicknamed Jujubee, who lives hard and fast, resisting anyone trying to slow her down; Essie, a brilliant vice cop who sees a crime pattern emerging where no one else does; Marella, a daring performance artist whose work has long pushed boundaries but now puts herself in peril; and Anneke, a quiet woman who has turned a willfully blind eye to her own family for far too long. The careful existence they have built for themselves starts to crumble when two murders rock their neighborhood. Written with beauty and grit, tension and grace, These Women is a glorious display of storytelling, a once-in-a-generation novel. Ivy Pochoda is the author of the novels Wonder Valley, Visitation Street, and The Art of Disappearing. Visitation Street was chosen as an Amazon Best Book of the Month, Amazon Best Book of 2013, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. She has a BA from Harvard College in Classical Greek and an MFA from Bennington College in Fiction. Ivy grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and currently lives in Los Angeles.

Available products
Book Published 2020-05-19 by Ecco / HarperCollins

Comments

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I can promise you will not easily forget the women in this book. This is Ivy Pochoda at the height of her powerto slip inside the psyche of women at the margins; to, with a conjurer's flair, capture the voices of multiple characters with pitch perfect grace; and to craft a bendy, surprising, page-turning tale. It's brilliantly plotted and beautifully written.

Pochoda's unconventional crime novel probes whom we listen to and why, and whose voices are deemed worthy of being heard.

Pochoda stuns with this disquieting literary thriller rife with descriptive street language and violence. It is complex, intense, and enthralling.

Flawless... Razor-sharp... 'These Women' is at first glance a conventional murder mystery constructed on that sturdy old tripod of serial killer, murdered women and dogged female detective. But each of those elements is freshly minted here thanks to the psychological depth granted each character and the graceful twists of Ms. Pochoda's cunning yet unfussy plot....Only when the last piece of this finely crafted puzzle slides into place is the killer revealed.

With raw, visceral prose, Pochoda vividly evokes L.A.'s distinctive cityscape and the burdens and threats women face there.

film/TV rights for THESE WOMEN have been optioned by the creator of THE HANDMAID'S TALE! Read more...

[Pochoda] brings a devasting feminist slant to a serial killer story, set against the mean streets of South Los Angeles... As sharp as the blade of a knife.

These Women is a gritty murder mystery with a feminist twist. Ivy Pochoda's LA-set noir is the perfect summer read.

Pochoda turns grief, suffering and loss into art, crafting a literary thriller that is no less compelling for its deep emotional resonance.

This stunning, thought-provoking novel set in Los Angeles is about a group of women connected in terrible, tragic ways. The narrative flips the lens of a traditional serial killer novel and focuses light on the women with an unabashed authenticity.

Ivy Pochoda is the empath of the overlooked, writing thoughtful, nuanced novels about individuals whose voices frequently go unheard in the real world.. A feminist-weighted piece of crime fiction.. While serial killers dehumanize their victims, and true crime reportage reduces them to before and after photographs, here Pochoda restores their humanity, giving these women identities beyond their relationship to the killer.

Electric.... Filled with snappy and propulsive prose... In revealing what happens when women are discounted, [Pochoda] poses an uncomfortable question: Why do we fight for some and not others?

These Women doesn't hinge on the killer's identity or the logistics of catching him. Instead, the central question is whether anyone will ever listen to the women, victims or survivors.. In fine-tuned and affecting prose, Pochoda captures the women's voices, the way they use cracked humor or street smarts as coping mechanisms.

Puts a feminist spin on the serial killer story, giving voice to five very different women living on the dangerous fringes of Los Angeles, and gradually threading their connection to a man with a deadly obsession.

Ivy Pochoda's These Women is, to put it simply, brilliant. I usually hate it when people use the term tour-de-force but in this case, it applies.

These Women is full of resilient and undaunted characters that society often doesn't give a second look to. But Ivy Pochoda does and in these pages she gives us the small story that grows so large in meaning and emotion as to transcend genre. It tells us how to look at ourselves and at what is important.

Stunning . . . . Ivy Pochoda finds beauty in the gritty side, hope where others see limited options, and grace and strength in those who live on the margins. So do the characters in These Women the excellent fourth novel from this California author. Loneliness, courage and the strength to go on swirl through the lives of These Women, each of whom Pochoda explores with compassion and empathy as they try to survive South Central Los Angeles' mean streets. . . . Pochoda delves deep to explore each woman's psyche while finding the humanity in the smallest details

Heartbreaking... This deep dive into the lives of women too often unseen in the shadows makes them vividly unforgettable.

Ivy Pochoda asks readers to consider one of the themes that unites her books: Who are the people we overlook, ignore, don't see, dismiss in the world?.. Not only has Pochoda written an immersive, intriguing murder mystery she's also crafted a framework with which we can examine how all women are viewed in Western cultures.

Five very different women have one thing in common: They are all being watched by a vicious series killer. Inverting the classic cat-and-mouse style, Ivy Pochoda's masterful page-turner rocks with tension.

If women are the victims in this intricate, deeply felt, beautifully written novel, they are also its heroes. The story unfolds through the perspectives of five characters, all women, with overlapping and interweaving histories. Their voices sizzle and sparkle; each of them helps advance the plot, and each brings to it her own particular pain and her own particular tragedy. All are haunted by birth and circumstance.