In the Long Island oceanfront community of Mattauk, three different women discover that midlife changes bring a whole new type of empowerment…
After Nessa James’s husband dies and her twin daughters leave for college, she’s left all alone in a trim white house not far from the ocean. In the quiet of her late forties, the former nurse begins to hear voices. It doesn’t take long for Nessa to realize that the voices calling out to her belong to the dead—a gift she’s inherited from her grandmother, which comes with special responsibilities.
On the cusp of 50, suave advertising director Harriett Osborne has just witnessed the implosion of her lucrative career and her marriage. She hasn’t left her house in months, and from the outside, it appears as if she and her garden have both gone to seed. But Harriett’s life is far from over—in fact, she’s undergone a stunning and very welcome metamorphosis.
Ambitious former executive Jo Levison has spent thirty long years at war with her body. The free-floating rage and hot flashes that arrive with the beginning of menopause feel like the very last straw—until she realizes she has the ability to channel them, and finally comes into her power.
Guided by voices only Nessa can hear, the trio of women discover a teenage girl whose body was abandoned beside a remote beach. The police have written the victim off as a drug-addicted sex worker, but the women refuse to buy into the official narrative. Their investigation into the girl’s murder leads to more bodies, and to the town’s most exclusive and isolated enclave, a world of stupendous wealth where the rules don’t apply. With their newfound powers, Jo, Nessa, and Harriett will take matters into their own hands…
⤖ My Review ⬻
Kirsten Miller’s The Change was one of my favourite books of 2022! I absolutely loved it and how it pulled me in from the very first page. Miller’s writing is great and just started painting this vivid story right from the start—I wanted to know more about the setting and the characters right off the bat!
Everything about the setting and characters became more clear the more I read, while the story itself was also bringing up questions about the mystery side of things. I loved how the characters were described and also how they were developed—I felt as if these were women that I knew or at least hear about from someone I know. They felt so real!
I also liked—even though I cried for these part—how the story touched on a very serious subject in our society. This was very well done, and made me feel a lot. I read this book partially in ARC format and also listened to parts on audiobook when I was on the go or doing chores, and I wanted to mention that there is a portion where a podcast comes up, and I really liked how the audiobook handled that part! This also felt very real.
I thought about The Change a lot when I couldn’t read the ARC or listen to the audiobook, and couldn’t wait until I could get back to it. I really really liked it and how it kept me on the edge of my seat, made me laugh, made me gasp in realization, and yes, also made me cry. There were good amount of mystery, horror, romance. This was a great story presented through great writing, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this author!
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Thank you for reading my review! Have you read this book? What did you think? And if you haven’t read it yet, do you plan to? Let me know in the comments!
