July Summer Book Giveaway!
It’s time for another free book!
If you missed my piece about Summer Book Giveaways the first time around, it’s here ⬇️
Reminder that giveaways are only eligible for paid subscribers, so if you find yourself getting something out of this newsletter on a regular basis and want to support the work that goes into it (plus access to the weekly Let’s Discuss posts, discussion threads, occasional Obsessed product recs, and GIVEAWAYS), you can do that and make my day! Substack sends me a notification every time someone converts to a paid subscription and it is full red dancing lady emoji vibes every damn time.
Last month’s winner emailed me to say she never wins anything AND she sent me a photo of her un-cleared kitchen table, which was obviously the very best thing she could ever send me. This could be you!
Ok! I’m very excited to share that this month’s Summer Reading giveaway is a novel that manages to incorporate thoughtful commentary on true crime, misogyny, and mothers’ bodies into a book that is compulsively readable. I will say, it’s a dark read at times, but here’s the thing. I struggle with dark fiction, particularly if it involves mothers and/or children. For instance, I found Jessamine Chan’s School for Good Mothers to be indisputably brilliant, but also excruciating. I sobbed off and on for an hour or so upon finishing it and my kids were utterly flummoxed that I was crying over a book.
This is all to say that this month’s free book could certainly be compared to School for Good Mothers, but it didn’t keep me up at night, and if you have a weak stomach for mother/kid stuff, I think I can safely assure you that that particular thread is totally G-rated here. I really appreciated how this book made me think critically about our cultural ideas about retribution, justice, and the concept of deserving. Who deserves a second chance at life? Who doesn’t? What are the parameters used to differentiate the deserving from the undeserving?
And if you (like me) are invested in a Summer of Pleasurable Reading, and fear this sounds too bleak, I really did enjoy reading it! Here’s an excerpt from the New York Times review to give you an idea of what I mean by “bleak.” It’s chock-full of dystopian themes. But you’ll have to trust me that in spite of these themes, it manages to be a fun read in the way that a thriller prestige TV show is fun to watch even if there’s, like, murders and stuff.