When picking up the actual book I ordered at the library, I was lured in by their “new releases” display. The book jacket of The Change promised some menopause-induced magic, a murder mystery, and three bada** women taking down some powerful men on the backdrop of a coastal New York town. So of course I picked it up, and it was an absolutely delightful ride.
Harriet, Nessa, and Jo are three women in their 50s going through a rough time. Harriet’s husband leaves her for a younger woman, Nessa’s children are grown and off to college and her career is at an end, and Jo is running her own business while still raising a daughter and supporting her slightly washed-up husband. All their lives they’ve dealt with men passing them over for promotions, feeling them up in hallways, and shutting them out of all the rooms where decisions are made. And collectively, they’ve had enough.
When Nessa’s family gift for seeing the dead unearths the bodies of three teenage girls off the coast of their rich town, the three women realize they are the only people who can get justice for these unnamed girls. Each woman’s cross-over into menopause grants her a specific gift that aides her in unraveling the gruesome and horrifying mystery of the dead girls, leaving them all powerful in their own right, and making the whole town afraid to mess with them.
As someone on the internet once said (quoting loosely), we have three billion Fast and the Furious Movies, 4 Pirates of the Caribbean in the franchise, and too many superhero movies to count. But we don’t have any movies of bada** women over 40 kicking butt, taking names, and solving murders with their menopausal magic. I would 100% pay all the dollars to see this as a live-action. There were so many scenes in this book that reminded me of the hero walking calmly towards the camera while the world burns behind her. And it was ever so satisfying.
This book was such a fun romp, even though Miller’s dealing with the worst parts of the patriarchy in stark, florescent light. The way she balances humor and character with the depth of dark world that comes from masculine power abuse and too much money hits all the right spots and leaves the reader feeling very happy at the end.
4 stars.
Bingo Square: Shadow (for murder mystery)
