Bingo square – MONSTER – there are evil monstrous men in this book
The Change by Kirsten Miller was one of those books that I got a reader copy of on a whim and then ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting. It is a pulpy fun feminist revenge fantasy that will give you strong Witches of Eastwick vibes (sans the devil himself, but featuring some truly horrible men). It has a great premise–what if menopause didn’t just suck, but instead gave you superhuman powers? The trio of women that the story focuses on are bound together as they work to solve a string of murders in the small town in New England where they all live.
Each woman manifests a different ability. Former executive and now gym owner Jo Levinson has a burning rage that isn’t from hot flashes. Nessa, a former nurse, has begun to hear voices from the dead. Harriet is a high-powered ad executive who has been having men take credit for her ideas for 30 years. Her menopause brings about a major transformation that looks crazy from the outside as she lets her suburban garden run wild and starts to say exactly what is on her mind. Her witchy ways terrify some and are incredibly sexy to others. She brings the three women together and the plot races forward.
This isn’t an especially nuanced book, so some of the characters are pretty cliche and I didn’t really have any doubt that the title characters were going to save the day. At times I felt like I was reading treatment for a good made-for-tv mini-series or movie rather than a novel, so I wasn’t surprised to see that this has already been optioned for TV. This is also the first adult novel from someone who is known for YA, so you can definitely see that genre energy reflected as well. All in all, an engaging read but not something I would shove into all my friend’s hands as a must-read. Also, trigger warnings for some serious sexual violence.
