Review: "Imperfect Women" by Araminta Hall

As a rule, I do not use the word unputdownable. There are so many other, better ways to describe a good book: gripping, hypnotising, breathtaking, to name a few. Yet, nothing else will do in the case of Araminta Hall’s “Imperfect Women”, which is all of the above and also cannot be put down.

It is only a slight exaggeration to say that my eyes were glued to my e-reader for all the 32 hours that took me to finish the book. I found myself reading it while I walked, which though not unique is a rare occurrence. In fact, I risked my life multiple times to bikes, cars and unmasked strangers on the street, in my inability to stop reading. Somehow I survived the read unscathed, but I stand by the opinion that a few broken bones or even a mild head injury would have been worth the dazzling pleasure of this book.

Friends Eleaonor, Nancy and Mary have been close since university, their lives intertwining like patterns on a tapestry

. Over twenty-five years later, Nancy’s sudden, violent death - like an unruly finger pulling at a thread - threatens to unravel the whole carefully woven fabric. Structured as a triptych from the perspectives of the three women, the novel moves both forward and backward from Nancy’s death, slowly and tantalisingly uncovering the details of the gruesome tragedy and delving deep into the many years of their friendship.

Coming out on 4th August 2020, “Imperfect Women” is a psychological thriller of such spell-binding intensity as to make the reader almost physically sick with it, and it is so much more beside. Without ever being preachy or moralising, it offers a poised but unromantic analysis of women’s lot in marriage and society. At the same time, it is an elegy of female friendship, family, and love (romantic and not). Filling a book with equal parts of suspense, social critique and feeling is no easy fit, but Hall achieves it without breaking a sweat, so that it would be hard to tell which of this elements is its greatest strength.

Fans of “Big Little Lies”, feminist literature and brilliant storytelling are in for such a treat.