Chrysalis: A Novel

There was something almost hypnotic about the early parts of the book and the themes present that kept pushing me forward, but as it moved along, the focus shifted enough to where the narrative felt more like a device to drive home the themes than tell a compelling story.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but when we get to the mother in the middle, then the friend in the last third, it's a lot less engaging of a read.

I think the thematic content present here is super interesting and worth exploring. A woman reclaims herself from a world that wants her to be a number of things and treated, well, like a moldable object. Only her path towards this self-realization intersects with several people along the way, and helps to drag them down, hurt them, and somehow, her path of self-actualization becomes one of destruction for others. It's sorta bleak.

Still worth a read. Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for the review copy.