The last book club pick for 2024, I wasn't overly excited for it although the premise did sound interesting - a 45 year old transcriber who falls in love with her client's client. 

Here's what I liked about the book:
-Greta, at least at the start. A character doesn't have to be likeable for me to like reading about them. Her responses to the sessions she was transcribing and her quirks were enjoyable. Where she ended up and what happened to her was my main motivation for reading the story. 
-Exploration of trauma and how people carry it differently and let it impact how they live their lives.  
-Metaphorical nature of the story. The house, the bees, the donkeys. 
-The small town vibe and how Om's clients would occasionally turn up in Greta's life. I missed that this seemed to stop once her relationship with Big Swiss started. 

Here's what I didn't like **Contains spoilers**:
-I found it annoying to read from the beginning and actually hate read it for a little while, scratching away annotations in the pages, I also found myself a getting bored. 
-Some of the vivid and at times vulgar descriptions throughout the novel made me winch. 
-Big Swiss and Greta's relationship. The chemistry wasn't there for me and I thought the version of Big Swiss in therapy and the version she was around Greta to be very different, yet not actually ever raised between them. There was some themes of obsession and sexual identity but the desire wasn't there. 
-Letters to mother, I thought they could have been more frequent OR historical even. Maybe we see the letters her mother burned?
-The ending, if felt like it really dragged. Just wanted it to be over. 

Overall I am looking forward to the discussion at book club of this one, I think there will be some very mixed reviews.