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Promising Young Women
- Narrated by: Tessa Coates
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Humor & Satire
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Summary
Shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards - Newcomer of the Year
Jane Peters is an adrift 20-something by day and a world-weary agony aunt by night. But when an office party goes too far, Jane dissolves into the high-stakes world of being the Other Woman: a role she has the right advice for, but not the smarts to follow through on.
What starts out as a drunken mistake quickly unravels as Jane discovers that sex and power go hand in hand, and that it's hard to keep your head when you've become someone else's dirty little secret. And soon, her friendships, her sanity and even her life are put into jeopardy.
Critic reviews
"So brilliant...I highly recommend it." (Dolly Alderton)
"I loved it. The writing is whipsmart and so witty." (Marian Keyes)
"A future classic." (Jane Casey)
More from the same
What listeners say about Promising Young Women
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- M. Smith
- 12-02-21
I don’t know what to say. That’s how bad it was
This book should have been titled ‘internalised misogyny’. Any attempt to create a story about a young woman finding her place in the world is undermined by pages upon pages of cliches and sexist nonsense, that would have been better framed as a challenge to inequality, not continuing a 1950’s sexist narrative that the author somehow finds glamorous
10 people found this helpful
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- LD
- 11-05-21
Easy listen but weak storyline
Enjoyed the book ok but kept waiting for a bit more to happen that never came
4 people found this helpful
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- MISS
- 14-09-20
so very much more than i expected...
i thought this was going to be a fun, but pretty generically chicklit-type book. i was wrong. it has elements of that, but only the good elements. it’s a really compelling story & is written beautifully. i find myself getting pickier & pickier about narrators of audiobooks, but this one was brilliant; natural, pacey & any accents or different characters were not exaggerated!
i’d definitely recommend this.
4 people found this helpful
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- KLARA
- 08-05-20
Just BRILLIANT
I couldnt stop listening to this book, it is the best storyline, the best narrating and I was gripped from the very start.
3 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 10-05-20
Exquisitely written
I’ve been meaning to read this book for some time and finally bought it as an audiobook. It was certainly worth it. Without spoiling the plot, I often find books with a message like this one to come across as preachy and condescending - almost like they’ve forgotten who the audience is. However O’Donoghue’s approach has perfect tone. She knows her audience and that they already know the deal. There is a great balance of beautiful writing and simple sentences so you could never accuse it of being flowery yet there really are some exquisite images I won’t forget long after I’ve moved on to the next book. O’Donoghue’s next book is top of my pre-orders.
I’d also like to given a mention to the narrator Tessa Coates. Her performance is excellent and definitely makes me glad I went with the audiobook over the paperback.
2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 22-03-21
Loved it
Such an engaging story, I couldn’t stop listening. Discovered this book through Caroline’s brilliant podcast Sentimental in the City. Would also highly recommend.
1 person found this helpful
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- Kimberly Myhill
- 07-05-22
Promising but a little disappointing
Loved the narrator. Enjoyed the story but it went a bit south with the story. It kind of went off from being believable even though the 75% of it was very realistic.
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- LKV
- 02-03-22
absolutely brilliant
Terrific story.. anyone who has ever suffered at the hands of narcissism will identify.
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- Anonymous User
- 27-01-22
Just bad
A mildly problematic book, feels like it was written in the 90’s when women would go on fad diets were portrayed as an extremely bland and weak protagonists. Quite boring. Not the worst thing I’ve ever read but I wouldn’t say there was anything particularly good about it either. Behind it’s time I think, sozzzz.
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- Amazon Customer
- 26-01-22
Jolly Dark
I’m probably too old for this book. Offices were very different 30 years ago but still had their problems. Reminded me of ‘the edible woman’ at times. Dark humour