Sing Her Down- A Novel by Ivy Pochoda
Product details
Web ID: 1684982417 reviews
Ferocious and compelling
Sing Her Down is another ferocious read about violence and women. Women who’ve suffered violence, and women who commit violence. Florence ‘Florida’ Baum is an inmate at Arizona women’s prison, but she’s not the innocent victim of circumstance that she claims to be, a party girl led astray by a bad man – at least according to her former cellmate Diosmary ‘Dios’ Sandoval. Dios ruthlessly embraces the darkness that can also live within women, and is set on getting Florida to admit her true self. Even if her own background isn’t as badass as she portrays. A fellow prisoner’s death further connects Florida and Dios, and when they go on the lam from COVID quarantine after an early release, a deadly cat-and-mouse game takes them to a showdown on eerily quiet streets of pandemic era Los Angeles. Meanwhile a female LAPD officer, Lobos, is on their trail while dealing with her own questions about male violence and control, and female rage and violence. Pochoda crafts a real frontier noir feel in Sing Her Down, a tale of women on the margins, victims and victimisers, and the rage and violence that can exist within. This is a compelling tale that traverses a stark landscape of prison, desert, global pandemic, and homeless encampments. Modern life veering towards Mad Max. Powered by sharp prose and insights, this thrilling tale of two indelible women on a collision course is hard to put down and even harder to forget.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Interesting and Intense
While this book started off very slow, the more I read, the more intense and interesting it became. Two really dysfunctional women released from prison early, going back and forth with some of each or their backstory and the female detective who gets involved tracking them with her own dysfunctions. Also some other female prisoners and their storied thrown in.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Gritty crime drama
Sing Her Down is a contemporary crime novel about two women released from prison during the peak the Covid crisis and the cat and mouse game they play against each other across Southern California. Florence (Florida) Baum was a rich girl gone wrong when she started serving her sentence at a prison in Arizona. Diosmary (Dios) Sandoval is her wickedly smart former cell mate and tormentor. When both women are released early on parole Dios will stalk Florida across two states leaving police Detective Lobos to figure out who is the predator and who is the prey. Sing Her Down is told in alternating POV’s between Florida, Dios, Detective Lobos and inmate Kace. The language is rich and atmospheric and it’s easy to picture every setting and interaction. The backstory of every woman is a character study in all the ways that someone can go wrong and find themselves on the wrong side of the law. Personally, I preferred Detective Lobos’s backstory and POV the most and found her description of the collapse of her marriage eerily realistic. Sing Her Down is a dark twisted tale of two women colliding after years of being cooped up together in prison. It wasn’t the most enjoyable story to read (random bits of violence and all the human misery that comes with it) but it’s beautifully written and plotted. But I did have a “so what was the point of all that?” feeling at the end which is why I’m giving it three stars. audiobook notes: the audio of Sing Her Down was narratted by Frankie Corzo, Kimberly M. Wetherell, Sophie Amoss, Victoria Villarreal. The voices all added an authenticity to the story and brought the characters to life.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Really Intense!
Title: Sing Her Down Author: Ivy Pochoda Release Date: May 23rd, 2023 Page Count: 277 Format: Netgalley Start Date: May 14th, 2023 Finish Date: May 18th, 2023 Rating: 3 Stars Review: This story takes place shortly after the pandemic where everything went into lockdown. Two women are released early from prison because of it. They are sent to be quarantined in a motel for two weeks before moving on to their permanent location where they will spend their parole. Things don’t go according to plan at all. I got so many vibes from this book. I’m going to be honest, I’m still left reeling. I may have to buy an audiobook copy of this book to read again. It was kind of all over the place. I didn’t hate it, but I can’t say I was fully in love with it either. I’m still glad that I read it. It’s really interesting to read books that have been written since the pandemic.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Thriller Pochoda Style!
Kace will open this story by telling us how it ends. Sort of. The Arizona prison where Kace is confined releases Dios and Florida to ease inmate density during the pandemic. Florida makes her way to Los Angeles with Dios in pursuit. Kace’s friend tells her there is a mural painted behind a gas station on Olympic and Western. It’s living, her friend says, a paint job that moves. Why not, Kace thinks. She hears voices of the dead, a library of them, so why can’t a mural be alive? The mural shows Dios’s snake eyes fixed on Florida, the wind lifting a stray hair. Florida is striding toward Dios, something in hand, state-issued boots hitting asphalt. “Now, I don’t know what-all happened between here and there,” Kace says. “I only know what I’ve been told.” This opening demonstrates Pochoda’s talent. It will grab readers by the throat and hold them to the end as they hear from each woman, disturbed in her own way. The story will dig at our preconceptions that women are gifted with a special nature. One that is passive, nurturing, maternal, not prone to violent aggression. That dark impulse is reserved for men, those responsible for ninety percent of murders worldwide. A woman might be a victim lashing out or have a mental illness, but she never, ever kills for the visceral satisfaction of taking a life. Dios disagrees. “They’ll be telling our story for generations,” Dios will say when the end is near. “Yours, mine, and Florida’s. A tale of violent women. A song for the ages with a surprise ending.” Much appreciation to Farrar, Straus & Giroux and NetGalley for providing this eARC.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
A Tale of Violent Women
This is ‘a tale of violent women. A song for the ages with a surprise ending.’ Florence ‘Florida’ Baum and Diana Diosmary ‘Dios’ Sandoval are serving time in an Arizona prison for violent crimes. When Covid worsens in 2020 and starts killing prisoners, Baum and Sandoval are among those who fit the system's criteria for early release. They will be held in quarantine in a motel for two weeks and fed three meals a day. But when the food doesn’t come, the two each women leave the motel and both end up on a bus heading to California, violating their parole. But no matter where they travel, they are still the same people inside and carry their violent tendencies with them. Dios seems obsessed with Florida and follows her, egging her on. When the dead body of a young corrections officer is found on the bus, LA Detective Lobos and her partner are on the case. This is an interesting study of violence within women. Florence is a pretty and wealthy young woman who had everything in life except attentive parents. At the age of nine, she became flirting with danger and came alive to the thrill of destructive behavior. Dios is beautiful and smart, a scholarship student who received a good education, but a rage has grown within her that is only too happy to burst free. Detective Lobos is trying to leave behind an abusive husband and marriage to start over. A small woman, she fears appearing weak to her partner. Will she be strong and smart enough to bring these two escapees in? Sooner or later, there will be a final showdown…and who will walk away? Los Angeles during Covid is an interesting backdrop for this story, with so many businesses closed and homeless people living in tents and camps throughout the city. Discarded masks blow along the streets like tumbleweed. It gives the story a surreal feeling, almost apocalyptic. Pochoda's writing style is excellent, even lyrical at times. This is not a gentle story so be aware that it is often violent and gritty. The comparison with No Country for Old Men is quite apt. I received an arc of this novel from the author and publisher via NetGalley. Many thanks to them for the opportunity. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
3 relentless women, one hot and dry summer
It took a few pages for me to get in the swing of the author’s style of communicating with her reader, but once I did, the mood and tension of the story never let up. During the first months of COVID, Florida, and Dios are serving time in an Arizona prison. The acts that put them there are hinted at, but remain a mystery. Dios is constantly badgering Florida, threatening her, stalking her, and telling her they’re very much alike. Florida doesn’t believe she’s as cold-hearted and mean as Dios, who can take a beating just as easily as she can dish it out. After one of the inmates dies from the disease, some of the other inmates are given an early release. Florida is thrilled to learn she’s one of the lucky ones, and she won't let it dampen her spirits when she learns Dios will walk out the same day. Immediately after their release, Dios stalks Florida. As Florida attempts to outpace Dios, she quickly learns that Dios isn't going to be so easy to shake. They both immediately break parole by leaving the state and riding an illegal transport bus to California. They leave behind them a trail of crimes, including one murder. This gets the attention of Lobos, an LA investigator with her own type of monkey on her back. Three relentless women, one hot and dry summer, everything closed due to COVID, and riots are ongoing in response to police brutality. But these women aren’t concerned with anything but the one goal they each have in mind. But only one will rule. Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is May 23, 2023.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Compelling novel about violent women
In this novel, author Ivy Pochoda explores violence in women, and through the lives and actions of her characters, speculates about what made them vicious. Is violence an innate characteristic? Or does it stem from poverty, harassment, molestation, injustice, brutality, and the like. Warning: There's graphic violence in the novel, which might be disturbing to sensitive readers ***** The story opens in a women's prison in Arizona, where Florence Baum (Florida), Diana Diosmary Sandoval (Dios), and Kace are housed in the same cell block. Florida is incarcerated for felony accessory to murder; she drove the getaway car from a fire that left two victims burning in the desert. Dios was convicted of aggravated assault; she defended herself against an attacker and broke his eye socket with her cell phone. And Kace killed a woman named Marta, who Kace suspected was going with her man. Florida and Dios are central to the story, and Kace - an apparent schizophrenic that hears voices in her head - functions something like a Greek Chorus, commenting on the unfolding drama. Florida, who grew up in a wealthy upper class family in Los Angeles, rails about being incarcerated. She says this is not her place, she can't breathe, can't feel, can't sense properly, isn't like the other inmates, etc. Dios, on the other hand, who's learned something about Florida's past, adamantly disagrees. Dios knows that Florida smuggled diamonds into Europe, secured bad loans for grifters, and was more than an 'accessory after the fact' in the desert murders. For her part, Dios grew up poor in Queens, New York. where she and her friends stole from bodegas and the Rite Aid. However, Dios' innate smarts earned her a scholarship to a fancy New England college, where she was an outlier among the rich kids. Later, when Dios returned to her old Queens neighborhood, she didn't fit in there either. Dios' old homies acted like her 'rich New England stink' made them gag. One evening Dios happened across a young tipsy girl in the park and 'something knocked loose inside her.' Dios battered the girl's face, kicked her in the ribs, and stomped on her skull. After this, Dios became increasingly vicious, with the justification that "once the violence cracks open inside you, you become YOU and there's no turning back.' Dios thinks Florida is inherently violent just like Dios herself. Moreover, Dios believes Florida's 'poor innocent me' diatribe is just an act, perhaps a subconscious one. Thus Dios is determined to bring out the devil in Florida. Because of the Covid pandemic the prison has to release some inmates, and Florida and Dios are sprung with conditions. They must quarantine themselves in an Arizona motel for two weeks, then move into a state-run group home.....and they have to stay in touch with a parole officer. Florida wants to return to Los Angeles to retrieve her beloved Jaguar, which she started driving as an underage teen. To Florida, the car means freedom, and blissfully cruising California highways. Florida does not have permission to leave Arizona, but unanticipated events result in Florida illicitly boarding a bus for California. Shortly afterwards, to Florida's dismay, Dios boards the same bus. Dios means to goad her former prison-mate until Florida reveals her true murderous self. This becomes a sort of cat and mouse game, with Florida trying to get away and Dios sticking to her like a stinging nettle. When a crime occurs on the bus carrying Florida and Dios to California, Los Angeles Police Detective Lobos gets the case. Lobos quickly zeroes in on Florida and Dios as the suspects, and she means to track them down. Flashbacks to the past help round out the characters. We learn that Florida grew up in a classy house with a pool and six-car-garage. But Florida's mother was indifferent and neglectful, and a certain older man couldn't keep his hands off young Florida. Besides that Florida and her best friend Ronna were wild teens who got involved with the wrong people, drank, used drugs, smoked, and so on. Detective Lobos also has a secret history. For reasons she herself can't understand, Lobos stayed with an abusive husband, and only managed to leave after he tried to strangle her. This shames Lobos, and she sometimes gets the urge to beat up or kill wandering homeless men. The climax of the story occurs in Los Angeles, which is a character in and of itself. The Covid pandemic has ravaged the city, where most stores are boarded up, trash blows through the streets, and homeless encampments occupy almost every nook and cranny (outside the ritzy areas). Pochoda doesn't resolve the issue of why women become violent, leaving it to the readers to form their own opinions. In my view, violent behavior is probably due to a confluence of circumstances - perhaps resulting from an inborn tendency exacerbated by a troubled life. (But I'm a scientist, not a psychologist or criminologist.) In any case this novel is a compelling page turner. Highly recommended. I had access to both digital and audio versions of the novel, which enhanced my reading experience. Thanks to Netgalley, Ivy Pochoda, and Macmillan Audio and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for copies of the book.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com