The Curse of the Cole Women A Novel

I'm still not quite sure how to formulate my thoughts on this book. I must admit I struggled a bit with getting into the story. For about the first 30-40% I wasn't sure where we were going and what Mabel and Rebecca's stories were meant to convey to me. I got more into it about halfway and started to be more invested into their lives, but at the same time knew that due to the curse, their lives would still go their "predetermined" ways. Then we move onto Simone's POV and while I enjoyed her insight and progress she also felt quite disconnected from the previous storylines. Which makes sense, since she is literally seperate from the island, but the three women's storylines converged a bit to late for me. The end felt quite rushed and while we got some insight into the curse's nature, there was no satisfactory conclusion for me. This is obviously personal taste, but I did want to mention it. Additionally, the blurb and marketing made me expect something more magical and/or supernatural, which barely plays any role in the story outside of the fact that the women are called "witches." Considering the important aspects of mother-daugher relationships, queerness, jewishness, addiction, mental health etc. I think the story could've fleshed those out more. Ultimately, all three women's endings seemed very sad to me, even Simone's, but maybe that was the intent. More for informational purposes: I definitely recommend checking out the trigger warnings for this book, as it deals with quite a lot of heavy topics and traumas. Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!