4 Books I Hope Are Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction + 2 I Hope Aren’t

Hello readers!

The longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction comes out next week! There are a few great prediction posts out already: Hannah’s Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020: Longlist predictions and Emily’s Women’s Prize 2020: Longlist Predictions, Wishes are some really great reads that hyped me even more for the prize. Really worth a read!

There are lots of really great books are eligible this year, and there are some that I particularly would love to see in the longlist:

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell / eARC Review

This was a dark, challenging read that feels very timely. I think it would be a great addition to the list!

The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy / Mini-Review

Oh, this was GREAT. Although I have reservations about a story about a man making it to the list, I think it’s a really good book and it deserves recognition! It’s basically as unreliable as a narrator gets.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo / eARC Review

I think this is a very obvious choice for the longlist, but it would be very deserved. This book is so interesting and I LOVE that each character got their own story told, and you can see how easily a person gets misunderstood and misrepresented by someone else. Such a great book.

There’s also a one book I haven’t read yet but I hope it will make it to the longlist so I have a great excuse to pick it up:

Frankissstein: A Love Story, by Jeanette Winterson

This just sounds amazing and I’ve heard really great things about it. I only know Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body, and it was life-changing for me, so I really look forward to reading this and would love an excuse to pick it up earlier.

Finally, a slightly more controversial take, but there are a couple books I hope don’t really make it to the longlist, because I really don’t want to pick them up!

The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood: I am sure this will be wonderfully written, but I’m just not interested on reading this at all. Before the whole Booker Prize fiasco, I was already not too inclined to read it (I didn’t want another Go Set a Watchman episode), but, after the Booker Prize, my interest went down even more, and I think this book might just be a money-grab (nothing wrong with that) and not quite something I would enjoy. If this makes it to the longlist, I’m considering skipping it.

Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid: This could be something like a Celeste Ng kind of book, in which case I’m all for it – I love domestic dramas & mysteries that turn into social commentary. However, I’ve heard this is a rather superficial, light read, and somehow I don’t see how the story would work for me. I ended up just deeply uninterested in this one and would be quite a chore to pick it up.

I am excited to see the list and discover new books I didn’t consider picking up before – last year I had some really positive surprises I would not have read otherwise, and I look forward to following the prize this year, too! I’m curious to see whether Ducks, Newburyport will make it. I’d also love to see a thriller being thrown in for good measure.