For our last book club pick of 2023, #ReadWithMC readers dove into Sarah Blakley-Cartwright's Alice Sadie Celine, a poignant novel that follows the inner lives of three very different woman (hence the title) and how their lives intersect. We've got Alice, an aspiring actor, Sadie, Alice's best friend with a type A personality, and Celine, Sadie's mom who's a feminist and gender studies professor. When Sadie can't make the opening night of Alice's play, she begs her mom to take her place and eventually Celine relents. There, Celine becomes infatuated with her daughter's old best friend and the two start an unexpected affair, leading to a chain of events that tests all three women's relationships with each other.
At times this books was compelling, other times it was uncomfortable, but that's one of the reasons why our readers enjoyed it. @annother_bookstagram writes, "Underneath the icky feelings at surface level, this story defines being yourself and growing into womanhood on your own terms." Similarly, despite not enjoying the last chapter's tonal shift, @ipekreading added, "I still liked this as an exploration of a gender reversal in an icky setting." Additionally, the realness and complexity of the three characters was another major draw for our readers with @dogearedstyle writing, "Each of these characters was complex and flawed but they were all very well written." Another reader, @bookstobechill, closely wrote in their review, "I hated the characters. I loved the characters. I didn’t know what to think about the characters."
