Hello everyone!
I am back with another book review, The Subway Girls by Susie Orman Schnall. Thanks so much to Book Sparks for sending me a copy of this book as part of #SRC2018 and for an honest review, as always, all opinions are my own.
This story follows two timelines, Charlotte, a young woman in 1940s New York who is trying to work towards a career into a time when women's lives focused on child rearing. She gets the opportunity to compete in the Miss Subways contest, basically a monthly beauty contest where the winner gets a poster ad of themselves on the subway. Charlotte sees this as her opportunity to start her advertising dreams and a way to boost sales at her family's failing paint store. Present day, almost 70 years later, Olivia, an advertising executive is battling her own trying times. Her boss has pitted her against her sexist co-worker to fight for an account that could make or break her career. She comes across the Miss Subways campaign and is immediately enthralled with the ways these women used a glorified beauty pageant to advance their careers and lives.
I was a little bit nervous about this book going in because I often find that one timeline is better, or at least more interesting, than the other and I usually lose interest in the book altogether. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well Schnall did with keeping the stories equally balanced and interesting. I wanted to learn more about Charlotte and Olivia, not just one of them. Each woman's story was really fascinating. Despite the fact that they are almost two generations apart, their stories have many similarities. I also love the way Schnall chose to intertwine the stories, I thought that was really well done.
I thought the writing style was really well done, I was hooked from the very beginning and Schnall has a way of writing that makes the story emotional and enticing all at the same time. There was more than one instance that had me tearing up, and if you've followed me for any length of time, you'll know that I am not at all an emotional reader. I've cried in maybe a handful of books.
I, of course, loved the social and feminist aspects of this book. It really highlighted the differences in the times and the similarities. Charlotte is a fairly radical character, pursuing a career and not a family, and the book makes sure to note this. Even Olivia, experiencing modern-day sexism, shows the ways in which women everyday struggle to be taken seriously in the workplace. This story pays homage to those early feminist women who stood up for themselves and shows the steps forward we've had in more recent years.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it!