Three Daughters of Eve

Thanks to Bloomsbury USA and NetGalley for a chance to read and review this book prior to publication here in the U.S. This has not influenced my thoughts or opinions or about this book.

Three Daughters of Eve is a book told from Peri's point of view as the main character, and the bulk of the plot alternates between flashbacks to 2001 and snippets of everyday upper-class Turkish life in 2016. There are also some chapters that show Peri's family life and how that shaped her trajectory, which set the stage for what's to come.

For a while, you're not sure where the plot is building, other than Peri now lives in Turkey after leaving Oxford early, and you know that part of her leaving has something to do with a professor and a class she took. The book builds towards two climaxes – one in the 2001 timeline and one in the 2016 timeline.

While I liked this book and found it insightful, I disliked Peri as a character. I'm fine with unlikable characters, but I don't enjoy characters who don't take agency of their lives if given the opportunity. Some of her choices made no sense and perhaps can be chalked up to youth, but made her seem immature and underdeveloped. Additionally, there is a recurring but seemingly random mystical element that feels more distracting than revelatory, and when you find out the roots of this mystical plot device, you wonder why this was thrown in. It complicates relationships unnecessarily.