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Lioness
'Perkins is an extraordinary writer' The Sunday Times
You know how we say we devoured a story, and also that we were consumed by it? Eating and being eaten. It was like that with Claire, for me.
From humble beginnings, Therese has let herself grow used to a life of luxury after marrying into an empire-building family. But when rumours of corruption gather around her husband's latest development, the social opprobrium is shocking, the fallout swift, and Therese begins to look at her privileged and insular world with new eyes.
In the flat below Therese, something else is brewing. Her neighbour Claire believes she's discovered the secret to living with freedom and authenticity, freeing herself from the mundanity of domesticity. Therese finds herself enchanted by the lure of the permissive zone Claire creates in her apartment - a place of ecstatic release.
All too quickly, Therese is forced to confront herself and her choices - just how did she become this person? And what exactly should she do about it?
You know how we say we devoured a story, and also that we were consumed by it? Eating and being eaten. It was like that with Claire, for me.
From humble beginnings, Therese has let herself grow used to a life of luxury after marrying into an empire-building family. But when rumours of corruption gather around her husband's latest development, the social opprobrium is shocking, the fallout swift, and Therese begins to look at her privileged and insular world with new eyes.
In the flat below Therese, something else is brewing. Her neighbour Claire believes she's discovered the secret to living with freedom and authenticity, freeing herself from the mundanity of domesticity. Therese finds herself enchanted by the lure of the permissive zone Claire creates in her apartment - a place of ecstatic release.
All too quickly, Therese is forced to confront herself and her choices - just how did she become this person? And what exactly should she do about it?
288 pages, Paperback
First published July 6, 2023
158 people are currently reading
5359 people want to read
About the author
Emily Perkins
26 books83 followersEmily Perkins is a writer of contemporary fiction, and the success of her first collection of stories, not her real name and other stories, established her early on as an important writer of her generation. Perkins has written novels, as well as short fiction, and her writing has won and been shortlisted for a number of significant awards and prizes. She was the 2006 Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow, and she used the fellowship to work on her book, Novel About My Wife, published in 2008. She is an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award winner (2011).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 312 reviews
October 18, 2023
3.5
This was an interesting novel, albeit imperfect.
It's about Therese Thorne, a fifty-something-year-old, the owner of a small chain of luxury homewares/decor. She's been married for thirty years to a property developer, two decades her senior. He came with baggage - four children and some lovely properties. ;-)
Therese came from a modest family, but she's had no problems getting used to a life of luxury - as if it's hard. She thinks her life is pretty sweet, she's content in her marriage. When her husband's property development affairs start being investigated by authorities, Therese is left to question her life, her role and her choices, including who she really is and what she wants. She's spurred on a journey of discovery by her somewhat unhinged neighbour, Claire.
There were many things I liked about the novel as it looks at affluence, career, having children, ageing, and female rage. While Claire was an interesting catalyst, an in-your-face kind of character, I found her unbelievable, and I questioned a few other situations that felt over-dramatised and incredulous, e.g. in what universe do people just let some strangers live in their home, rent-free and are so blase about it? I also found the author's choice to have an impromptu orgy peculiar, to say the least, not on moral grounds, just on logistical and probability grounds.
This had good bones, some parts were well done, so I'm keen to read more by this author.
This was an interesting novel, albeit imperfect.
It's about Therese Thorne, a fifty-something-year-old, the owner of a small chain of luxury homewares/decor. She's been married for thirty years to a property developer, two decades her senior. He came with baggage - four children and some lovely properties. ;-)
Therese came from a modest family, but she's had no problems getting used to a life of luxury - as if it's hard. She thinks her life is pretty sweet, she's content in her marriage. When her husband's property development affairs start being investigated by authorities, Therese is left to question her life, her role and her choices, including who she really is and what she wants. She's spurred on a journey of discovery by her somewhat unhinged neighbour, Claire.
There were many things I liked about the novel as it looks at affluence, career, having children, ageing, and female rage. While Claire was an interesting catalyst, an in-your-face kind of character, I found her unbelievable, and I questioned a few other situations that felt over-dramatised and incredulous, e.g. in what universe do people just let some strangers live in their home, rent-free and are so blase about it? I also found the author's choice to have an impromptu orgy peculiar, to say the least, not on moral grounds, just on logistical and probability grounds.
This had good bones, some parts were well done, so I'm keen to read more by this author.
June 3, 2023
I really, really, really enjoyed this book of female rage, family empire, wealth, consumption and unravelling. It’s Lioness by Emily Perkins, a wonderful author from New Zealand. It was so much weirder than I expected and in the best way possible (until it pushed it just a little tiny bit too far). I was under its spell though and if I was the kind of reader who underlined sentences I might just have done that. I love novels like this – ones that reveal aspects of being alive and being a good person and an equally terrible person that you grapple with but can’t fully articulate.
May 15, 2023
4.5 Stars.
Therese lives what most would call a privileged life. A life of comfortable luxury. The novel opens with her looking to open a new shop in Sydney. The first in Australia. With multiple stores in New Zealand, Therese’s brand has been popular and successful. Therese is the second wife of her much older husband who is a wealthy property developer working on his final development before retiring.
Trevor’s adult children have never warmed to Therese, never making a sincere effort to welcome her into the family. Despite this Therese feels that her life has been, while not exactly exciting, comfortable, and safe, building her brand over the last thirty years.
However, allegations of fraud and the threat of an investigation into her husband’s latest property development force a shift in Therese’s perception of her circumstances. The investigation and possible incarceration of her husband threaten to unravel her life.
She starts to wonder if her happiness and contentment are a façade, and while living the life she chose marrying Trevor, she has given up personal freedoms. As the investigation looms Therese realises that she is quite alone. That is apart from her neighbour Claire, who lives in the apartment downstairs.
Claire seems to have found a freedom and balance in her life that Therese now craves. Therese starts spending more time with Claire and the more time they spend together more questions arise for Therese, and Perkins explores this developing friendship and both women’s thoughts and perception.
The title “Lioness” refers to two statues that Claire has in her apartment, but it also refers to Therese herself. Although living in Trevor’s shadow, protected by his financial aegis, the possibility of Trevor going to prison makes Therese realise that she has power and control of her life.
A great novel about a woman’s self-doubt and changing life.
Therese lives what most would call a privileged life. A life of comfortable luxury. The novel opens with her looking to open a new shop in Sydney. The first in Australia. With multiple stores in New Zealand, Therese’s brand has been popular and successful. Therese is the second wife of her much older husband who is a wealthy property developer working on his final development before retiring.
Trevor’s adult children have never warmed to Therese, never making a sincere effort to welcome her into the family. Despite this Therese feels that her life has been, while not exactly exciting, comfortable, and safe, building her brand over the last thirty years.
However, allegations of fraud and the threat of an investigation into her husband’s latest property development force a shift in Therese’s perception of her circumstances. The investigation and possible incarceration of her husband threaten to unravel her life.
She starts to wonder if her happiness and contentment are a façade, and while living the life she chose marrying Trevor, she has given up personal freedoms. As the investigation looms Therese realises that she is quite alone. That is apart from her neighbour Claire, who lives in the apartment downstairs.
Claire seems to have found a freedom and balance in her life that Therese now craves. Therese starts spending more time with Claire and the more time they spend together more questions arise for Therese, and Perkins explores this developing friendship and both women’s thoughts and perception.
The title “Lioness” refers to two statues that Claire has in her apartment, but it also refers to Therese herself. Although living in Trevor’s shadow, protected by his financial aegis, the possibility of Trevor going to prison makes Therese realise that she has power and control of her life.
A great novel about a woman’s self-doubt and changing life.
April 13, 2024
I’ve struggled to write a review of this taut, rich people problems novel which I absolutely loved. I have waited what feels like an age for a new Emily Perkins novel, and goodness that patience has been rewarded. Perkins is as ever, pitch perfect in this story about MONEY- desire for it, the accumulation of it, the spending of it, the way it smooths the world for you when you have it, and the crushing weight of the potential, ever imminent loss of it. It’s a novel that very clearly reminds us that money, indeed wealth, is the real source of power in New Zealand. I can certainly see how this might be a polarising story, one that foregrounds the wealthy, and their problems which can easily seem meaningless in a broader context. But for this reader, it had everything, and it’s told with all the claustrophobic tension of the best crime novels.
September 12, 2023
You could skip whole chapters and still not miss anything.
November 1, 2023
never DNF’d a book so hard
July 21, 2023
The premise of Lioness by Emily Perkins definitely appealed to me but it ultimately didn’t quite hit the mark.
Therese Thorne is the owner of a successful homewares business in New Zealand and she has been married to her much older and very wealthy property developer husband Trevor for decades. Trevor’s adult children have never really taken to Therese despite her efforts but nevertheless Therese feels happy and content with the very comfortable life she leads.
Then allegations of fraud against her husband rock her world and she begins to look over her life with fresh eyes, interrogating the agency she has had and considering whether she is truly happy. As the investigations continue, Therese begins to feel more alone and turns to her downstairs neighbour Claire who is living alone while her husband and teenage daughter are living in another city. Claire seems to have the perfect, carefree, creative life that Therese wonders if she has missed out on. Naturally, everything comes to a dramatic head.
I really enjoyed the writing in this and the focus on wealth, capitalism and female rage that Perkins shone a light on, but I wasn’t particularly convinced by the direction the story took. I could buy Therese questioning whether marrying Trevor with such an age gap had compromised her sense of self and how she critically considered the way that Trevor’s children treated her but her friendship with Claire was odd and didn’t ring true. I couldn’t believe Therese would suddenly turn from a wealthy member of the upper class to a woman who completely lets go and starts engaging in frenetic drug fuelled group dancing! This part of the storyline actually tipped into something so outrageously ridiculous right at the end that it was almost farcical. I love weird books, but this didn’t land for me sadly.
Still I haven’t read Perkins before, and I’d happily give her another go. It was great to read another work of New Zealand fiction as I don’t think we get too many here in Australia.
Thank you to @bloomsburypublishing for my #gifted copy.
Therese Thorne is the owner of a successful homewares business in New Zealand and she has been married to her much older and very wealthy property developer husband Trevor for decades. Trevor’s adult children have never really taken to Therese despite her efforts but nevertheless Therese feels happy and content with the very comfortable life she leads.
Then allegations of fraud against her husband rock her world and she begins to look over her life with fresh eyes, interrogating the agency she has had and considering whether she is truly happy. As the investigations continue, Therese begins to feel more alone and turns to her downstairs neighbour Claire who is living alone while her husband and teenage daughter are living in another city. Claire seems to have the perfect, carefree, creative life that Therese wonders if she has missed out on. Naturally, everything comes to a dramatic head.
I really enjoyed the writing in this and the focus on wealth, capitalism and female rage that Perkins shone a light on, but I wasn’t particularly convinced by the direction the story took. I could buy Therese questioning whether marrying Trevor with such an age gap had compromised her sense of self and how she critically considered the way that Trevor’s children treated her but her friendship with Claire was odd and didn’t ring true. I couldn’t believe Therese would suddenly turn from a wealthy member of the upper class to a woman who completely lets go and starts engaging in frenetic drug fuelled group dancing! This part of the storyline actually tipped into something so outrageously ridiculous right at the end that it was almost farcical. I love weird books, but this didn’t land for me sadly.
Still I haven’t read Perkins before, and I’d happily give her another go. It was great to read another work of New Zealand fiction as I don’t think we get too many here in Australia.
Thank you to @bloomsburypublishing for my #gifted copy.
August 11, 2023
I liked the idea of this story - successful middle-aged woman, older property-developer type husband who seems to have gotten himself into a bit of trouble business wise, his ex-wife and children and their issues, however, these characters were so annoying and unlikeable, and some of the events and situations just felt so convoluted to me that I was bored and totally disinterested.
Not even the outrageous "almost" orgy in the final pages could save this one for me..
A disappointing waste of time and a generous 1 Star.
Not even the outrageous "almost" orgy in the final pages could save this one for me..
A disappointing waste of time and a generous 1 Star.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 17, 2024
I really enjoyed this novel. I liked the main character, Therese, and felt quite invested in her situation. Married for more than thirty years to a much older wealthy man, everything begins to unravel for Therese when her husband’s latest development sets off a chain of allegations and subsequent investigations into his business conduct which results in directly threatening the image and viability of her own business.
“I couldn’t shake to feeling that with the contributions to scholarship funds and marine sanctuaries and so on we were somehow trying to buy something, or clear a debt that could never be paid.”
I didn’t much like Trevor, to be honest. He was, to me, definitive of an older wealthy white man who thinks he is untouchable, right down to the point where he isn’t, yet still manages to shrug and find somebody else to blame. His adult children were also entitled brats, being propped up by their parent’s wealth, yet feeling hard done by because their trust fund was under threat and their parents got divorced a very long time ago which was still evidentially causing them trauma – sure, cry me a river. Caroline, the daughter who lived closest to Trevor and Therese, irritated me the most. She treated Therese with contempt yet felt so assured of her right to do so, taking advantage of Therese with babysitting favours.
“It seemed to me that minding about being middle-class was only something you felt if you’d always been that way. I never minded.”
When everything begins to implode, Therese finds herself questioning who she is now, in comparison to who she was when she first met Trevor. She gets caught up with a neighbour, Claire, who is having her own existential crisis. I’m going to be honest here, Claire’s ‘crisis’ was nothing more than an over entitled bit of middle/upper class wankery rot. Her crisis involved giving away all of her things, covering her mirrors and letting herself go, building a stage inside the middle of her living room and getting drunk and/or high and dancing on said stage with a bunch of young randoms and Therese. She was also a mean bitch. One of those women who say whatever they want and then mock apologise about their lack of filter. Her crisis ended pretty quickly once her adult daughter decided she needed her again.
For Therese though, her crisis was of a different sort, a full analysis of her life. She didn’t deserve the contempt and judgement thrown at her by Trevor’s adult children and ex-wife. She also didn’t deserve the disrespect of Trevor’s dishonesty. She was, for me, above them all, morally and practically. She was better than Claire’s antics as well, but as sometimes happens in life, you meet the wrong people at a pivotal time, they tip you upside down for a bit but in the end, you’re better for the chaos. I feel that’s what happened with Therese and Claire.
This was a very enjoyable read for me. The pace was good, the character development great. It was set in Wellington, which is one of my favourite New Zealand cities. Windy Wellington. I’ve only ever been there in the Winter, twice now, and much of this was set over the summer, but I felt the place strongly, and there were other locations visited and mentioned that I’d also been to. I love New Zealand and it was nice to read a novel set in another country and still find the familiar in it.
Highly recommended. Book two of #AYearofNZLit.
“I couldn’t shake to feeling that with the contributions to scholarship funds and marine sanctuaries and so on we were somehow trying to buy something, or clear a debt that could never be paid.”
I didn’t much like Trevor, to be honest. He was, to me, definitive of an older wealthy white man who thinks he is untouchable, right down to the point where he isn’t, yet still manages to shrug and find somebody else to blame. His adult children were also entitled brats, being propped up by their parent’s wealth, yet feeling hard done by because their trust fund was under threat and their parents got divorced a very long time ago which was still evidentially causing them trauma – sure, cry me a river. Caroline, the daughter who lived closest to Trevor and Therese, irritated me the most. She treated Therese with contempt yet felt so assured of her right to do so, taking advantage of Therese with babysitting favours.
“It seemed to me that minding about being middle-class was only something you felt if you’d always been that way. I never minded.”
When everything begins to implode, Therese finds herself questioning who she is now, in comparison to who she was when she first met Trevor. She gets caught up with a neighbour, Claire, who is having her own existential crisis. I’m going to be honest here, Claire’s ‘crisis’ was nothing more than an over entitled bit of middle/upper class wankery rot. Her crisis involved giving away all of her things, covering her mirrors and letting herself go, building a stage inside the middle of her living room and getting drunk and/or high and dancing on said stage with a bunch of young randoms and Therese. She was also a mean bitch. One of those women who say whatever they want and then mock apologise about their lack of filter. Her crisis ended pretty quickly once her adult daughter decided she needed her again.
For Therese though, her crisis was of a different sort, a full analysis of her life. She didn’t deserve the contempt and judgement thrown at her by Trevor’s adult children and ex-wife. She also didn’t deserve the disrespect of Trevor’s dishonesty. She was, for me, above them all, morally and practically. She was better than Claire’s antics as well, but as sometimes happens in life, you meet the wrong people at a pivotal time, they tip you upside down for a bit but in the end, you’re better for the chaos. I feel that’s what happened with Therese and Claire.
This was a very enjoyable read for me. The pace was good, the character development great. It was set in Wellington, which is one of my favourite New Zealand cities. Windy Wellington. I’ve only ever been there in the Winter, twice now, and much of this was set over the summer, but I felt the place strongly, and there were other locations visited and mentioned that I’d also been to. I love New Zealand and it was nice to read a novel set in another country and still find the familiar in it.
Highly recommended. Book two of #AYearofNZLit.
August 24, 2023
Like Perkins' writing style but just didn't connect to characters on this one and found the plot a bit all over the place.
July 13, 2024
Spineless trophy wife has some kind of midlife crisis with her neighbour and only becomes slightly less boring towards the end.
To be fair I don’t think I’m the target demographic for the book.
To be fair I don’t think I’m the target demographic for the book.
October 10, 2024
Ugh so good!! Made me feel things. Very real. Feminine rage.
September 6, 2023
Mmm, I do love it when an author skewers the more tawdry aspects of contemporary life!
New Zealander Emily Perkins is the author of a collection of short stories Not Her Real Name and Other Stories (1996); and the novels: Leave Before You Go (1998, on my TBR); The New Girl (2001); Novel about My Wife (2008, see my review) and The Forrests (2012). She is also a columnist and a screenwriter, a teacher of creative writing and was the host of TVNZ7’s book programme The Good Word. Her latest release Lioness is set in Wellington NZ where she is now resident after a career which includes teaching in the UK, India, and China.
For readers whose mental image of New Zealand features pristine scenery and lots of sheep, Lioness offers an urban landscape and a world of wealth and privilege. (If you've ever watched Grand Designs New Zealand you will know that there are some really (really) rich Kiwis who exemplify the kind of inequitable society that has emerged in late stage capitalism here in Australia too. (If you have some spare millions you can buy one those palatial extravaganzas, there were six on the market on the day I looked, see here.)
The central characters in Lioness are a husband and wife power couple: Trevor is a developer under scrutiny because of some shady planning deal on a waterfront hotel, and Therese runs a chain of lifestyle boutiques, which she's about to expand into Sydney. (Where they will retire to a suitably posh address.)
We visited Wellington in 2019 so I can attest to how well the setting is realised. I'm very glad we didn't experience the terrifying plane landing that Therese describes.
The oxygen masks come down, the plane banks so that all she can see through the window is the raw, bobbing ocean, and a man gets out his phone to ring his loved ones.
Next time, we'll fly in through Auckland!
It is Therese who narrates most of the novel, with what seems like disarming honesty. Her background is modest, and a makeover is part of the deal when she marries Trevor. Along with changing her name from Teresa to the more aspirational Therese, smartening up her vowels and her dress sense, she gets that wonky eyetooth straightened so that she could open her mouth when she smiled. These canines are what we used to tear our food, and this action is symbolic of the way she willingly submits to restraining any expression of anger. To enjoy this kind of good life, she has to fit in and make everything good and nice for everybody else.
Her forbearance is not the patience of a gentle personality; it is the price of the life she leads.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/09/06/l...
New Zealander Emily Perkins is the author of a collection of short stories Not Her Real Name and Other Stories (1996); and the novels: Leave Before You Go (1998, on my TBR); The New Girl (2001); Novel about My Wife (2008, see my review) and The Forrests (2012). She is also a columnist and a screenwriter, a teacher of creative writing and was the host of TVNZ7’s book programme The Good Word. Her latest release Lioness is set in Wellington NZ where she is now resident after a career which includes teaching in the UK, India, and China.
For readers whose mental image of New Zealand features pristine scenery and lots of sheep, Lioness offers an urban landscape and a world of wealth and privilege. (If you've ever watched Grand Designs New Zealand you will know that there are some really (really) rich Kiwis who exemplify the kind of inequitable society that has emerged in late stage capitalism here in Australia too. (If you have some spare millions you can buy one those palatial extravaganzas, there were six on the market on the day I looked, see here.)
The central characters in Lioness are a husband and wife power couple: Trevor is a developer under scrutiny because of some shady planning deal on a waterfront hotel, and Therese runs a chain of lifestyle boutiques, which she's about to expand into Sydney. (Where they will retire to a suitably posh address.)
We visited Wellington in 2019 so I can attest to how well the setting is realised. I'm very glad we didn't experience the terrifying plane landing that Therese describes.
The plane jolted, my champagne glass nearly snatched out of my hand by an unseen force. Landing in Wellington was infamously hairy, and even a jet like this could shake about in turbulence. The seatbelt light dinged on repeat. I drained my drink and tucked the glass into the seat pocket. Trevor was engrossed in the spreadsheet on his laptop, headphones on. We lifted and dropped, plateauing with another bump. I reached for his forearm and he unhooked his headphones. At the next bang of air, he closed the laptop. We held hands, our fingers interlaced, as around us people gasped and yelped in the shaking cabin. At the top of the galley the air stewards stared into the middle distance from their perches. If the plane crashes, I thought, it won't matter which class we are in. Another part of me thought, it will never crash with Trevor on board.
The next lift in the air — almost sweet, weightless — was followed by the sharpest drop yet, and someone screamed, and a woman behind us in the cabin started singing 'Amazing grace.' (p.9)
The oxygen masks come down, the plane banks so that all she can see through the window is the raw, bobbing ocean, and a man gets out his phone to ring his loved ones.
Next time, we'll fly in through Auckland!
It is Therese who narrates most of the novel, with what seems like disarming honesty. Her background is modest, and a makeover is part of the deal when she marries Trevor. Along with changing her name from Teresa to the more aspirational Therese, smartening up her vowels and her dress sense, she gets that wonky eyetooth straightened so that she could open her mouth when she smiled. These canines are what we used to tear our food, and this action is symbolic of the way she willingly submits to restraining any expression of anger. To enjoy this kind of good life, she has to fit in and make everything good and nice for everybody else.
Her forbearance is not the patience of a gentle personality; it is the price of the life she leads.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/09/06/l...
April 21, 2023
The reader meets Therese Thorne, the fifty-something wife of a construction magnate 20 years her senior, on the brink of a lifestyle change. They are planning to relocate from New Zealand to Sydney as her husband Trevor steps back from work for a more relaxed pace of life when a scandal hits. Trevor’s last hurrah, a huge hotel project is hit with allegations of cronyism and historic fraud investigations.
For the last 30 years Therese has been building a lifestyle brand Therese Thorne whilst juggling being the second wife to Trevor and playing house with his adult children. The aspirational lifestyle boutique has grown successful (with Trevor’s backing) but it pales in comparison to the wealth and success of her husband. Together they have lived a charmed and privileged life which is a far cry from Therese’s upbringing. When the scandal hits the couple’s friends and associates dwindle and Therese relies heavily on neighbour Claire for companionship.
Therese seeks the authenticity that her brand emanates so easily but in her gilded life is hard to come by… except Claire. Claire seems free, unbothered and untethered in Therese’s eyes and she hungers for that herself.
This is a transformative story that captures the many roles women play throughout their lives. We see a gentle unfolding of Therese’s experiences as her outlook begins to shift, a series of decisions made with no regard for input where she is dismissed, exploring the time in a woman’s life where she begins to feel invisible. Will Therese break free of the mould of privileged banality she has made for herself or will the lure of old habits prove too strong?
Perkins seeks to cherish the power of female friendship with Therese and Claire’s relationship and explore how feminine companionship can elevate, soothe and foster a sense of belonging.
I enjoyed this book although I found the prose juddered at times. Scenes would be building only to stall and flash back in time which could be challenging to follow. But overall I felt it was a carefully measured and thought provoking story that examines how each decision and exchange filters down through our lives.
Thank you to NetGalley, Bloomsbury and Emily Perkins for providing me with a digital ARC in return for my honest review.
For the last 30 years Therese has been building a lifestyle brand Therese Thorne whilst juggling being the second wife to Trevor and playing house with his adult children. The aspirational lifestyle boutique has grown successful (with Trevor’s backing) but it pales in comparison to the wealth and success of her husband. Together they have lived a charmed and privileged life which is a far cry from Therese’s upbringing. When the scandal hits the couple’s friends and associates dwindle and Therese relies heavily on neighbour Claire for companionship.
Therese seeks the authenticity that her brand emanates so easily but in her gilded life is hard to come by… except Claire. Claire seems free, unbothered and untethered in Therese’s eyes and she hungers for that herself.
This is a transformative story that captures the many roles women play throughout their lives. We see a gentle unfolding of Therese’s experiences as her outlook begins to shift, a series of decisions made with no regard for input where she is dismissed, exploring the time in a woman’s life where she begins to feel invisible. Will Therese break free of the mould of privileged banality she has made for herself or will the lure of old habits prove too strong?
Perkins seeks to cherish the power of female friendship with Therese and Claire’s relationship and explore how feminine companionship can elevate, soothe and foster a sense of belonging.
I enjoyed this book although I found the prose juddered at times. Scenes would be building only to stall and flash back in time which could be challenging to follow. But overall I felt it was a carefully measured and thought provoking story that examines how each decision and exchange filters down through our lives.
Thank you to NetGalley, Bloomsbury and Emily Perkins for providing me with a digital ARC in return for my honest review.
June 3, 2024
This book should have started 230 pages in. Its waffle and unnecessary language made this a bit trashy. It’s a shame she didn’t focus on the character and how she changed as a human being.
Title should have been Scared Rabbit not Lioness. None of this makes sense and the random sex sessions weren’t necessary, just cheapened the novel. How this won the Ockham Book Awards I’m not sure.
Title should have been Scared Rabbit not Lioness. None of this makes sense and the random sex sessions weren’t necessary, just cheapened the novel. How this won the Ockham Book Awards I’m not sure.
Read
July 16, 2024This book will haunt me in a similar way to fake accounts by Lauren oyler. Maybe one day I will be able gather my thoughts and articulate myself!!
February 26, 2024
I have dithered about this novel. I enjoyed reading it, but it has left me with a feeling of dissatisfaction, I wanted more feeling, more passion I think.
Therese is the successful owner of a lifestyle retail and website business. Supplier of beautiful products curated to impress and delight the well heeled of us. She’s a great supporter to her older wealthy, property developer husband, his grown up kids and her staff. Disaster looms when her husband is accused of dodgy dealings. Therese is shocked, befriends a woman in an apartment in her building who leads her into a different way of being, offering a sense of freedom and release. Almost allowing her a second life, parallel to her life upstairs.
It all gets horribly messy, relationships turn sour, husband seems to be doing more dodgy deals and the dreamed of retail expansion to Sydney is canned. It’s all so middle class dramatic. Everyone is behaving badly. There is a lot going on. It’s interesting to watch it all unfold.
Rich people, glamorous dinner parties, badly behaved rich kids and the expectations that come with wealth.
It’s a good book, it’s a good story, but passionate it isn’t.
Therese is the successful owner of a lifestyle retail and website business. Supplier of beautiful products curated to impress and delight the well heeled of us. She’s a great supporter to her older wealthy, property developer husband, his grown up kids and her staff. Disaster looms when her husband is accused of dodgy dealings. Therese is shocked, befriends a woman in an apartment in her building who leads her into a different way of being, offering a sense of freedom and release. Almost allowing her a second life, parallel to her life upstairs.
It all gets horribly messy, relationships turn sour, husband seems to be doing more dodgy deals and the dreamed of retail expansion to Sydney is canned. It’s all so middle class dramatic. Everyone is behaving badly. There is a lot going on. It’s interesting to watch it all unfold.
Rich people, glamorous dinner parties, badly behaved rich kids and the expectations that come with wealth.
It’s a good book, it’s a good story, but passionate it isn’t.
August 19, 2024
Beautiful writing and easy to read, but the plot felt like a slow burn to nowhere and I found most of the characters incredibly annoying (and not in the love-to-hate-them kind of way). Not entirely sure what the point of this book was.
March 16, 2024
Initially I thought I wasn’t going to respond either intellectually or emotionally to this New Zealand novel. It seemed ordinary compared to Stone Yard Devotional (Australia’s Charlotte Wood), that I had just completed.
Wrong! It just took time - for the characters to take shape and especially for the trigger the author introduced to send the story in a new and exciting direction. In the end it seems that both novels, in their very different ways, ask ‘How do I live an authentic life in today’s world?’
The Perkins novel has a feminist focus. The Greek legend of Atalanta provides one clue to the title. Atalanta symbolised the power of women (she was a huntress who conquered a boar) but also the temptations they can succumb to - Atalanta was turned into a lion when she had sex with a man - against her own moral code. The novel has other references to lions and lionesses and I was reminded of that old Helen Reddy song ‘ I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar!’
The main character in the book, Therese, used once to be Teresa. Then as a young woman she was wooed by a much older, successful businessman. We meet Therese in her 50s - a devoted wife to Trevor and a career woman with a string of trendy homeware stores. Enter Claire, her neighbour, who has decided to remake her life by giving away her possessions. Claire invites Therese to dance on a platform where she lets herself dance herself into a frenzy, into a ‘zone’. Her experiences with Claire, combined with Trevor being accused of business fraud, propel Therese to reconsider what she really stands for and how she might choose her future.
There’s much more to the novel than this. It’s a rich, energetic, powerful book. It challenges our commitment to possessions, to money for money’s sake. It opens up the possibilities that exist for women but shows the constraints we still live with. It couldn’t be more different in style to Stone Yard Devotional yet addresses some of the same fundamental themes of the human condition (in the case of Lioness - read woman condition!) Reading them one after the other turned out to be very rewarding.
Wrong! It just took time - for the characters to take shape and especially for the trigger the author introduced to send the story in a new and exciting direction. In the end it seems that both novels, in their very different ways, ask ‘How do I live an authentic life in today’s world?’
The Perkins novel has a feminist focus. The Greek legend of Atalanta provides one clue to the title. Atalanta symbolised the power of women (she was a huntress who conquered a boar) but also the temptations they can succumb to - Atalanta was turned into a lion when she had sex with a man - against her own moral code. The novel has other references to lions and lionesses and I was reminded of that old Helen Reddy song ‘ I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar!’
The main character in the book, Therese, used once to be Teresa. Then as a young woman she was wooed by a much older, successful businessman. We meet Therese in her 50s - a devoted wife to Trevor and a career woman with a string of trendy homeware stores. Enter Claire, her neighbour, who has decided to remake her life by giving away her possessions. Claire invites Therese to dance on a platform where she lets herself dance herself into a frenzy, into a ‘zone’. Her experiences with Claire, combined with Trevor being accused of business fraud, propel Therese to reconsider what she really stands for and how she might choose her future.
There’s much more to the novel than this. It’s a rich, energetic, powerful book. It challenges our commitment to possessions, to money for money’s sake. It opens up the possibilities that exist for women but shows the constraints we still live with. It couldn’t be more different in style to Stone Yard Devotional yet addresses some of the same fundamental themes of the human condition (in the case of Lioness - read woman condition!) Reading them one after the other turned out to be very rewarding.
May 26, 2023
Drama within a wealthy privileged family in follows accusations of corruption. We follow the events that slowly unfold through the eyes of Therese, the much-younger wife of a property magnate. Therese comes from a humble family and since she met Trevor and has found success and material comfort but she has also molded every part of herself into an image dictated by his age and power. The surface appearance of her contentment is shaken by the repercussions and reactions of those around her, from fair-weather friends to Trevor's first wife and their adult children, all of whom see Therese as an interloper and exclude her from much of their lives. As all of this happens Therese gets to know her neighbour Claire, who is making radical changes to her life and perspective in search of fulfilment. Claire seems free, brave and wise and Therese feels a magnetic pull towards her and the eclectic people who visit her flat.
There were lots of interesting ideas about what happiness needs and what it is worth, the difference between fulfilment and contentment. Perkins eviscerates late-stage capitalism and those it benefits. But none of these are very significantly addressed. The relationship between Claire and Therese is an odd one, intended to challenge Therese's life of perfect white, heteronormativity, but I also found it unconvincing, particularly when considering the reason that Trevor's first marriage failed. Lightning striking twice like that was silly and unnecessary.
The focus of the novel on the fall-out rather than the build-up to Trevor's possible disgrace would have been more satisfying and given Therese more room to grow and Perkins more opportunity to develop her themes.
There were lots of interesting ideas about what happiness needs and what it is worth, the difference between fulfilment and contentment. Perkins eviscerates late-stage capitalism and those it benefits. But none of these are very significantly addressed. The relationship between Claire and Therese is an odd one, intended to challenge Therese's life of perfect white, heteronormativity, but I also found it unconvincing, particularly when considering the reason that Trevor's first marriage failed. Lightning striking twice like that was silly and unnecessary.
The focus of the novel on the fall-out rather than the build-up to Trevor's possible disgrace would have been more satisfying and given Therese more room to grow and Perkins more opportunity to develop her themes.
September 30, 2023
Lioness by Emily Perkins is a beautifully written book. I've bookmarked a lot of pages featuring phrasing or passages that leapt out at me - as being eloquent, or perhaps relatable for me personally. Which is interesting, as though I could relate to some elements of this and its lead characters (who are similar in age to me), I really did not connect with them in the way I expected. In fact, I did not like them at all. Therese our narrator seems surprisingly enamoured by her neighbour Claire and I confess I did not see the allure.
3.5 stars
Read my review here: https://www.debbish.com/books-literat...
3.5 stars
Read my review here: https://www.debbish.com/books-literat...
September 3, 2024
This was a pretty wild ride. Some of the feminism themes were a bit on the nose for me but otherwise I really liked the somewhat wacky way it explored ideas of people-pleasing and smoothing things over, and the role of women both those things.
February 8, 2024
Undoubtedly a great story teller, but for a character and reality driven novel I found myself scoffing a few times. I was relieved that, after the bulk of the novel covered her decades of naivety in her marriage, there was a lightening speed self awakening and empowerment. The almost-orgy in a building site with onlookers stood out like a very sore thumb. Why?
August 12, 2024
As someone teetering on the edge of middle age, I was drawn to the character of Therese. The exploration of female rage, family dynamics and what gives our life meaning was brilliant. But it’s 2024, and we’re in a cost of living crisis, and that made it very hard to read about generational wealth and how hard it all is. I understand that’s the point, but it was a bit of a read the room moment for me. In another time this could easily have been 5 star.
June 10, 2024
Set in Wellington and narrated by Kerrie Fox. As her husband deals with fraud allegations, Therese questions her lifestyle and choices, with the support of her neighbour Claire - a character so extreme I couldn’t relate to her in any way. None of the characters were appealing, including Therese. Some thought provoking moments but generally too intense for me - and what’s with the strange orgy at the end?!
December 11, 2023
(2.5)
Rep: bi mc & li, bi side characters
Rep: bi mc & li, bi side characters
December 30, 2023
This will definitely be a classic in the feminine rage category, if not quite as daring as some of the others. A great book to make you want to start fights at the family Christmas. So well written, I had to put it down occasionally from feeling the rage myself - in the best way. There was something really great about the Wellington setting - it felt so close to home and believable, and is a side of NZ you don't often see explored.
September 19, 2024
I feel like it could have used one more round of edits but I actually really enjoyed it, much more than I was anticipating
July 13, 2024
Fabulous as an audiobook
October 27, 2025
Maybe a 2.5. I didn’t like any of the characters, and I felt like I wasn’t smart enough to read it. They seemed to be several times where things were hinted at, but never fully addressed, and I felt like I was missing something because I was stupid. And the characters seemed to say outrageous things and then never pick up on them again the next time they saw each other. And Therese was just so passive 🙄. Not for me.
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