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Other Women: And Other Stories
A slyly subversive bildungsroman about misplaced love, by the author of the lauded novel Nothing Can Hurt You
After dropping out of college, a young woman wanders through New York both invisible and vulnerable, studying the city’s strong magic and longing for a man she knows will never love her back. Salvation appears to arrive when Charlotte Herzfeld, the young wife of a successful businessman, hires her as a live-in nanny to accompany the family on a trip to Berlin. As the Herzfelds begin to crack under the weight of their secrets, she finds herself in a more precarious position than ever before.
Reflective yet propulsive, and told in a voice both ingenuous and insightful, Other Women is a timeless and all-too-relatable tale of unwise decisions and unfortunate fixations.
This volume includes three new short stories and an introduction from Megan Nolan.
After dropping out of college, a young woman wanders through New York both invisible and vulnerable, studying the city’s strong magic and longing for a man she knows will never love her back. Salvation appears to arrive when Charlotte Herzfeld, the young wife of a successful businessman, hires her as a live-in nanny to accompany the family on a trip to Berlin. As the Herzfelds begin to crack under the weight of their secrets, she finds herself in a more precarious position than ever before.
Reflective yet propulsive, and told in a voice both ingenuous and insightful, Other Women is a timeless and all-too-relatable tale of unwise decisions and unfortunate fixations.
This volume includes three new short stories and an introduction from Megan Nolan.
224 pages, Paperback
Published April 28, 2026
About the author
Nicola Maye Goldberg
12 books166 followersNicola Maye Goldberg is the author of NOTHING CAN HURT YOU (Bloomsbury, 2020). She lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews
July 7, 2026
i loved this author's under-read and underrated debut. i guess you could say i'm not like other women.
https://emmareadstoomuch.substack.com...
i planned on writing mini-reviews for each story as is my tendency with collections when i have my sh*t remotely together, but that is somewhat complicated by my discovery (after completely forgetting that this was a collection at all) that the first story is actually a novella called other women and it takes up 75% of the page count.
let's try anyway.
STORY ONE: OTHER WOMEN
as mentioned, i completely forgot that this was supposed to have multiple stories in it — i was consumed by this one. even its flaws or quirks (second person perspective, confusing timeline) charmed me, especially when it fell into the tropes of my beloved young-woman-ruining-her-life genre. i had such a great time that i am nervous and upset to continue with stories that won't be this one. even the title is perfect!
rating: 4.5
STORY TWO: PARIS, 1979
hmm. bit of a non-starter here, in that it doesn't really start.
rating: 3
STORY THREE: ALL GIRLS
my girl nicola loves to play with perspective.
rating: 3.5
STORY FOUR: THE VIRGIN
every woman should get a million dollars and every man should get jail time.
rating: 4
OVERALL
these other three stories are kind of an afterthought in comparison to the full and memorable novella — is four stories really enough for a collection? — but it's still worth reading for that alone.
rating: 4
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
https://emmareadstoomuch.substack.com...
i planned on writing mini-reviews for each story as is my tendency with collections when i have my sh*t remotely together, but that is somewhat complicated by my discovery (after completely forgetting that this was a collection at all) that the first story is actually a novella called other women and it takes up 75% of the page count.
let's try anyway.
STORY ONE: OTHER WOMEN
as mentioned, i completely forgot that this was supposed to have multiple stories in it — i was consumed by this one. even its flaws or quirks (second person perspective, confusing timeline) charmed me, especially when it fell into the tropes of my beloved young-woman-ruining-her-life genre. i had such a great time that i am nervous and upset to continue with stories that won't be this one. even the title is perfect!
rating: 4.5
STORY TWO: PARIS, 1979
hmm. bit of a non-starter here, in that it doesn't really start.
rating: 3
STORY THREE: ALL GIRLS
my girl nicola loves to play with perspective.
rating: 3.5
STORY FOUR: THE VIRGIN
every woman should get a million dollars and every man should get jail time.
rating: 4
OVERALL
these other three stories are kind of an afterthought in comparison to the full and memorable novella — is four stories really enough for a collection? — but it's still worth reading for that alone.
rating: 4
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
April 29, 2026
A novella and three short stories. In the titular "Other Women", the novella of the bunch, a young woman struggling with the end of an affair abandons college and moves to Berlin as a nanny. In "Paris, 1979", a woman stakes out an apartment in Paris, watching as a former actress does...well, not much, most of the time. In "All Girls", a group of middle school girls grapples with the disappearance of one of their classmates. And in "The Virgin", a college student grapples with a crush and an assault.
"Other Women" was previously published as a standalone novella, and I don't think the cover design does quite right by this new version (why does the cover say "a novel" rather than "and other stories"?). But the image is striking and the stories within tightly woven.
"Other Women" is the titular story for a reason. The narrator is young and perhaps depressed and making decisions that are sometimes objectively bad and sometimes just impulsive; she finds herself sleeping with the wrong people and seeking out attention for not the healthiest reasons and making decisions because the option is there and not necessarily because she's thought the decision through.
You asked me why I dropped out of school. I told you: "I thought I wanted to be a poet, but I really just wanted to be a poem." (loc. 92*)
"Other Women" is told in the second person, addressing the man the narrator is infatuated with; a man who is sleeping with her but in a relationship with another woman. This isn't a story about drastic steps: the narrator knows that it is, if not a lost cause, not meant to be. And yet.
I think that if you'd wanted me less, you might have loved me more. (loc. 344)
This is the strongest of the pieces in the book, I think, and well worth the prime positioning as the book's title. A high 4 stars.
"Paris, 1979" sets us in the perspective of a woman staking out the apartment of a former actress. Our narrator has a male counterpart, but he is incidental. My knowledge of 1970s history does not tell me how likely this particular scenario is (the short version is that they are government agents, and the government doesn't trust the actress), but if the actress has secrets, she is hiding them well; very little happens until the story reaches its climax. That is not criticism—I prefer a slow build to something action-packed—but I also found this story to be the least memorable, and it was my least favorite of the bunch. 3 stars.
"All Girls" made up for "Paris, 1979" in spades. Here we're in the first-person plural, no one voice rising above the rest: These are, after all, 11-year-old girls, learning to exist as pack animals, filtering whatever they know or think they know through each other. One of their lot has gone missing, she's not somebody that our collective narrators know particularly well, and they find themselves trying to figure out how to navigate this sort of loss of a sense of security when they aren't even sure how to feel about the girl herself. I never experienced such an event (though I'm sure many of my classmates were going through difficult things that I knew nothing about), but there's a tangible sense that these girls are on the cusp of something, that this moment is pivotal in ways that they will only later understand. 4 stars.
"The Virgin" is the last story in the book and one that should probably come with a trigger warning. In it, a girl sees her first year of college as something wide open with possibility—until she is assaulted, and she has to both figure out how to frame that assault for herself (and what to do with it) and deal with other people's reactions and opinions. This is technically well done (in particular, excellent balance of showing and telling), though it felt to me like a story that has been told many times before...although, to be fair, partly because it is a story that so many young women have experienced. 3.5 stars.
Overall, a tightly wrought but not terribly happy collection. I'd recommend a break between pieces to let them sink in before moving on to the next one—but if you can take some darkness in your litfic, this is one for you.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
"Other Women" was previously published as a standalone novella, and I don't think the cover design does quite right by this new version (why does the cover say "a novel" rather than "and other stories"?). But the image is striking and the stories within tightly woven.
"Other Women" is the titular story for a reason. The narrator is young and perhaps depressed and making decisions that are sometimes objectively bad and sometimes just impulsive; she finds herself sleeping with the wrong people and seeking out attention for not the healthiest reasons and making decisions because the option is there and not necessarily because she's thought the decision through.
You asked me why I dropped out of school. I told you: "I thought I wanted to be a poet, but I really just wanted to be a poem." (loc. 92*)
"Other Women" is told in the second person, addressing the man the narrator is infatuated with; a man who is sleeping with her but in a relationship with another woman. This isn't a story about drastic steps: the narrator knows that it is, if not a lost cause, not meant to be. And yet.
I think that if you'd wanted me less, you might have loved me more. (loc. 344)
This is the strongest of the pieces in the book, I think, and well worth the prime positioning as the book's title. A high 4 stars.
"Paris, 1979" sets us in the perspective of a woman staking out the apartment of a former actress. Our narrator has a male counterpart, but he is incidental. My knowledge of 1970s history does not tell me how likely this particular scenario is (the short version is that they are government agents, and the government doesn't trust the actress), but if the actress has secrets, she is hiding them well; very little happens until the story reaches its climax. That is not criticism—I prefer a slow build to something action-packed—but I also found this story to be the least memorable, and it was my least favorite of the bunch. 3 stars.
"All Girls" made up for "Paris, 1979" in spades. Here we're in the first-person plural, no one voice rising above the rest: These are, after all, 11-year-old girls, learning to exist as pack animals, filtering whatever they know or think they know through each other. One of their lot has gone missing, she's not somebody that our collective narrators know particularly well, and they find themselves trying to figure out how to navigate this sort of loss of a sense of security when they aren't even sure how to feel about the girl herself. I never experienced such an event (though I'm sure many of my classmates were going through difficult things that I knew nothing about), but there's a tangible sense that these girls are on the cusp of something, that this moment is pivotal in ways that they will only later understand. 4 stars.
"The Virgin" is the last story in the book and one that should probably come with a trigger warning. In it, a girl sees her first year of college as something wide open with possibility—until she is assaulted, and she has to both figure out how to frame that assault for herself (and what to do with it) and deal with other people's reactions and opinions. This is technically well done (in particular, excellent balance of showing and telling), though it felt to me like a story that has been told many times before...although, to be fair, partly because it is a story that so many young women have experienced. 3.5 stars.
Overall, a tightly wrought but not terribly happy collection. I'd recommend a break between pieces to let them sink in before moving on to the next one—but if you can take some darkness in your litfic, this is one for you.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
June 9, 2026
Other Women is a beautifully rendered novella, marked by emotional depth and a quiet, lingering ache that will resonate with readers drawn to sad girl literature.
For me, the "Other Stories" section could have stood alone as a separate publication. That said, I still enjoyed those stories and appreciated what they added to the collection.
Thank you to the publisher for the eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
For me, the "Other Stories" section could have stood alone as a separate publication. That said, I still enjoyed those stories and appreciated what they added to the collection.
Thank you to the publisher for the eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
*Thank you to Verso Books (US) and Netgalley for providing me with a digital arc in exchange for an honest review*
*spoilers below*
I think this book will appeal to a lot of younger women who currently find themselves unsure of their direction/purpose in life. I'm not sure I fit in the "younger women" category any more but there were a couple of parts within the first story where I could relate to some of the characters (not all of it was pretty) and there are quite a few TWs to be aware of including self harm, cheating, taking drugs/meds, the death of a family member (off-page).
The title story really focuses on misplaced love between the narrator and the guy she has an affair with - it's actually very sad and heartbreaking at times, especially when we get to see the narrator's internal monologue and how she feels when she's had sex, and on learning that he's to be married to his long-term girlfriend, the narrator emigrates to Berlin to become a nanny to a wealthy couple and their two daughters. From there, we follow our narrator as she wonders what the guy is currently up to and what his relationship with Josephine (his fiancee) is like. There are other things which happen involving the mother of the daughters she is looking after and whilst there were some beautiful moments and lines throughout, it's ultimately pretty bleak and depressing.
I'm going to be completely honest here, if you want uplifting and redemptive fiction, this book is not going to be for you - personally I need books with hopeful endings - they don't need to be happy endings per se but I do want something positive hinted at, at least, and whilst we do get it at the end of Other Women (despite the ending being quite sudden), for the other shorter stories within this collection, there aren't any :/
One of the stories focuses on a pair who secretly spy on a retired actress who lives in an apartment over the road, and one day decided to go and visit her because they haven't seen her in a while, only to find she has committed suicide by drowning in her bath.
Another hints at something unsavoury between a girl and her father - the girl having suddenly disappeared from school and who later appears alive and seemingly well after she has been holed up in a motel with her father who has brought her a bright red bikini which contrasts sharply with the full swimming suits all the other girls wear *shudders*
And the final story focuses on a young woman at college who is SA'd by another student :/
As you can see, the stories deal with very hard-hitting and raw topics and whilst the writing at times was beautiful, I did feel a bit burnt out by the end by all of the shit happening to these female characters.
Like I said at the beginning of my review, I think this book will appeal to a lot of younger women who may possibly be able to relate to some of the content in here - it is realistic and blunt and very "contemporary", and whilst I personally didn't like most of the endings, I can appreciate the important themes and topic matters discussed.
*spoilers below*
I think this book will appeal to a lot of younger women who currently find themselves unsure of their direction/purpose in life. I'm not sure I fit in the "younger women" category any more but there were a couple of parts within the first story where I could relate to some of the characters (not all of it was pretty) and there are quite a few TWs to be aware of including self harm, cheating, taking drugs/meds, the death of a family member (off-page).
The title story really focuses on misplaced love between the narrator and the guy she has an affair with - it's actually very sad and heartbreaking at times, especially when we get to see the narrator's internal monologue and how she feels when she's had sex, and on learning that he's to be married to his long-term girlfriend, the narrator emigrates to Berlin to become a nanny to a wealthy couple and their two daughters. From there, we follow our narrator as she wonders what the guy is currently up to and what his relationship with Josephine (his fiancee) is like. There are other things which happen involving the mother of the daughters she is looking after and whilst there were some beautiful moments and lines throughout, it's ultimately pretty bleak and depressing.
I'm going to be completely honest here, if you want uplifting and redemptive fiction, this book is not going to be for you - personally I need books with hopeful endings - they don't need to be happy endings per se but I do want something positive hinted at, at least, and whilst we do get it at the end of Other Women (despite the ending being quite sudden), for the other shorter stories within this collection, there aren't any :/
One of the stories focuses on a pair who secretly spy on a retired actress who lives in an apartment over the road, and one day decided to go and visit her because they haven't seen her in a while, only to find she has committed suicide by drowning in her bath.
Another hints at something unsavoury between a girl and her father - the girl having suddenly disappeared from school and who later appears alive and seemingly well after she has been holed up in a motel with her father who has brought her a bright red bikini which contrasts sharply with the full swimming suits all the other girls wear *shudders*
And the final story focuses on a young woman at college who is SA'd by another student :/
As you can see, the stories deal with very hard-hitting and raw topics and whilst the writing at times was beautiful, I did feel a bit burnt out by the end by all of the shit happening to these female characters.
Like I said at the beginning of my review, I think this book will appeal to a lot of younger women who may possibly be able to relate to some of the content in here - it is realistic and blunt and very "contemporary", and whilst I personally didn't like most of the endings, I can appreciate the important themes and topic matters discussed.
April 27, 2026
“Other Women: and Other Stories” is a novella and three short stories that dive into some of the experiences of young women. This is definitely a sad girl book. Not weird girl lit necessarily, but sad girl lit most certainly. This is for the enjoyers of Ottessa Mosfegh (mainly “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” specifically), “Acts of Desperation” by Megan Nolan, and others of a similar ilk.
The titular novella “Other Women” was by far the standout here. It follows a college-aged woman entering an affair with a taken man a couple years her senior. The relationship consumes her, and the astuteness in which she notices her partner is almost heartbreaking. The relationship comes to an inevitable end, after which the narrator spirals and becomes a nanny for a family moving to Germany. I think the narrative lost itself a bit in the middle when the narrator moved to Germany, but I still really enjoyed the story as a whole. I almost felt nostalgic, in a way, while reading this novella, bringing me back to my own university days: where everything felt so all-encompassing and everlasting, where everything felt like an individual experience because it’s all you know. The university almost becomes its own sphere of reality which swallows you whole, until you come out the other side, not necessarily unscathed but with the understanding that, regardless, life continues on. The subsequent three stories follow different struggles surrounding women, including the bonds of girlhood, parental relationships, and sexual assault. There’s nothing at all wrong with the stories—I just don’t think they necessarily added anything, but I didn’t not enjoy them either. “Other Women” is definitely my favorite, though.
I was really surprised to see that “Other Women” was originally released in 2016! As I said, I would highly recommend this for the readers of the ~sad girl lit~ genre, and I’m shocked I haven’t heard more about it. This re-publication of “Other Women” with the three stories attached will, I hope, bring more attention to this novella and to Nicola Maye Goldberg as an author. Her writing style was incredible! It’s pretty stream of consciousness, but Goldberg does it in a way that there’s never a lull—I always wanted to continue reading. Her style was a bit detached, which may not be everyone’s favorite but I really enjoyed. And lastly, as I mentioned earlier, the narrator of “Other Women” noticed all the complexities and minutiae about her partner, and it was so touching while also harrowing. I felt this novella in my chest.
Overall, I highly recommend! Thank you to NetGalley and Verso for the advance eARC in exchange for an honest review!
The titular novella “Other Women” was by far the standout here. It follows a college-aged woman entering an affair with a taken man a couple years her senior. The relationship consumes her, and the astuteness in which she notices her partner is almost heartbreaking. The relationship comes to an inevitable end, after which the narrator spirals and becomes a nanny for a family moving to Germany. I think the narrative lost itself a bit in the middle when the narrator moved to Germany, but I still really enjoyed the story as a whole. I almost felt nostalgic, in a way, while reading this novella, bringing me back to my own university days: where everything felt so all-encompassing and everlasting, where everything felt like an individual experience because it’s all you know. The university almost becomes its own sphere of reality which swallows you whole, until you come out the other side, not necessarily unscathed but with the understanding that, regardless, life continues on. The subsequent three stories follow different struggles surrounding women, including the bonds of girlhood, parental relationships, and sexual assault. There’s nothing at all wrong with the stories—I just don’t think they necessarily added anything, but I didn’t not enjoy them either. “Other Women” is definitely my favorite, though.
I was really surprised to see that “Other Women” was originally released in 2016! As I said, I would highly recommend this for the readers of the ~sad girl lit~ genre, and I’m shocked I haven’t heard more about it. This re-publication of “Other Women” with the three stories attached will, I hope, bring more attention to this novella and to Nicola Maye Goldberg as an author. Her writing style was incredible! It’s pretty stream of consciousness, but Goldberg does it in a way that there’s never a lull—I always wanted to continue reading. Her style was a bit detached, which may not be everyone’s favorite but I really enjoyed. And lastly, as I mentioned earlier, the narrator of “Other Women” noticed all the complexities and minutiae about her partner, and it was so touching while also harrowing. I felt this novella in my chest.
Overall, I highly recommend! Thank you to NetGalley and Verso for the advance eARC in exchange for an honest review!
July 18, 2026
lots of underlining
ranking the short stories at the end: 2>3>1
ranking the short stories at the end: 2>3>1
July 23, 2026
Este libro llegó inesperadamente a mi y lo amé. La edición es una novela corta y una serie de relatos cortos al final que también son muy buenos.
Te lo recomiendo si te gustan personajes femeninos que toman decisiones moralmente cuestionables y que están deprimidas.
Te lo recomiendo si te gustan personajes femeninos que toman decisiones moralmente cuestionables y que están deprimidas.
July 11, 2026
10/10 no notes
May 18, 2026
introduction from Megan Nolan? Im sat.
an honest representation of the brutality of womanhood
an honest representation of the brutality of womanhood
March 23, 2026
do not read if your frontal lobe has not been fully developed. i would have completely spiraled if i read this between 18-22.
the novella is the true star of this book, felt like a mix of the guest and my year of rest and relaxation. i really loved the diary like prose and how authentic the narrator felt (but she will piss you off)
the short stories were just fine.
what this book does really well is place you exactly where the characters are in their lives. a lost 20 year old, a naive 11 year old, etc. i loved how hyperfocused and zoned in it was.
thank you netgalley and verso books for the digital arc
the novella is the true star of this book, felt like a mix of the guest and my year of rest and relaxation. i really loved the diary like prose and how authentic the narrator felt (but she will piss you off)
the short stories were just fine.
what this book does really well is place you exactly where the characters are in their lives. a lost 20 year old, a naive 11 year old, etc. i loved how hyperfocused and zoned in it was.
thank you netgalley and verso books for the digital arc
June 30, 2026
Sometimes the sad-white-woman book really is just very good. Other Women is definitely the best section, and I wish it were the whole book, but I liked All Girls and The Virgin a lot too. She was doing something very compelling with addressing the man from Other Women as “you” throughout that section in a way that really kept me hooked. I would have finished this in one sitting if I were not on a trip when I bought it. Everything about this book is the sort of book that annoys me and yet I loved it. I liked how short it was, as I feel like my issue with these books is that they often weigh too heavy and I can’t finish them for that reason, but this was short and sweet and overall sad in a digestible way. Sad I didn’t know about her while I was still at Barnard, would have fought to take a class with her.
May 4, 2026
Genuinely the worst shit I’ve ever read. Reads like a desperate outsider trying to tell everyone on their autofiction dimes square substack that they’re desirable and important. Just unbelievably vapid and trite.
June 19, 2026
Oooh I loved this!!!
August 2, 2026
I loved Other Women (but the other short stories included after it less so) and underlined many many sentences. An elegantly written introspective and observant exposition of misplaced love (maybe obsession) and the feeling of not belonging anywhere. It gave “more in love with the idea/ beauty of being in love than actually being in love” energy. I really liked the choice of Frank O’Hara quote at the beginning and think it sums up the sentiment of the story perfectly.
May 2, 2026
Really enjoyed reading about a girl I absolutely would’ve hated at that age. But seeing her perspective I could understand the urge and her choices. A very interesting and new perspective added to my understanding of womanhood.
July 24, 2026
I guess
May 8, 2026
Thank you Netgalley, @versobooks and the author Nicola Maye Goldberg for my free electronic ARC. Reviews are my own.
Other Women is why I request ARCs. Without an access to ARCs, I might have never seen this beautiful collection of stories on being a human, being a woman.
Some of these stories made me feel bittersweet, some angry, some made me lose hope. Sometimes the story resonates and brings back fragments of a past life. Love, obsession, disappointment are all mixed in these stories, waiting to be read in a quiet time. For me it is 3.5 stars, and given I rate Dostoyevski and Agatha Christie five stars, it is not average 😄. Recommended for women fiction readers, I think you will like it, a lot.
#reklam Kitap tarafıma elektronik ortamda ücretsiz olarak iletilmiştir.
Other Women is why I request ARCs. Without an access to ARCs, I might have never seen this beautiful collection of stories on being a human, being a woman.
Some of these stories made me feel bittersweet, some angry, some made me lose hope. Sometimes the story resonates and brings back fragments of a past life. Love, obsession, disappointment are all mixed in these stories, waiting to be read in a quiet time. For me it is 3.5 stars, and given I rate Dostoyevski and Agatha Christie five stars, it is not average 😄. Recommended for women fiction readers, I think you will like it, a lot.
#reklam Kitap tarafıma elektronik ortamda ücretsiz olarak iletilmiştir.
May 12, 2026
I picked this book up at random at a bookstore and I’m mad at myself for choosing such a miserable book that hardly even makes sense. It gets a 2 because it was so incredibly short that I was able to read it in a day, otherwise I would have dnf.
June 11, 2026
i would have really liked this at 17 but now it felt a lil bit too flowery and overwrought for my tastes now. very tumblr-esque “wow i romanticise self harm and sleep with men i shouldn’t” vibes.
i did, however, REALLY like the short stories at the end (perhaps because they didn’t go on long enough to make me go “all right i get it bro” - that sorta flowery style does work better for short contained stories i feel)
i did, however, REALLY like the short stories at the end (perhaps because they didn’t go on long enough to make me go “all right i get it bro” - that sorta flowery style does work better for short contained stories i feel)
July 4, 2026
I love sad girls
“I really would have liked to read, except that I couldn't think of a single book that would tell me exactly how I ought to feel.”
Other Women 4.5⭐️
Paris, 1979 3 ⭐️
All Girls 4⭐️
The Virgin 4.5⭐️
“I really would have liked to read, except that I couldn't think of a single book that would tell me exactly how I ought to feel.”
Other Women 4.5⭐️
Paris, 1979 3 ⭐️
All Girls 4⭐️
The Virgin 4.5⭐️
May 24, 2026
This book was beautiful. It was depressing, honest, and raw. Nothing happened? But I didn’t want it to end. I wish I could read a million more just like it.
August 11, 2026
Adore all things sad girl literature coded.
July 17, 2026
A novella and 3 short stories. The novella was the best.
July 15, 2026
Exploration of the torment one goes through when feeling unreciprocated love for the idea of someone, and how it eventually fades away. Pretty nice quotes:
‘There wasn't a lot of dignity in that, but I didn't care. I didn't care about integrity, or self-respect, or any of the things I knew I was supposed to want. I just wanted you.’
‘All evening I had this glowing feeling. It was not entirely unfamiliar to me. I think I felt similar after the first time you kissed me, (…). Basically, times when I felt accomplished, lucky, satisfied. In the past it had been a dangerous feeling, because by definition it can only last so long. For instance: As soon as you kissed me, I wanted you to kiss me again. (…). I was just trying to sit with that feeling, the sweetness and the fragility of it, trying to figure out how to make it last.’
‘There wasn't a lot of dignity in that, but I didn't care. I didn't care about integrity, or self-respect, or any of the things I knew I was supposed to want. I just wanted you.’
‘All evening I had this glowing feeling. It was not entirely unfamiliar to me. I think I felt similar after the first time you kissed me, (…). Basically, times when I felt accomplished, lucky, satisfied. In the past it had been a dangerous feeling, because by definition it can only last so long. For instance: As soon as you kissed me, I wanted you to kiss me again. (…). I was just trying to sit with that feeling, the sweetness and the fragility of it, trying to figure out how to make it last.’
June 21, 2026
other women - 5 stars, an amazing fit for my lana del rey, sylvia plath obsessed heart. i know i‘ll read this over and over. the absurdity of becoming a woman and suddenly having to know your way through life is captured so beautifully.
paris 1979 - 3,5/5, interesting story, but i feel like it lacked a bit of depth compared to the others. captivating nonetheless!
all girls - 4,5/5, very virgin suicides-esque. a story about the fake solidarity between young girls and their surface-level, but also forced-by-adults friendships. this is what makes us girls.
the virgin - 5/5, it’s so terrifying and so moving and my biggest fear. perfectly encapsulates the stupidity of men when it comes to rape, and the way no one really knows what to do after
all in all it is definitely a 5 star read. every story is very much worth your time!
paris 1979 - 3,5/5, interesting story, but i feel like it lacked a bit of depth compared to the others. captivating nonetheless!
all girls - 4,5/5, very virgin suicides-esque. a story about the fake solidarity between young girls and their surface-level, but also forced-by-adults friendships. this is what makes us girls.
the virgin - 5/5, it’s so terrifying and so moving and my biggest fear. perfectly encapsulates the stupidity of men when it comes to rape, and the way no one really knows what to do after
all in all it is definitely a 5 star read. every story is very much worth your time!
March 8, 2026
Incredibly shallow across the board, and deeply underdeveloped overall; choppy writing that didn’t establish anything in terms of form other than endless pretentious quote-bait. Felt like a book written by an angsty teenager who spent too much time on Tumblr in 2013 and thinks the whole world revolves around romanticizing self harm and partying with drug addicted man-boys.
May 3, 2026
nothing and everything happens and I was addicted
June 23, 2026
Actual rating: 4.5 (I would give the novel 4/5, and the stories at the end 5/5, so this is the average.)
I fell in love with Nicola Maye Goldberg’s writing when I read Nothing Can Hurt You a few years ago. While Other Women might be thematically different, her engaging prose courses through it in the same way, making it compellingly readable.
Other Women follows a nameless protagonist, a recent college dropout adrift in New York, a city that did not live up to its promises. Her first-person narrative is addressed to a man she had an affair with, her love for whom is one-sided. Unsettled, she leaps at the opportunity to au pair for a wealthy family migrating to Berlin, growing closer with Charlotte, the wife and mother. But with her feelings of alienation and disillusionment following her to the new city, the protagonist sets herself up for another round of disappointments.
This novel has actually been released before; it was published independently in 2016, before Goldberg made her major publishing house debut with Nothing Can Hurt You in 2020. This reissued edition by Verso contains an introduction by Megan Nolan, as well as three new short stories. Unfortunately, my NetGalley copy was missing the introduction, so I can’t comment on that—I was disappointed, as I adored Nolan’s Acts of Desperation and I certainly sense a connection between her writing and Goldberg’s. However, I think otherwise that this mini-anthology is very well presented and a great read.
The novel, Other Women, captures a lot of feeling in a shorter text. The protagonist’s disassociation is palpable, and while she might be more amoral and apathetic than most people, I think a common feeling of young alienation will certainly resonate with many readers. I was reminded of writers such as Ottessa Moshfegh, Darcy Steinke, and, of course, Megan Nolan: all of them represent young female alienation amid a world that was never made for us. Goldberg’s protagonist is unlikable, not to the degree of the protagonist of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, but she has at time cruel thoughts and shallow desires that seem to distract her from happiness. It is a portrait of a young woman in crisis, but at the same time a mirror held up to a society that shaped her that way.
Sense of place is a significant part of the novel also, as the protagonist feels no belonging wherever she goes. Everyone tells her she should love New York, and she grows to hate it. She is told the same about Berlin, but she spends most of her time cooped up in an apartment, bored by the museums and disturbed by the city’s casual nihilism. Again, while the protagonist and myself are very different, I related quite strongly to the sensation. Having the narrative addressed to a lost person also suggests that she looks for home in a person who will never be it for her, which was cleverly done.
My one hangup with the novel was how abruptly it ended. An explosive but secret event takes place towards the end, which provides the protagonist’s ultimate direction; I wished that this in particular had been explored in more detail, as I wanted to understand more of the motivations behind what happened and the protagonist’s real reaction to it, which she seems to push down and then move on from. However, I did think the novel was still overall very good, and it’s great to be able to read it in a new edition as when I looked for it before it was basically out of print.
As a final note, the three short stories at the end of the book are an absolute masterclass, the kind that you dwell on long after putting them down. All of them disturbed me significantly in an impressive way: Goldberg dissects apathy, abuse and rape culture in a very short space of words. The final of the three links briefly to Nothing Can Hurt You, making it a good jumping-off point to discover that excellent novel.
Thank you to NetGalley and Verso Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
I fell in love with Nicola Maye Goldberg’s writing when I read Nothing Can Hurt You a few years ago. While Other Women might be thematically different, her engaging prose courses through it in the same way, making it compellingly readable.
Other Women follows a nameless protagonist, a recent college dropout adrift in New York, a city that did not live up to its promises. Her first-person narrative is addressed to a man she had an affair with, her love for whom is one-sided. Unsettled, she leaps at the opportunity to au pair for a wealthy family migrating to Berlin, growing closer with Charlotte, the wife and mother. But with her feelings of alienation and disillusionment following her to the new city, the protagonist sets herself up for another round of disappointments.
This novel has actually been released before; it was published independently in 2016, before Goldberg made her major publishing house debut with Nothing Can Hurt You in 2020. This reissued edition by Verso contains an introduction by Megan Nolan, as well as three new short stories. Unfortunately, my NetGalley copy was missing the introduction, so I can’t comment on that—I was disappointed, as I adored Nolan’s Acts of Desperation and I certainly sense a connection between her writing and Goldberg’s. However, I think otherwise that this mini-anthology is very well presented and a great read.
The novel, Other Women, captures a lot of feeling in a shorter text. The protagonist’s disassociation is palpable, and while she might be more amoral and apathetic than most people, I think a common feeling of young alienation will certainly resonate with many readers. I was reminded of writers such as Ottessa Moshfegh, Darcy Steinke, and, of course, Megan Nolan: all of them represent young female alienation amid a world that was never made for us. Goldberg’s protagonist is unlikable, not to the degree of the protagonist of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, but she has at time cruel thoughts and shallow desires that seem to distract her from happiness. It is a portrait of a young woman in crisis, but at the same time a mirror held up to a society that shaped her that way.
Sense of place is a significant part of the novel also, as the protagonist feels no belonging wherever she goes. Everyone tells her she should love New York, and she grows to hate it. She is told the same about Berlin, but she spends most of her time cooped up in an apartment, bored by the museums and disturbed by the city’s casual nihilism. Again, while the protagonist and myself are very different, I related quite strongly to the sensation. Having the narrative addressed to a lost person also suggests that she looks for home in a person who will never be it for her, which was cleverly done.
My one hangup with the novel was how abruptly it ended. An explosive but secret event takes place towards the end, which provides the protagonist’s ultimate direction; I wished that this in particular had been explored in more detail, as I wanted to understand more of the motivations behind what happened and the protagonist’s real reaction to it, which she seems to push down and then move on from. However, I did think the novel was still overall very good, and it’s great to be able to read it in a new edition as when I looked for it before it was basically out of print.
As a final note, the three short stories at the end of the book are an absolute masterclass, the kind that you dwell on long after putting them down. All of them disturbed me significantly in an impressive way: Goldberg dissects apathy, abuse and rape culture in a very short space of words. The final of the three links briefly to Nothing Can Hurt You, making it a good jumping-off point to discover that excellent novel.
Thank you to NetGalley and Verso Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
When was the last time you read something that wasn’t a thriller but a slice of life that kept you up at night reading but also thinking? Feeling?
Good writing is when even if the book is short (and kindle tells you it’s only under 3hrs long to finish the book), it keeps you engaged. The words hit home, have you nodding along, makes you angry when sleep catches up and you realize you have to continue it TOMORROW! Almost 24hours later! Making you wish you had no work, so you could cozy up and finish the ride, or has you finishing up work real fast so that you can make time to finish this.
Other Women was one such book, I requested the ARC, firstly because of the cover, I’m weak for covers like this but also, the description. I was overjoyed when I got approved and got started on it.
It’s essentially a love letter, in the disguise of writing to the ‘one’ , ‘the one that got away’, but in reality, a letter to oneself. It’s about love, dealing with the aftermath of heartbreak, aimlessly living, grief that strikes out of nowhere, remembering the heartbreak, career, dreams, just life, wandering, living, as a woman.
It’s in second person POV and this is right there along with couple of other books I’ve read in second person and loved, because it’s not something every writer can do well, but Nicola does it beautifully.
The writing is very intimate, raw, relatable but also reflective. It makes you want to put on some music, immerse yourself in it and just think, dissociate, float away.
We’ve all had our moments, where we’ve felt like penning a letter or writing numerous emails to that friend, or lover, or someone that was once special, to tell them what they meant to us, and still do. What their absence does to our lives and how moving on from them would take great strength that I can only explain it by quoting from the book:
“I never really wanted to be free from you, but now that I was, I would have to build a home inside myself, and I would never invite you in.”
OVERALL RATING: 4.5/5
Good writing is when even if the book is short (and kindle tells you it’s only under 3hrs long to finish the book), it keeps you engaged. The words hit home, have you nodding along, makes you angry when sleep catches up and you realize you have to continue it TOMORROW! Almost 24hours later! Making you wish you had no work, so you could cozy up and finish the ride, or has you finishing up work real fast so that you can make time to finish this.
Other Women was one such book, I requested the ARC, firstly because of the cover, I’m weak for covers like this but also, the description. I was overjoyed when I got approved and got started on it.
It’s essentially a love letter, in the disguise of writing to the ‘one’ , ‘the one that got away’, but in reality, a letter to oneself. It’s about love, dealing with the aftermath of heartbreak, aimlessly living, grief that strikes out of nowhere, remembering the heartbreak, career, dreams, just life, wandering, living, as a woman.
It’s in second person POV and this is right there along with couple of other books I’ve read in second person and loved, because it’s not something every writer can do well, but Nicola does it beautifully.
The writing is very intimate, raw, relatable but also reflective. It makes you want to put on some music, immerse yourself in it and just think, dissociate, float away.
We’ve all had our moments, where we’ve felt like penning a letter or writing numerous emails to that friend, or lover, or someone that was once special, to tell them what they meant to us, and still do. What their absence does to our lives and how moving on from them would take great strength that I can only explain it by quoting from the book:
“I never really wanted to be free from you, but now that I was, I would have to build a home inside myself, and I would never invite you in.”
OVERALL RATING: 4.5/5
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to Verso for the eARC.
This is the packaging together of 'Other Women', a novella originally published way back in 2016, along with a few (much shorter) short stories. I must admit that it strikes me as a bit strange that the cover nor the blurb state that the bulk of this packaging is 10 years old. I also question the point in attaching the three short stories with the novella, as it really is long enough to work as a standalone, and the inclusion of the short stories just distracts from this main work. All in all, I'm just confused.
The titular novella is fantastic. It follows along a young female narrator who has taken academic leave from her college in an identity crisis anyone who's been in their young 20s can appreciate. Amidst this identity crisis, she begins seeing someone who is in a relationship, and this understandably just seems to worsen said identity crisis.
But really, the plot isn't the main attraction here, as Goldberg's prose is what really stands out. Her sentences have this enchanting quality that had me reading an order of magnitude longer than I had initially planned on my first sit down with this; really, I feel I would have read the entire novella in one sitting had it not been for that annoying necessity called sleep.
My main critique of 'Other Women' is that there wasn't more of it. I would have liked to sit with the characters a little bit longer, and taken in more of Goldberg's writing. My only other problem would be that some of the characters seemed a bit lacking and/or inconsistent throughout, these mainly being the love interest as well as Charlotte (again, this could've been solved by just fleshing the novella out into a novel).
As for the short stories, they were also solid, but again didn't quite fit in alongside 'Other Women.' 'Paris, 1979' follows a pair of French investigators staking out an American actress; 'All Girls' covers the disappearance of a young girl at an all girls school; 'The Virgin' follows a freshman at college who is, you guessed it, a virgin.
TL;DR: (Mostly) Great writing, confusing packaging.
This is the packaging together of 'Other Women', a novella originally published way back in 2016, along with a few (much shorter) short stories. I must admit that it strikes me as a bit strange that the cover nor the blurb state that the bulk of this packaging is 10 years old. I also question the point in attaching the three short stories with the novella, as it really is long enough to work as a standalone, and the inclusion of the short stories just distracts from this main work. All in all, I'm just confused.
The titular novella is fantastic. It follows along a young female narrator who has taken academic leave from her college in an identity crisis anyone who's been in their young 20s can appreciate. Amidst this identity crisis, she begins seeing someone who is in a relationship, and this understandably just seems to worsen said identity crisis.
But really, the plot isn't the main attraction here, as Goldberg's prose is what really stands out. Her sentences have this enchanting quality that had me reading an order of magnitude longer than I had initially planned on my first sit down with this; really, I feel I would have read the entire novella in one sitting had it not been for that annoying necessity called sleep.
My main critique of 'Other Women' is that there wasn't more of it. I would have liked to sit with the characters a little bit longer, and taken in more of Goldberg's writing. My only other problem would be that some of the characters seemed a bit lacking and/or inconsistent throughout, these mainly being the love interest as well as Charlotte (again, this could've been solved by just fleshing the novella out into a novel).
As for the short stories, they were also solid, but again didn't quite fit in alongside 'Other Women.' 'Paris, 1979' follows a pair of French investigators staking out an American actress; 'All Girls' covers the disappearance of a young girl at an all girls school; 'The Virgin' follows a freshman at college who is, you guessed it, a virgin.
TL;DR: (Mostly) Great writing, confusing packaging.
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