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Willa & Hesper
For fans of What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell and The Futures by Anna Pitonia, a soul-piercing debut that explores the ways that past and present intertwine, queerness, and coming of age in uncertain times.
In Willa & Hesper, two young women fall in love. When they fall apart, they unwittingly take the same path to heal from their breakup, seeking answers in the lands of their ancestors. From Tbilisi, Georgia to the war sites of Germany, they discover what can break and what can mend when you look to the past to understand your present.
Willa's darkness enters Hesper's light late one night in Brooklyn. Theirs is a whirlwind romance until Willa starts to know Hesper too well, to crawl into her hidden spaces, and Hesper shuts her out. She runs, following her fractured family back to her grandfather's hometown of Tbilisi, Georgia, looking for the origin story that he is no longer able to tell. But once in Tbilisi, cracks appear in her grandfather's history-and a massive flood is heading toward Georgia, threatening any hope for repair.
Meanwhile, heartbroken Willa is desperate to leave New York that she joins a group trip for Jewish twentysomethings to visit Holocaust sites in Germany and Poland, hoping to override her emotional state. When it proves to be more fraught than home, she must come to terms with her past-the ancestral past, her romantic past, and the past that can lead her forward.
Told from alternating perspectives, and ending in the shadow of Trump's presidency, Willa & Hesper is a deeply moving, cerebral, and timely debut.
In Willa & Hesper, two young women fall in love. When they fall apart, they unwittingly take the same path to heal from their breakup, seeking answers in the lands of their ancestors. From Tbilisi, Georgia to the war sites of Germany, they discover what can break and what can mend when you look to the past to understand your present.
Willa's darkness enters Hesper's light late one night in Brooklyn. Theirs is a whirlwind romance until Willa starts to know Hesper too well, to crawl into her hidden spaces, and Hesper shuts her out. She runs, following her fractured family back to her grandfather's hometown of Tbilisi, Georgia, looking for the origin story that he is no longer able to tell. But once in Tbilisi, cracks appear in her grandfather's history-and a massive flood is heading toward Georgia, threatening any hope for repair.
Meanwhile, heartbroken Willa is desperate to leave New York that she joins a group trip for Jewish twentysomethings to visit Holocaust sites in Germany and Poland, hoping to override her emotional state. When it proves to be more fraught than home, she must come to terms with her past-the ancestral past, her romantic past, and the past that can lead her forward.
Told from alternating perspectives, and ending in the shadow of Trump's presidency, Willa & Hesper is a deeply moving, cerebral, and timely debut.
11 pages, Audiobook
First published February 5, 2019
28 people are currently reading
3771 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews
February 11, 2019
Willa & Hesper. This book! So much to think about!
Willa and Hesper are studying creative writing when they become fast friends. Ultimately, a romance develops between them, but the romance is only a small part of the book. It’s about much, much more and is comprised mostly of their lives after their break-up. Willa becomes too much for Hesper. She’s too close, and Hesper needs space, so she runs to her family’s ancestral home in the the country of Georgia. There she visits her grandfather.
Shortly after, Willa runs in her own way, joining a tour of Holocaust sites in Germany and Poland.
The story is told from each of their perspectives, and they quickly find no solace or comfort in their search for their respective pasts. The book then lands back in the United States with the Trump presidency as its backdrop.
I would say close to eighty-percent of this story is about Willa and Hesper’s journeys to find themselves. Their trips were full of insight for me, as they visited places some of which I was previously unfamiliar. Their emotions also offered me perspective. The family dynamics were fascinating to behold, and I can’t forget to mention the glorious writing. It matches the stunning cover.
Overall, Willa & Hesper is a quick-paced, lyrical, absorbing read, and I’m still mulling over the exceptional experience I had reading it.
Thanks to the publisher for the complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
Willa and Hesper are studying creative writing when they become fast friends. Ultimately, a romance develops between them, but the romance is only a small part of the book. It’s about much, much more and is comprised mostly of their lives after their break-up. Willa becomes too much for Hesper. She’s too close, and Hesper needs space, so she runs to her family’s ancestral home in the the country of Georgia. There she visits her grandfather.
Shortly after, Willa runs in her own way, joining a tour of Holocaust sites in Germany and Poland.
The story is told from each of their perspectives, and they quickly find no solace or comfort in their search for their respective pasts. The book then lands back in the United States with the Trump presidency as its backdrop.
I would say close to eighty-percent of this story is about Willa and Hesper’s journeys to find themselves. Their trips were full of insight for me, as they visited places some of which I was previously unfamiliar. Their emotions also offered me perspective. The family dynamics were fascinating to behold, and I can’t forget to mention the glorious writing. It matches the stunning cover.
Overall, Willa & Hesper is a quick-paced, lyrical, absorbing read, and I’m still mulling over the exceptional experience I had reading it.
Thanks to the publisher for the complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
May 15, 2019
Me: this book isn't a romance, it's literary fiction so I shouldn't expect it to go how a romance would
Book: *goes how a literary fiction book would*
Me:
Book: *goes how a literary fiction book would*
Me:
February 12, 2019
3.5 stars
Thank you @grandcentralpub for sending me this absolutely delightful copy of Willa & Hesper by Amy Feltman to review! This was such an interesting little book, full of thoughtful explorations of love, regret, faith, and pain, and one I enjoyed.
.
Willa and Hesper meet while doing an MFA in Creative Writing, and Feltman perfectly captures that feeling everyone in their early 20s knows too well - shit-I-have-no-idea-what-I’m-doing-I’m-just-pretending-to-be-an-adult-and-all-my-feelings-confuse-me!!! Their relationship lasts only a quarter of the book, and the rest is follows their lives as they go their separate ways, yet never quite able to shake one another.
.
Although I liked both characters, I much preferred the chapters from Hesper’s perspective, who goes to Georgia with her family in an attempt to rediscover and reconnect with her family history (while Willa goes to Berlin with a group of young Jewish people to learn about their heritage as she struggles with her faith), and the problem when you come to prefer one perspective is that you feel like you want to rush through every other chapter to get to your preferred character.
.
There were some truly beautiful sentences and passages, although the author freely admits to being a fan of adverbs and she isn’t lying - ‘Barkily’ isn’t a word I’ve come across before and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it - but you do get used to the unusual word choices after the first few chapters, and they’re not that frequent!
.
I would recommend this book if you’re interested in queer relationships, struggles with religious identity, and young women trying to find their way!
Thank you @grandcentralpub for sending me this absolutely delightful copy of Willa & Hesper by Amy Feltman to review! This was such an interesting little book, full of thoughtful explorations of love, regret, faith, and pain, and one I enjoyed.
.
Willa and Hesper meet while doing an MFA in Creative Writing, and Feltman perfectly captures that feeling everyone in their early 20s knows too well - shit-I-have-no-idea-what-I’m-doing-I’m-just-pretending-to-be-an-adult-and-all-my-feelings-confuse-me!!! Their relationship lasts only a quarter of the book, and the rest is follows their lives as they go their separate ways, yet never quite able to shake one another.
.
Although I liked both characters, I much preferred the chapters from Hesper’s perspective, who goes to Georgia with her family in an attempt to rediscover and reconnect with her family history (while Willa goes to Berlin with a group of young Jewish people to learn about their heritage as she struggles with her faith), and the problem when you come to prefer one perspective is that you feel like you want to rush through every other chapter to get to your preferred character.
.
There were some truly beautiful sentences and passages, although the author freely admits to being a fan of adverbs and she isn’t lying - ‘Barkily’ isn’t a word I’ve come across before and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it - but you do get used to the unusual word choices after the first few chapters, and they’re not that frequent!
.
I would recommend this book if you’re interested in queer relationships, struggles with religious identity, and young women trying to find their way!
March 19, 2019
3.5 stars (rounded up)
This book had a lot going on and it took me a few days to sort through all of my feelings before I could actually write anything down. First things first, I was ecstatic to find a book that depicts a lesbian relationship without a man involved as a part of the main plot AND, that doesn't revolve the character's coming out story. I'm not against a good coming out story (we all had to come out at one point or another and it's usually not easy, has a story behind it and deserves to be told). BUT...I'm quite a bit past that point in my life and it's so refreshing to just see queer characters living their authentic lives like the rest of society (fictional or not) does.
My second thought was that this book is a journey and in order to enjoy it, you need to be down for the ride. When I first heard about this book, I thought I was going to read about a pretty straight forward (no pun intended) lesbian romance, and although romance is not a genre I usually lean toward, I was in for a lesbian romance because we don't see those very often in literature. So I picked it up and oof...I was happily mistaken. The romance that takes place is a relatively short part of the story and seems to only be there to act as the catalyst. It's really there for each woman to individually explore themselves, their place in life, their faith, their family, their goals, aspirations and their fears. It's really a sweeping observation of what it's like to be a queer in your 20's, just trying to figure out all the things in life. It's quite a journey and as long as you're in for that, you'll love this book.
If I'm being honest, my main caveat with this book was that it was was sometimes hard to decipher between the two main characters, Willa and Hesper. I say this with caution, because I despise when people tell my wife and I that we look alike (we literally don't look alike at all). Or they say that can't tell the difference between out voices on the phone. Or they ask us if we are sisters. Here's a little PSA-don't do that to lesbian couples. Like, ever. It's degrading and rude. BUT...this is fiction, so I will say this with a grain of salt. It's not because it is two women that I couldn't tell decipher these characters (although I will say that writing lesbian relationships-this is another challenge that we face). But...giving these characters more unique, and individual voices would have been a bit better for me as a reader and lead to a lot less confusion overall. I found myself flipping back quite a bit to figure out which one was which.
Besides that little caveat, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am really looking forward to seeing what else Feltman has to offer us! <>.
This book had a lot going on and it took me a few days to sort through all of my feelings before I could actually write anything down. First things first, I was ecstatic to find a book that depicts a lesbian relationship without a man involved as a part of the main plot AND, that doesn't revolve the character's coming out story. I'm not against a good coming out story (we all had to come out at one point or another and it's usually not easy, has a story behind it and deserves to be told). BUT...I'm quite a bit past that point in my life and it's so refreshing to just see queer characters living their authentic lives like the rest of society (fictional or not) does.
My second thought was that this book is a journey and in order to enjoy it, you need to be down for the ride. When I first heard about this book, I thought I was going to read about a pretty straight forward (no pun intended) lesbian romance, and although romance is not a genre I usually lean toward, I was in for a lesbian romance because we don't see those very often in literature. So I picked it up and oof...I was happily mistaken. The romance that takes place is a relatively short part of the story and seems to only be there to act as the catalyst. It's really there for each woman to individually explore themselves, their place in life, their faith, their family, their goals, aspirations and their fears. It's really a sweeping observation of what it's like to be a queer in your 20's, just trying to figure out all the things in life. It's quite a journey and as long as you're in for that, you'll love this book.
If I'm being honest, my main caveat with this book was that it was was sometimes hard to decipher between the two main characters, Willa and Hesper. I say this with caution, because I despise when people tell my wife and I that we look alike (we literally don't look alike at all). Or they say that can't tell the difference between out voices on the phone. Or they ask us if we are sisters. Here's a little PSA-don't do that to lesbian couples. Like, ever. It's degrading and rude. BUT...this is fiction, so I will say this with a grain of salt. It's not because it is two women that I couldn't tell decipher these characters (although I will say that writing lesbian relationships-this is another challenge that we face). But...giving these characters more unique, and individual voices would have been a bit better for me as a reader and lead to a lot less confusion overall. I found myself flipping back quite a bit to figure out which one was which.
Besides that little caveat, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am really looking forward to seeing what else Feltman has to offer us! <>.
February 14, 2019
I really wanted to love this book. The cover art is gorgeous and the beginning of the book was spellbinding. But then it descended into a cliched mess of hipster references, and variations of twee madness. The two voices of the narrative did not seem separate or unique to each character. Actions happened too quickly, and characters reacted in strange ways that didn't make sense (to me at least). (Specifically, I am referencing the forest scene, Willa's decision to remain in Berlin, Hesper's reluctance to translate the letters, etc.)
I think the book needs editing--more Kill Your Darlings, please. It also needed some emotional resonance. I did not feel affected by any of the "emotional" moments. The breakup scene is not described--it is referenced. The forest scene is confusing and powerless, when it should have been devastating.
With another draft and editing of pretentious language (please eliminate the word "effortfully"), I think the book could work. As is, it just didn't work for me.
I think the book needs editing--more Kill Your Darlings, please. It also needed some emotional resonance. I did not feel affected by any of the "emotional" moments. The breakup scene is not described--it is referenced. The forest scene is confusing and powerless, when it should have been devastating.
With another draft and editing of pretentious language (please eliminate the word "effortfully"), I think the book could work. As is, it just didn't work for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2019
this would have been so much better if willa wasn't the human equivalent of a repeating pop up ad
December 10, 2019
Two young women start out in an intense relationship that ends quickly, sending each into her own exploration of her roots and identity. One goes to Georgia (the country) and the other to Germany on a Jewish genocide type trip. The entire novel has a floating quality too it as there is a lot happening internally and emotions are high whether it's relationship drama or painful history, and the narration alternates between Willa and Hesper (which took me a while to get in the groove.) A slow burn that will really work for some but not all readers.
December 1, 2025
it was going fine until the weird comments about isr*el:
CWs: sexual assault, mentions of antisemitism
CWs: sexual assault, mentions of antisemitism
October 27, 2020
This was a very unique literary fiction to read. The writing style reminded me somewhat of "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara, although the content between both novels are vastly different.
This novel is a literary depiction of everyday life and the instances of what both of these characters go through is quite realistic. The story follows the ebb and flow of living with the highest of highs along with the hardships that some may encounter.
Due to the story following everyday life, I wouldn't say that there is one momentous event for the whole novel. Instead, the reader is able to see the story of two lives changing over time. It's a beautiful novel both in the content and in the writing style.
Although this novel doesn't center around this, I will place a content warning for assault as it was involved in the story.
***Thank you to Hachette Book Group and Grand Central Publishing for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***
This novel is a literary depiction of everyday life and the instances of what both of these characters go through is quite realistic. The story follows the ebb and flow of living with the highest of highs along with the hardships that some may encounter.
Due to the story following everyday life, I wouldn't say that there is one momentous event for the whole novel. Instead, the reader is able to see the story of two lives changing over time. It's a beautiful novel both in the content and in the writing style.
Although this novel doesn't center around this, I will place a content warning for assault as it was involved in the story.
***Thank you to Hachette Book Group and Grand Central Publishing for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***
February 27, 2019
Willa feels everything right down to the marrow of her bones. Emotions – both euphoric and savage – always seem to be amplified behind her dark eyes.
She could have never guessed that one night stained with memories of bruising hands and strawberry blonde hair under fluorescent diner lights would change the trajectory of her life forever.
“Come here,” she said. And then, I didn’t realize we were kissing until we were. It was a kiss that spread wide inside of me, an eagle’s wingspan. Her hand reached for the top of my spine and stayed there, the lightest possible contact, and I felt it traipse all the way down the length of my back. Her lips were even softer than I’d imagined. I found the rhythm of her kissing: furtive, but constant, a surge of wanting. She tasted like the orange juice. Our mouths matched, I thought.
I had kissed girls before, but at parties, and not soberly. Not without plausible deniability.
And: I had wanted to kiss girls before, but I had not.
In a faraway place in my head, the place that wasn’t thinking of Willa’s body against mine, or the ebb and flow of my breath hot on her neck, or the quiet crunch of foot traffic avoiding us, here, in the leaf-laden park on a beautiful day, I thought of yesterday. I thought of the bruise that squinted out from underneath her pale skin, and whether there were others. Whether it was right to make out with someone who’d just been sexually assaulted, even if she tried to downplay it by saying it was a little assault, and what did that really mean? Was I supposed to stop her? She’d kissed me. She was definitely kissing me now. She’d slept on the floor of my sister’s apartment to conjure this moment, I thought.
“Are you okay?” I asked, mid-kiss. My voice rumbled. I touched her bruise, the evidence, to show her what I meant. She lowered her gaze from mine. Beneath us, the ground was spongy, pockmarked with mud in places where yesterday’s rain hadn’t yet been absorbed.
“I don’t want to think about that,” Willa said. Her fingers pressed against my neck. “I just want to think about you, Hesper. Okay?” She adjusted her posture so her lips were flush against my earlobe. “I’ve been thinking about this since the first time we saw each other. I’ve been thinking about this every time we’re in workshop, across that giant table.”
“Really?”
“You’re even better than the peppermint pattie,” she said, and pressed her lips to mine.
Hesper feels like she’s struggling. Struggling to find out who she really is, where she comes from and who she thinks she should be. At just twenty-three, the answer seems so very far away. Until Willa.
Willa is her defender and tethers her to reality.
But after months together, every time she looks into Willa’s eyes, she feels so completely weighed down. And all she wants to do is fly.
I didn’t see Willa in dazzling periwinkle. I never would. I didn’t know if it was because of Willa, herself—self-conscious, insecure Willa, itching for a person to need her, printing out her Google map and possible destinations even though her phone held all the information she could ever need—or because I was missing the gene that let me need, and love, in the way that she wanted.
Apart, they each embark on a journey through history. One will discover her inner strength and one will only find more questions. But the memory of the time when they loved each other will be etched on their souls forever.
“It’s because we’ve been lucky. Maybe it’s a blessing. Even if everything devolves now, and there are swastikas all over our synagogues and subways, I mean…we still had that. Right? We still had something. That’s more than a lot of other people have gotten. Like, a lot of other groups never got to live in the safety cocoon.”
“The safety cocoon,” Bren repeated. “Wait, but—if it’s a cocoon, don’t we have to escape it?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I think that’s part of it. Now we have to do more. Now we have to do everything that we still can. Post-cocoon.”
While reading Willa & Hesper, I found myself on the verge of tears so many times. It could have been Amy’s gut-wrenchingly beautiful prose or how so many elements in this story reminded me of exactly how frightening the world today really is.
From the passion of a once-in-a-lifetime love to the revelations of a young Jewish girl trying to find her place in the world after the 2016 US presidential election, I will never forget the way this book changed me on an elemental level. And every time I catch a glimpse of its beautiful cover, I will remember it all over again…
She could have never guessed that one night stained with memories of bruising hands and strawberry blonde hair under fluorescent diner lights would change the trajectory of her life forever.
“Come here,” she said. And then, I didn’t realize we were kissing until we were. It was a kiss that spread wide inside of me, an eagle’s wingspan. Her hand reached for the top of my spine and stayed there, the lightest possible contact, and I felt it traipse all the way down the length of my back. Her lips were even softer than I’d imagined. I found the rhythm of her kissing: furtive, but constant, a surge of wanting. She tasted like the orange juice. Our mouths matched, I thought.
I had kissed girls before, but at parties, and not soberly. Not without plausible deniability.
And: I had wanted to kiss girls before, but I had not.
In a faraway place in my head, the place that wasn’t thinking of Willa’s body against mine, or the ebb and flow of my breath hot on her neck, or the quiet crunch of foot traffic avoiding us, here, in the leaf-laden park on a beautiful day, I thought of yesterday. I thought of the bruise that squinted out from underneath her pale skin, and whether there were others. Whether it was right to make out with someone who’d just been sexually assaulted, even if she tried to downplay it by saying it was a little assault, and what did that really mean? Was I supposed to stop her? She’d kissed me. She was definitely kissing me now. She’d slept on the floor of my sister’s apartment to conjure this moment, I thought.
“Are you okay?” I asked, mid-kiss. My voice rumbled. I touched her bruise, the evidence, to show her what I meant. She lowered her gaze from mine. Beneath us, the ground was spongy, pockmarked with mud in places where yesterday’s rain hadn’t yet been absorbed.
“I don’t want to think about that,” Willa said. Her fingers pressed against my neck. “I just want to think about you, Hesper. Okay?” She adjusted her posture so her lips were flush against my earlobe. “I’ve been thinking about this since the first time we saw each other. I’ve been thinking about this every time we’re in workshop, across that giant table.”
“Really?”
“You’re even better than the peppermint pattie,” she said, and pressed her lips to mine.
Hesper feels like she’s struggling. Struggling to find out who she really is, where she comes from and who she thinks she should be. At just twenty-three, the answer seems so very far away. Until Willa.
Willa is her defender and tethers her to reality.
But after months together, every time she looks into Willa’s eyes, she feels so completely weighed down. And all she wants to do is fly.
I didn’t see Willa in dazzling periwinkle. I never would. I didn’t know if it was because of Willa, herself—self-conscious, insecure Willa, itching for a person to need her, printing out her Google map and possible destinations even though her phone held all the information she could ever need—or because I was missing the gene that let me need, and love, in the way that she wanted.
Apart, they each embark on a journey through history. One will discover her inner strength and one will only find more questions. But the memory of the time when they loved each other will be etched on their souls forever.
“It’s because we’ve been lucky. Maybe it’s a blessing. Even if everything devolves now, and there are swastikas all over our synagogues and subways, I mean…we still had that. Right? We still had something. That’s more than a lot of other people have gotten. Like, a lot of other groups never got to live in the safety cocoon.”
“The safety cocoon,” Bren repeated. “Wait, but—if it’s a cocoon, don’t we have to escape it?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I think that’s part of it. Now we have to do more. Now we have to do everything that we still can. Post-cocoon.”
While reading Willa & Hesper, I found myself on the verge of tears so many times. It could have been Amy’s gut-wrenchingly beautiful prose or how so many elements in this story reminded me of exactly how frightening the world today really is.
From the passion of a once-in-a-lifetime love to the revelations of a young Jewish girl trying to find her place in the world after the 2016 US presidential election, I will never forget the way this book changed me on an elemental level. And every time I catch a glimpse of its beautiful cover, I will remember it all over again…
May 1, 2019
A deeply felt novel with beautiful prose.
June 8, 2019
Where are my well-written, literary, engaging, lesbian romances at? Definitely not here.
This is a story of a break-up more than a romance, and the lasting impacts of that brief time the two protagonists were together. What was frustrating to me is that the actual romance was over practically before it began. The author starts with the two characters falling in love within the first couple of chapters, and then next thing you know they're breaking up.
I suppose that's fair - it says so right in the book description - but right away you can tell this isn't going to be a happy story.
The writing is good. It is very experimental, very "Literary" in an MFA-trying-a-little-too-hard kind of way. The split POVs was also a good way to lay out the story the author was trying to tell, although the narrative voices were not quite distinct enough in style. While you can easily tell the characters apart by their choices and motivations, they both narrate in disjointed, jarring run-on sentences mixed with fragments.
Essentially, I cannot claim to have "enjoyed" this book, but I truly appreciate what the author was doing within it, so it's a solid 3 stars from me.
This is a story of a break-up more than a romance, and the lasting impacts of that brief time the two protagonists were together. What was frustrating to me is that the actual romance was over practically before it began. The author starts with the two characters falling in love within the first couple of chapters, and then next thing you know they're breaking up.
I suppose that's fair - it says so right in the book description - but right away you can tell this isn't going to be a happy story.
The writing is good. It is very experimental, very "Literary" in an MFA-trying-a-little-too-hard kind of way. The split POVs was also a good way to lay out the story the author was trying to tell, although the narrative voices were not quite distinct enough in style. While you can easily tell the characters apart by their choices and motivations, they both narrate in disjointed, jarring run-on sentences mixed with fragments.
Essentially, I cannot claim to have "enjoyed" this book, but I truly appreciate what the author was doing within it, so it's a solid 3 stars from me.
June 25, 2020
3.5 rounded up. This was an interesting novel about two lesbian women involved for a short period of time in their college years, but the story isn’t really about their romance. (Always a relief that I don’t have to follow a romance.) The rest of the time its about Hesper and Willa separately living their lives going forward. One goes to Europe with her Jewish family and they revisit familial places and discuss historical info. The relationships are tense in the family and sometimes just weird. Overall, We see the struggles of adjusting to their lives as 20 somethings. And if I say more it may give away too much. Think of it as a coming of age time. As a mid aged woman, I find many new novels have been mostly about 20-30 year olds. Getting bored of this, but can understand how much I’d love it if I were in that age range.
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March 23, 2019DNF
February 11, 2025
3.5/5
I so wished that this book had been the one to break the back of my recent slough of three star ratings. Blame the cover art that continues to stop me in my tracks with every backward glance, as well as the good fortune I had with Alderman's superficially thematically similar Disobedience. I will say that, for a time, the text glided along towards exactly that. Evidence of such lies in the fact that I don't normally submit myself to hyper contemporary family dramas (I have a mental state to keep in relatively healthy straits), but this struck a balance between the descriptive and the growth and the imperfection that I didn't mind so much the parental overreaching, the sibling roulettes of succor and revenge plots, the endless conflicts filleting the narrator's personality as adroitly as does a pencil sharpener: acrimonious, lovelorn, and ultimately laid bare. The problem, really, was the sheer number of tragedies, interpersonal and national, the author decided to throw in close succession in the last third of the text, deadening the lightly engaging interiorities and sacrificing the chance to strike gold in the subtle intimacies for bombastic opportunities to make one's point in the monumental. Of course, the fact that I was reading this narrative's concluding tenterhooks on the eve of the first Trump presidency whilst living through the second certainly sapped my engagement.
In the end, I did like this enough when it stuck to its delicately incisive guns that I wouldn't mind a second shot at this author. I see that there's a 2022 novel even more chock full of queerness, so while I haven't committed enough to actually add it, it's nice to have something in my back pocket. However, and I almost never say this, but I'd love to see Feltman try on short stories, especially of the cycle variation. You go, you dive, you're swept under, and then you rise to reckon with the next, or you fall even deeper, or you wait in the limbo of the deluge. It stretches the emotions in a line of feeling that hurts so good when knife edged right, and Feltman has the chops to make it happen so long as she doesn't throw rocks through her paper doors. All in all, a box of bon bons, where the ones that make you cry nestle closely against the ones that make you glad to be alive.
I so wished that this book had been the one to break the back of my recent slough of three star ratings. Blame the cover art that continues to stop me in my tracks with every backward glance, as well as the good fortune I had with Alderman's superficially thematically similar Disobedience. I will say that, for a time, the text glided along towards exactly that. Evidence of such lies in the fact that I don't normally submit myself to hyper contemporary family dramas (I have a mental state to keep in relatively healthy straits), but this struck a balance between the descriptive and the growth and the imperfection that I didn't mind so much the parental overreaching, the sibling roulettes of succor and revenge plots, the endless conflicts filleting the narrator's personality as adroitly as does a pencil sharpener: acrimonious, lovelorn, and ultimately laid bare. The problem, really, was the sheer number of tragedies, interpersonal and national, the author decided to throw in close succession in the last third of the text, deadening the lightly engaging interiorities and sacrificing the chance to strike gold in the subtle intimacies for bombastic opportunities to make one's point in the monumental. Of course, the fact that I was reading this narrative's concluding tenterhooks on the eve of the first Trump presidency whilst living through the second certainly sapped my engagement.
In the end, I did like this enough when it stuck to its delicately incisive guns that I wouldn't mind a second shot at this author. I see that there's a 2022 novel even more chock full of queerness, so while I haven't committed enough to actually add it, it's nice to have something in my back pocket. However, and I almost never say this, but I'd love to see Feltman try on short stories, especially of the cycle variation. You go, you dive, you're swept under, and then you rise to reckon with the next, or you fall even deeper, or you wait in the limbo of the deluge. It stretches the emotions in a line of feeling that hurts so good when knife edged right, and Feltman has the chops to make it happen so long as she doesn't throw rocks through her paper doors. All in all, a box of bon bons, where the ones that make you cry nestle closely against the ones that make you glad to be alive.
["]Hey."
"Hey."
"What does it feel like?"
"What does what feel like?"
"Believing."
February 13, 2024
Willa and Hesper meet in an MFA programme, have a seven-month relationship, and break up. The break-up is a catalyst for them to start exploring their identities, and both travel to Europe to try to understand where they've come from. I had mixed feelings about this book: parts of it are beautiful, but it feels like three different books stuck together, in a way that makes every part of it seem unresolved. The opening, with Willa and Hesper's late-night meeting in a diner, is vivid and intense, and I really enjoyed how the story was explored, though I would have liked the author to linger more here on their developing relationship. When the pair split up, Willa travels on a programme for people who have lost one or more great-grandparents in the Holocaust, and visits the sites of concentration camps in Germany. This is obviously a very intense topic and one that is deeply layered in emotional and political themes, and I'm not sure Feltman entirely knows how to handle it here. Meanwhile, Hesper travels to Tbilisi in Georgia with her parents, sister, and very elderly grandfather, to meet her grandfather's sister. There, complex family relationships are explored. This section felt much more vividly realised to me than Willa's section, and I found that the complexity of family was handled with nuance. However, in both Georgia and Germany, Feltman writes about non-Americans as if they are not quite real people, and merely exist as reflections of her American characters. This meant that the conclusions reached in the book lacked solidity. This was an interesting novel, and one that contained beautiful prose at times, but did not feel fully achieved.
January 30, 2019
I do love a beautiful book cover and Willa & Hesper by Amy Feltman is topping my list right now! Releasing Feb 5th, you’ll want it on your shelf. This is my first F/F read and I am happy to say it won’t be my last.
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April 12, 2019
Beautiful writing. Amy's use of adverbs and word composition are some of the most delightful and inspiring characteristics of her style. "Effortfully." "Doughily." "Hesperpieces." "Engorged." "A jubilant stab." I am a sucker for unexpected and lovely descriptions, and this book is threaded with them.
Willa and Hesper are creative writing students pursuing their MFAs in fiction writing (relatable!). The girls struggle in workshop about how their texts will be perceived. Beautifully, they stick up for one another early on in their acquaintance. Later, their romance unfolds.
The romance in this book is relatively shortlived, both across time (some months) and actual pages (maybe 1/4 of the book). The story is much more about what they do following the breakup through their travels to ancestral locations (Tbilisi and Berlin). This format is a welcome shift from the traditional meet, fall in love, and live happily ever after romantic novel structure.
The book's politically charged ending is a characteristic I tend to stay away from when I'm pursuing books to read for entertainment. However, there are two important takeaways from such an ending. First, Hesper receives the following feedback about a NOT-politically charged piece she submitted to her creative writing class: "How could you take on this attitude at a time when our society is reaching a fever pitch?" (p. 252). This student asks the question of whether a novel about family, grief, love, any personal crises, is meaningful if it ignores the political climate. Should literature aim to be timeless or to capture history as it unfolds?
Second, Hesper's sister Ada, who becomes involved in a number of activist groups following the election, is later scolded by her mother for not noticing Hesper's own struggles: "Ada . . . you can't let your political awakening blind you to the people that need you that are sitting right in front of you." (p. 266). I was immediately reminded of Mother Teresa's famous quote, "If you want to change the world, go home and love your family."
I am a heterosexual woman, I am not Jewish or Georgian, I am not 22, I am a Chicagoan and not a New Yorker: much of the meat of this book did not directly mirror my own experience. And so, this was a wonderful book for cultivating empathy and compassion for characters' experiences outside of my own.
More that I loved: Willa's encounters with God, her struggle with feeling "Jewish enough" (it was heartbreaking to see her unable to confide in the unapproachable religious figures in the book, yet encouraging to see moments where she encountered God and prayed); I loved Hesper's family dynamics, which at times were dysfunctional, and at times so touching and loving; I loved the mystery and doubt, seeking and fleeing, and over and over again: the starting over.
Thank you, dear Amy, for the ARC, and for including me in the acknowledgements. All of the letters!
Willa and Hesper are creative writing students pursuing their MFAs in fiction writing (relatable!). The girls struggle in workshop about how their texts will be perceived. Beautifully, they stick up for one another early on in their acquaintance. Later, their romance unfolds.
The romance in this book is relatively shortlived, both across time (some months) and actual pages (maybe 1/4 of the book). The story is much more about what they do following the breakup through their travels to ancestral locations (Tbilisi and Berlin). This format is a welcome shift from the traditional meet, fall in love, and live happily ever after romantic novel structure.
The book's politically charged ending is a characteristic I tend to stay away from when I'm pursuing books to read for entertainment. However, there are two important takeaways from such an ending. First, Hesper receives the following feedback about a NOT-politically charged piece she submitted to her creative writing class: "How could you take on this attitude at a time when our society is reaching a fever pitch?" (p. 252). This student asks the question of whether a novel about family, grief, love, any personal crises, is meaningful if it ignores the political climate. Should literature aim to be timeless or to capture history as it unfolds?
Second, Hesper's sister Ada, who becomes involved in a number of activist groups following the election, is later scolded by her mother for not noticing Hesper's own struggles: "Ada . . . you can't let your political awakening blind you to the people that need you that are sitting right in front of you." (p. 266). I was immediately reminded of Mother Teresa's famous quote, "If you want to change the world, go home and love your family."
I am a heterosexual woman, I am not Jewish or Georgian, I am not 22, I am a Chicagoan and not a New Yorker: much of the meat of this book did not directly mirror my own experience. And so, this was a wonderful book for cultivating empathy and compassion for characters' experiences outside of my own.
More that I loved: Willa's encounters with God, her struggle with feeling "Jewish enough" (it was heartbreaking to see her unable to confide in the unapproachable religious figures in the book, yet encouraging to see moments where she encountered God and prayed); I loved Hesper's family dynamics, which at times were dysfunctional, and at times so touching and loving; I loved the mystery and doubt, seeking and fleeing, and over and over again: the starting over.
Thank you, dear Amy, for the ARC, and for including me in the acknowledgements. All of the letters!
February 19, 2019
I was instantly intrigued by WILLA & HESPER. The synopsis, the cover, the first chapter. But I struggled with it and it wasn’t because it lacked anything of interest. It was captivating and kept me curious page after page. I just had a hard time differentiating our two main characters. Their voices were too similar, but eventually I caught on and things started to fall into place. I found myself wanting more of all the little details.
This is so much more than a love story (which was very brief by the way). I became so invested in Willa and Hesper when they started to explore their past and what drove them to discover their history and ultimately, themselves. It wasn’t until the end that I truly became a fan of these characters. Watching them evolve was the best part of the journey. I loved seeing how they acted vs where they wanted to go, who they wanted to be, and what they wanted in life. The book has so much depth. The closure to WILLA & HESPER’s story was such a lovely and bittersweet way to end. The only lingering question I had was… did Hesper actually read the email?
This is so much more than a love story (which was very brief by the way). I became so invested in Willa and Hesper when they started to explore their past and what drove them to discover their history and ultimately, themselves. It wasn’t until the end that I truly became a fan of these characters. Watching them evolve was the best part of the journey. I loved seeing how they acted vs where they wanted to go, who they wanted to be, and what they wanted in life. The book has so much depth. The closure to WILLA & HESPER’s story was such a lovely and bittersweet way to end. The only lingering question I had was… did Hesper actually read the email?
April 8, 2019
What a great surprise. Chose this off the library shelf based solely on cover and title; what I discovered was an intelligent, heartfelt and brave novel. What begins as a young women's complicated love story turns into an examination of love, heartache, sexuality, faith and heredity.
Feltman is fiercely intelligent and thoughtful, crafting her language with terrific metaphors that felt creative, but never felt overplayed. Both Willa and Hesper are fully developed and complex. The underlying themes of vulnerability and longing were balanced with moments of humor and a pervading sense of hope.
I am incredibly impressed by Feltman's ability to hold all of this in balance while still telling an interesting story. Definitely an author to watch.
Feltman is fiercely intelligent and thoughtful, crafting her language with terrific metaphors that felt creative, but never felt overplayed. Both Willa and Hesper are fully developed and complex. The underlying themes of vulnerability and longing were balanced with moments of humor and a pervading sense of hope.
I am incredibly impressed by Feltman's ability to hold all of this in balance while still telling an interesting story. Definitely an author to watch.
June 11, 2019
Retiring this book. This is one of those books where I do absolutely understand why people love it, and I was prepared to love it too. Don't let me scare you away from this book.
I can't quite pinpoint what I dislike about it, it wasn't bad (hence the two stars), but the characters got on my nerves and I had a hard time keeping the narratives apart. Anyway, I made the mistake of putting the book down for a while and now I just don't have the willpower to continue reading.
I can't quite pinpoint what I dislike about it, it wasn't bad (hence the two stars), but the characters got on my nerves and I had a hard time keeping the narratives apart. Anyway, I made the mistake of putting the book down for a while and now I just don't have the willpower to continue reading.
June 10, 2019
Willa and Hesper is the first LGBTQ fiction novel that I have read. The book captures a lesbian couple falling in love and ending a relationship. Amy Feltman balanced the story with a sense of hope and humor. I see Willa and Hesper’s relationship as a journey of historical and cultural identity. The book cover of the couple captures the deepness and beauty of their relationship.
November 14, 2019
The characters are incredibly frustrating almost all of the time, but I think that's kind of the point. Willa is whiny and dependent; Hesper is selfish and narcissistic. Other characters are equally annoying. It's all intentional, and it all makes you think. About love, family, history, politics . . . everything.
July 26, 2021
'Willa occasionally waded into our future like a shallow pool, and I tossed her a flotation device immediately to get her the fuck out of there.'
'Worse than needing is needing and then needing to be comforted for needing'
'She was at the point in exhaustion when her vocabulary was reverting toward childhood and tired became sleepy, rabbits became bunnies'
'Worse than needing is needing and then needing to be comforted for needing'
'She was at the point in exhaustion when her vocabulary was reverting toward childhood and tired became sleepy, rabbits became bunnies'
March 16, 2019
3.5 ⭐️
January 30, 2019
There is such a pretty quality to the writing in this one, and not just in the pretty moments, it’s in the hurt and the vulnerability, too; the specific details, the descriptive way emotions are expressed, the intellect behind it, I was continually impressed.
I very much liked the structure, seeing these young women together, falling in love, and also getting to know them on their own as individuals with wisps of their romance still threaded in here and there even when they didn’t share scenes. I love a love story, and I love stories of women of any age figuring things out, coming into their own, so Willa and Hesper was kind of ideal in that it delivered both.
Religion isn’t really present in my life, yet I found it really interesting to read about Willa’s faith, reconciling it with her sexuality, questioning whether she’s Jewish enough, and how the Holocaust becomes so much more immediate for her in light of a violation against herself, and a particular election, it’s much more challenging for her to maintain that historical distance from it that most lean on so willingly for peace of mind and sense of safety in the present.
Meanwhile, Hesper, in a perpetual struggle with depression, travels with her family to Georgia (the country), in search of their grandfather’s roots. It reminded me a little of that season of Transparent (minus a trans character) where the family goes to Israel, only Hesper’s journey is less sex-obsessed, more coherently plotted and consistently more tender than any given episode of Transparent.
As the ending neared, I wasn’t sure it was what I wanted, but then, with the final few words, it just all of a sudden felt right.
I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway.
I very much liked the structure, seeing these young women together, falling in love, and also getting to know them on their own as individuals with wisps of their romance still threaded in here and there even when they didn’t share scenes. I love a love story, and I love stories of women of any age figuring things out, coming into their own, so Willa and Hesper was kind of ideal in that it delivered both.
Religion isn’t really present in my life, yet I found it really interesting to read about Willa’s faith, reconciling it with her sexuality, questioning whether she’s Jewish enough, and how the Holocaust becomes so much more immediate for her in light of a violation against herself, and a particular election, it’s much more challenging for her to maintain that historical distance from it that most lean on so willingly for peace of mind and sense of safety in the present.
Meanwhile, Hesper, in a perpetual struggle with depression, travels with her family to Georgia (the country), in search of their grandfather’s roots. It reminded me a little of that season of Transparent (minus a trans character) where the family goes to Israel, only Hesper’s journey is less sex-obsessed, more coherently plotted and consistently more tender than any given episode of Transparent.
As the ending neared, I wasn’t sure it was what I wanted, but then, with the final few words, it just all of a sudden felt right.
I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway.
March 7, 2019
Something metamorphosed in the middle part of this text that congealed it into something mildly intolerable. In a way, the text is realistic in its portrayal of emotional turmoil. I don’t know if the issue lies within my own emotional state but the said emotional turmoil in the novel was so well portrayed that it made me uncomfortable. I was so repulsed, I couldn’t look it in the eye. I got so frustrated with the plot I took back recommending this to my partner lol
But this is my qualifier for the rating I gave it. I see how great this novel is—the prose is stark and bright and excellent. I’m a fan of using nouns as verbs and nouns as adverbs. I “only” gave this novel three stars because of the frustrated state it left me in. My rating is not indicative of the book’s literary value or the author’s skill—this book is So Literary and the author has Mad Skills.
But this is my qualifier for the rating I gave it. I see how great this novel is—the prose is stark and bright and excellent. I’m a fan of using nouns as verbs and nouns as adverbs. I “only” gave this novel three stars because of the frustrated state it left me in. My rating is not indicative of the book’s literary value or the author’s skill—this book is So Literary and the author has Mad Skills.
October 25, 2021
I had a lot of issues with this book. At times it felt like I was reading three separate books at once that didn’t really go together. And because there was SO MUCH being packed into a short amount of pages I felt like there was a lot that was left unexplored and unexplained.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the author’s writing style. It felt like at times they were trying too hard and some of the metaphors simply didn’t make sense.
That being said I did like the characters and felt the book did get better as it went. 3/5 stars
I wasn’t a huge fan of the author’s writing style. It felt like at times they were trying too hard and some of the metaphors simply didn’t make sense.
That being said I did like the characters and felt the book did get better as it went. 3/5 stars
January 27, 2023
"So your ideal day is just dessert and art?"
I was intrigued by the initial description of this book- a story about two girls who fall in love in Brooklyn, then breakup and embark on separate journeys to find themselves by traveling back to the lands of their ancestors.
"Around us, the splendor of a language we didn't understand pooled in the air."
While Willa's story as a Jewish girl visiting holocaust sites in Germany was moving, I especially enjoyed Hesper's narrative in Tbilisi- the account of a young queer woman trying to find herself in a very traditional city. The author also wove in the events of the 2015 Tbilisi flood and the 2016 US presidential election in a very meaningful way. There were some places where I felt the author's writing could have been more polished, but overall, the novel felt original and modern.
I was intrigued by the initial description of this book- a story about two girls who fall in love in Brooklyn, then breakup and embark on separate journeys to find themselves by traveling back to the lands of their ancestors.
"Around us, the splendor of a language we didn't understand pooled in the air."
While Willa's story as a Jewish girl visiting holocaust sites in Germany was moving, I especially enjoyed Hesper's narrative in Tbilisi- the account of a young queer woman trying to find herself in a very traditional city. The author also wove in the events of the 2015 Tbilisi flood and the 2016 US presidential election in a very meaningful way. There were some places where I felt the author's writing could have been more polished, but overall, the novel felt original and modern.
December 13, 2023
More about breakups than being in a relationship
I tried super hard to like this book. It really wasn’t for me. That doesn’t mean it might not be someone else’s favorite book, just not mine. It left a lot of unanswered questions, which just felt so up in the air. It touched on a lot of my important issues but left them hanging. The hardest for me though was how incredibly self centered both main characters were and how unconnected to them I was. Just my experience with the book, yours might be quite different.
I tried super hard to like this book. It really wasn’t for me. That doesn’t mean it might not be someone else’s favorite book, just not mine. It left a lot of unanswered questions, which just felt so up in the air. It touched on a lot of my important issues but left them hanging. The hardest for me though was how incredibly self centered both main characters were and how unconnected to them I was. Just my experience with the book, yours might be quite different.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews