Dear Miss Metropolitan

by Carolyn Ferrell

Introducing an extraordinary and original writer whose first novel explores the intersections of grief and rage, personal strength and healing--and what we owe one another.

Fern seeks refuge from her mother’s pill-popping and boyfriends via Soul Train; Gwin finds salvation in the music of Prince much to her congregation’s dismay and Jesenia, miles ahead of her classmates at her gifted and talented high school, is a brainy and precocious enigma. None of this matters to Boss Man, the monster who abducts them and holds them captive in a dilapidated house in Queens.

On the night they are finally rescued, throngs line the block gawking and claiming ignorance. Among them is lifetime resident Miss Metropolitan, advice columnist for the local weekly, but how could anyone who fancies herself a “newspaperwoman” have missed a horror story unfolding right across the street? And why is it that only two of the three girls—now women—were found? The mystery haunts the two remaining “victim girls” who are subjected to the further trauma of becoming symbols as they continuously adapt to their present and their unrelenting past.

Like Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys, Ferrell’s Dear Miss Metropolitan gives voice to characters surviving unimaginable tragedy. The story is inventively revealed before, during, and after the ordeal in this singular and urgent novel.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Adult, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Novels, Mental Health

432 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 2021

About the author

Carolyn Ferrell is the author of the short-story collection, Don’t Erase Me, which was awarded the Art Seidenbaum Award of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize program, the John C. Zacharis Award given by Ploughshares, and the Quality Paperback Book Prize for First Fiction. She has also received grants from the Fulbright Association, German Academic Exchange (DAAD), City University of New York MAGNET Program, and National Endowment for the Arts. Ferrell’s stories have been anthologized in Best American Short Stories 2018 and The Best American Short Stories of the Century, among other places. She teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York with her husband and children.

Reviews

[Roxane]

Incredibly innovative and ambitious. The author has a distinct and dynamic voice as do her characters. Ferrell is a massive talent.

[Melissa (Semi Hiatus Until After the Holidays) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up

This is a moving and deeply complex novel centered on three girls who are kidnapped, held hostage, and severely abused by a man for over ten years. It's loosely based on the Ariel Castro case, the author obviously took those details and created her own tale surrounding the before, during, and after.

I listened to this book mostly as an audiobook, but I also had a print copy which was great because the author includes photographs to set the mood and atmosphere. The narration is stellar and some of the best I've ever heard. Bahni Turpin gives these girls voices and personalities that don't come across as clearly on the page. Their identities are so clear on the audiobook that I was in tears over and over. It's definitely not an easy book to listen to, there are shades of Room where these young girls are trying to make sense of a situation that doesn't make sense. The abuse is detailed in such a way that your imagination makes it more of a gut punch. These girls weren't just abused, they were tortured.

So why not five stars?
Stylistically this book is incredibly difficult to follow. Points of view change from page to page, paragraph to paragraph. Sometimes I didn't even know whose perspective I was in, and others even when I did I couldn't quite figure out what was going on. The audiobook really helps to distinguish the different characters because the narrator is absolutely fantastic with accents and demeanor, but when it shifts from the three main characters to others I got lost. I wasn't even totally sure what the whole Miss Metropolitan thing was about, because it's only a small, small part of the story.

Overall I found this book to be amazingly written, it made me think and it made me cry. It's the story of survival, of endurance, and ultimately of hope.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars:

I listened to “Dear Miss Metropolitan” by Carolyn Ferrell, narrated by the fabulous Bahni Turpin. It is noted that the audio comes with a PDF of photos that I’m assuming Ferrell used in the printed version of her novel. Some of the photos are haunting in many ways, and some are “artsy”. I looked at them after I read the story, so I cannot comment on the relevance of the photos during the story.

That said, wow. This is a story that was inspired by the Cleveland kidnappings of women who were held and tortured for over 10 years without neighbors notice. It’s “the house of horrors” story that was in the news for a week? It was a story that captured our attention, and then we forgot. Ferrell explores the lasting impact on the women involved, the neighbors who turned a blind eye, and society in general.

Ferrell makes the girls sassy, which is the main personality attribute that keeps them alive. Thankfully, Ferrell has the girls narrate their time/torture in almost lyrical prose form. It’s nauseating, what occurs to the girls. Their coping mechanisms are amazing.

In this story, one of the neighbors writes for the Metropolitan newspaper. As the girls are discovered, emaciated and naked, the Metropolitan employee aka Miss Metropolitan is concerned about her lack of investigating skills. All the neighbors are shocked and appalled that this happened right under their noses. I’m not sure why Ferrell entitled her story as such, because not much of the story centers around this employee.

To survive such a horror, a person must have a healthy abundance of resilience. Ferrell provides the reader with the girl’s lives and personalities before their abduction and after their release. Plus, she showcases their friendship while being held captive. The girls bold and cheeky personalities allow the reader to keep with the story. I found a deep compassion for these girls; I grew to adore them and their responses to their predicament. I think I would have curled up and gone into shock. I certainly don’t think I could have survived what they did. Ferrell provides these girls with an almost inhuman ability to withstand horror.

I am happy that I listened to the story. I’ve read reviews where the structure of the book is difficult to read. Bahni Turpin’s performance made listening to the story an interesting experience. The cringe worthy parts are read with a lyrical style that made it easy to endure and interesting without wanting to quit listening. It’s difficult to explain, but I think Turpin made it a story that resonates without being appalled to the point of incompletion of the story. In other words, she made it endurable.

I found this to be a very interesting consideration of deep trauma and what it takes to survive it. Also, I found Ferrell’s exploration of society’s reaction to such horrors very interesting. She includes a popular TV Dr who wants to interview the girls (a Dr. Phil sort of personality) very realistically. Plus, she explores how some girls can go missing and no one really looks or is concerned. As a society, do we conveniently ignore all those missing children/people reports?

I found this very moving and to be an important exploration of how evil can occur right before our eyes.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: I received a free copy of this book. In exchange here is my honest review:

This was a disturbing read. 😬 Three girls abducted and tied together and tortured for a long period of time. ⛔️There are a ton of abuse triggers in this read. ⛔️ Other reviewers state that the author was inspired by the Ariel Castro case. Having read Amanda Barry’s book, that makes sense. So, keep that in mind when picking this one up. 👍

Thank you @goodreads and @henryholtbooks #goodreadsgiveaway #DearMissMetropolitan

[John Mauro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant debut novel from Carolyn Ferrell, which deserves a lot more attention than it is getting.

Dear Miss Metropolitan deals with the physical and psychological trauma of three girls violently kidnapped and held hostage in a "House of Horrors" in Queens.

The experimental form of the prose only enhances its emotional impact. The story is supplemented by the author's photographs from the neighborhood in Queens, which give additional depth to an already haunting story.

The points of view include perspectives from the future, showing the long-lasting impact of the trauma. (Other disturbing predictions unrelated to the story include COVID-21 and a certain Tiffany Trump Jr.)

Carolyn Ferrell is an immensely talented new voice in fiction. I highly recommend this emotionally powerful debut novel.

[Taylor | ePub Princess · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a Cleveland native, I’m very familiar with the Ariel Castro case. There are many correlations between that case and the fictional case that this book is based around. Three girls: Fern, Gwinnie, and Jesenia are held hostage by a sadistic man we only know as Boss Man. We follow their lives before the abduction, during their captivity, and after their escape. This book has a LOT of experimental stylistic choices, some of which are incredibly bizarre. Everything didn’t work and parts are hard to understand or inaccessible.
For example, there are no quotation marks used, but quotation marks are very useful for showing where dialogue begins and ends. There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense or isn’t fully explained until later, which I always feel is unfair to readers.
A little more than halfway through, the book completely changes. There’s a 30-year time jump, a totally different format, a new narrator, and a new location in Cleveland, OH (a clear nod to the Ariel Castro case). This time jump lends to some mildly sci-fi elements, as it takes place in 2039, and for me, it’s a bit too meta. This is the first time I’ve seen COVID-19 referenced in literature, but because it’s the future, the author also references COVID-20 and COVID-21. This part of the book did not work for me at all. This section also includes 51 endnotes that are elaborated at the end of the chapter. In ebook format, these absolutely did not work and I had to just ignore them.
The author does a good job of illustrating how the girls are stunted from the isolation they experience, though I wonder if this was over the top in places. There are random photos throughout the book that don’t really connect to anything. The constant changing styles makes the entire book feel disjointed. Though it’s well written and thoughtfully crafted, this book was unfortunately not for me. Its biggest flaw is that it’s ultimately not enjoyable.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Instagram: @ePubPrincess
Blog: www.medium.com/@ePubPrincess

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

How was it possible to vanish into thin air on a street where everyone knew your business? Vanishing was the province of lonely parks, factory streets, and rooftops. Vanishing happened to the white sorority girls over at St. John's that partied too damn much. On Amity Lane, good people were always claimed, never discarded like garbage or old clothes.

this novel takes the basic details of the ariel castro kidnappings and transplants the crime from cleveland to queens (tyvm, i say, reading this here in my own queens neighborhood—which is name-dropped in the book, although it is not the scene of the crime), in which three young girls: gwin, fern and jesenia, are kidnapped and held captive for a decade by someone they refer to as "boss man."

it is a fast book, but i would not say it's an easy read. the chapters are very short; many of them less than a page, and it switches POV on a dime, jumps around in time, eschews quotation marks altogether, and ranges stylistically from traditional narrative structure (exposition/dialogue/yadda), to interviews, articles, stream-of-consciousness/out-of-body sequences, dreams, sentence fragments, lists, poems, incantations, photographs, etc etc.

i'm a fan of innovative structural choices, but i found this one to be convoluted and unfocused and extremely confusing. i admire ferrell's confidence in bursting onto the literary stage with such an unusual debut, but it was incredibly difficult to follow.

i'm not sure of the structure was meant to distance the reader from the horror of the scenario—an emotional cushion to keep the reader somewhat removed from the story of girls being raped and abused, but while the subject matter is brutal, the writing about it is only occasionally graphic, more often recounted in a tone reflecting the dazed vagueness of one of the victims:

We asked these things in our minds until Boss Man woke up, did his thing to our innards and outtards, left the house in darkness.

or its reverse, buried in figurative and deflecting language:

What is a non-born? Let me count the ways.

Each time one set in me—like that old junket pudding Bud used to make when we ran out of food—Boss Man’d get mad and kick me down some serious basement stairs. Or else throw me on the rope. Squeeze my neck in such a love-hold that the tissue-issue came trickling out the other end like a stream.

i've explained before that i have an inability to emotionally engage with books or movies and i got zero triggers, so it might be down to that, but i've read so much worse in terms of graphic content, and half the time here i didn't even know what was going on, so that probably didn't help with my engagement.

more than being shocked or unsettled, this book left me feeling bewildered, and i've been delaying this review for so long, not knowing where to even start, so i did something i never rarely do before writing a review, and sought out other reviews, to see how folks were responding to this book. interestingly enough, the critical response of the pros has been laudatory, while goodreaders have been less enthusiastic.

i read several of these positive reviews to get a sense of what they were getting out of it that i wasn't and came upon one in the san diego union-tribune featuring an interview with the author who was quoted re: her style choices—

“The linear narrative did not encompass the fullness of the girls’ story. It was a story of the family, of the community, the people who let the girls down...For me, it was like a mosaic almost—you have these shattered pieces and how are the girls putting it together and how is the outside world putting it together. So fragmentation really became the narrative strategy for me and playing around with time.”

so i understand and appreciate what she was aiming for, and i think the "outside" perspective was necessary—it's unlikely any of us can truly relate to the experiences of the kidnapped girls, and it's even more chilling to identify with miss metropolitan—passing a house of horrors every day and suspecting nothing, even attempting to befriend boss man, with no idea of what her neighbor truly is. but for me—a regular-reader-person who only occasionally reviews books for $$—the execution fell a bit short.

i didn't hate it; in fact, when it stayed still long enough for me to sink into the prose, there was some really strong writing, even in the gauzy, dreamlike parts. the fairytale elements that crept in, as the girls escaped the horror of their reality in fantasy and imagination, were also effective, although for me, the very underread Gretel and the Dark is a better example of this conceit

from the same article:

Ferrell doesn’t hold back when it comes to the grotesque details of the assaults, but maintains that this isn’t for shock value, but rather to “help define the girls.”

“I thought about that a lot,” says Ferrell, when asked about how she found that balance between realism and graphicness. “In fact, there are some sections that I had to take out. I didn’t want the reader to focus on the scariness; I wanted them to think about the story. I think things can be a lot more scary when you withhold things.”

again, the 'grotesque details" didn't really register with me, so i think she withheld too much, and although i'm not at all a fan of the torture-porn variety of horror, i think a somewhat more detailed and straightforward chronicle would have been more effective—between the micro-chapters and the jarring scene-changes, it was hard to stay invested in the story, or even identify the story.

still, a very brave debut that plenty of people responded to more meaningfully than i did.


come to my blog!

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dear Miss Metropolitan is an ambitious, experimental novel told through various fragmented, nonlinear forms of media. The writing is disorienting but effective—it's so different from everything else I've read, which makes it stand out as an excellent, disturbing story. It's haunting, unsettling, jagged. The deep dive into the psychological state of the "victim-girls" was meaningful and hard-hitting. Honest and heartbreaking, Dear Miss Metropolitan is an under-appreciated book that deserves more attention for its innovative, free style.

4.5 stars


I was provided with a physical ARC from the publisher. Thank you!

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.4] This is a troubling novel with a difficult subject - the abduction and torture of three girls. I followed it intently for the first couple hundred pages. Ferrell doesn't sanitize the horrific imprisonment of Fern, Gwin or Jesenia - nor does she sensationalize it. She beautifully portrays the deep friendships between the girls and captures them each as individuals. Unfortunately, at some point, the novel splintered into too many viewpoints and I frequently became lost. I might have been less confused reading the print book - however I loved Bahni Turpin's narration so wasn't tempted to switch mediums.

[Authentikate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh boy.

A complicated review for a complicated novel to follow.
—-

Dear Miss Metropolitan by Ferrell has been described as innovative. It is that. A quirky mix of stream-of-consciousness, hard to decipher dialogue, some lyrical passages, some deeply poignant ones too—plenty of head-scratching “what?” type prose as well. It’s just that: a mixture of writing styles, almost avant-garde writing techniques mashed (notice I didn’t write “blended”) together in one novel.

But, maybe a more apt descriptor of this novel would be *experimental*. Sometimes writing experiments work like art. Jason Reynolds’ Long Way Down comes to mind. The writer took a chance at something new—something *innovative*—and it worked like painting one just HAS to stare at…impossible to take all in, yet resonate nonetheless. A near masterpiece, in my opinion.

This is *not* a masterpiece and while I appreciate the risks this writer took, it didn’t work. It was as if EVERY cutting-edge writing technique was tried all at once and it served to bombard the reader as noise rather than resonate with me as art. Here “less” would have been “more” because there *is* something unique about the way the writer tried to tell the story. It’s too bad, really. Sigh.

Most readers will NOT want to work this hard to be entertained. In this way, I’m less certain this novel will be widely popular with the average reader. I see it more for the “literary editor” or academic set. It’s *just* the type of experimental book critics go Ga-Ga for but leaves consumers frustrated and perplexed, feeling duped for listening to the critics before buying. 😏

Proceed with caution. The entertainment value is short and the workload long.

[Chasity · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tough to read. Subject matter and writing alike. There were parts I could fluidity follow, and during those times I could appreciate the writing. Too choppy, not enough definition to characters or storyline. I ended up skipping parts I thought were ultimately irrelevant to this story as a whole…
However, I have seen in reviews that Bahni Turpin does the narrative on audio, so I may revisit at another time.

[Monica **can't read fast enough**]

I have to DNF this story so no rating.

The writing and the way the story is put together is just not for me and I'm not willing to put in the effort I think it would take to figure out how to get through the book. If you decide to pick this up you need to be aware of the abundance of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse of children that is on full display. I of course knew that it would be a major part of the story, but I can't seem to handle trudging through the darkness of it in the manner that Ferrell presents it. This was an anticipated read for me and I am sorry that it wasn't something that I could get through.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Where you can find me:
•(♥).•*Monica Is Reading*•.(♥)•
Twitter: @monicaisreading
Instagram: @readermonica
Goodreads Group: The Black Bookcase

[Mai Nguyễn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A daring and powerful first novel. Carolyn Ferrell is masterful in delivering us into the depth of her characters’ dark worlds so that we emerge with the light of understanding and the inspiration to take actions. I am changed after reading this book!

[Chanelle Gruca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received an ARC copy of this book from a Goodreads giveaway.

.5 star from me and that is being generous. This book was an entire trainwreck that was so difficult to read for multiple reasons.

First of all, the story itself was decent. 3 girls are kidnapped and held hostage in a house by a strange man. They face rape, torture, seclusion, one has a baby, then eventually are rescued and try to integrate back into the real world.

However, this story jumped around so much... present, past, 30 years into the future, back to life before they were taken, back to the present. It was too much and out of order to the point it was hard to follow.

Second, the writing style was atrocious. Some chapters are actual chapters, others are articles, short blurbs, paragraphs, lists, you name it. The lists really got to me though. They crawled under my skin and got to me.

Third, this book was so wordy. It almost felt like the author was trying to shove every word in the dictionary into this book. Or when a student has a set word count on an essay and uses every adjective and noun possible. Once again, in list form a lot of the time.

There are also random pictures throughout that really have nothing to do with the story. Plus so many endnotes....

Overall this was not an enjoyable book to say the least. It was a complete struggle to get through, and multiple times I considered listing it as a DNF.

[Nehrlisa Behrmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dear Miss Metropolitan by Carolyn Ferrel is a heart wrenching debut following three girls who were kidnapped and held hostage in a Queens, NY “House of Horrors.” We follow the characters before, during and after their abductions. This novel is loosely based on a true story.

This book is a masterpiece that will stick with me for a while. Ferrell did a wonderful job digging into the psyche of her characters and bringing to life this grim story.

I loved how the author included real life pictures of people, places, and things. I lived a little while in the neighborhood this book is set in so seeing familiar places made this story even more terrifying for me.

I enjoyed Ferrell’s writing style— this book felt like a I was breezing through it because the writing is simple yet impactful and stunning. I will remember this book awhile.

[Jacie Atteng · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a rollercoaster for me, in more than one way. It was a struggle for me to get into because of the writing style. I think it’s meant to be poetic but I found it chaotic. It was a little like sitting in a conversation where all the people around you know each other and have inside jokes that you’re clueless about. About 1/3 of the way through it really picked up.. But once we hit the 2/3 point, we drop back into confusion and chaos. There’s a ton of jumping around between times and narrators (sometimes with, sometimes without saying who is narrating.)

The plot line rollercoaster: It started pretty slow, lots of character background, slightly sad but you know it’s going to get worse. (Background about me personally: I was raised a Jehovah’s Witness.) There is some excellent insight about what it’s like for teens whose parents join the cult/religion. Which wasn’t my specific experience but I whole heartedly agree with Ferrell’s sentiments now that I’m out of it. (“Other than their stainless steel smiles, what made those Witnesses look any different from normal people?”) The main story of the girls and their tragic experiences were heart rending. The horrid details really churn your stomach. This is the part that gripped me and had me turning pages. And then it just kind of drops off again. Talking about characters we’ve barely met and don’t care that much about. It’s unfortunate because there was much potential with the mystery naturally created, but then not really at the center of the (very discombobulated) 2nd half. I don’t understand why. I admit to skimming through a few chapters I didn’t care about because I wanted to get to the 3rd victim part. However, that got very little attention, detail, and ended up being pretty anticlimactic. I cannot fathom why nothing was really done with his built in mystery. It feels as though the other two victims are “more important” and that in my opinion is disrespectful of what she also suffered through.

You should read it, but I probably won’t read it again.

[Migdalia Jimenez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loosely based on the horrific real life case of the 3 women that were held captive in a Cleveland house for over a decade, this was a challenging read that was more than worth it.

Told from a multitude of voices, and with a unique writing style, Ferrell takes readers on a devastating trip through the lives of these young women- before, during and after their imprisonment.

What’s clear is that the so-called victim girls were already being victimized at the hands of men and society at large even before they were abducted.

This book shows how women are neglected and abused in everyday life but are glorified when they’ve gone missing or are murdered, becoming victims for our consumption.

Ferrell skewers NIMBYism - or the idea that bad stuff can’t happen in your backyard or that bad stuff only happens in bad places to bad people. Somehow victims must have deserved it.

The theme of fairy tales is weaved into the novel in a way that it touches every aspect of the book. Ferrell lays open how we raise women to believe in fairytales, and how that plays right into the hands of men who abuse with impunity.

We also get to think about mothers’ complicity in abuse and neglect of young women and girls, and by extension, Ferrell asks, what do we owe each other? Should the neighbors have known? Could they have done something about it?

This novel also celebrates resiliency of survivors but also takes exception to the too-neat idea that victims will always be able to rise above it all. Happy endings are not guaranteed. See the fairytale theme above.

Despite the darkness, there is so much smart humor that brings readers through the pain and out to the other side.

Recommended for fans of ‘ripped from the headlines’ books, true crime aficionados, and readers of books with unique and poetic voices.

Full disclosure - I received a copy of this book from Net Galley & the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read a lot of books.
Perhaps I am too much of a stick in the mud, but I found this book impossible to read. It was like venturing into a poetry slam blindfolded where the poetry is read in another language, and the poet leaves halfway through and is replaced by a totally different poet without your knowledge.
I don’t like to fight with my books. I fought with this one. Again, perhaps others think it is “novel” and smart and all. I found it exhausting.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was hard to read for a few reasons. There are a lot of triggers here. A lot of violence. You have religious fanaticism, domestic abuse, rape, terminated pregnancies and torture.

The book has great premise. Based off the Ariel Castro case, Dear Miss Metroplitan is centered on three kidnapped young women whose disappearances went largely unreported. Michelle Knight was an adult. Amanda Berry was first assumed to be a runaway. Gina DeJesus was only 14 at the time of her disappearance. No Amber Alerts were issued for her or the other two women. The women went missing between 2002 and 2004 and were not rescued until May 2013. Although the titular character does not feature prominently in the book, Miss Metropolitan is a newspaper columnist who lives in the neighborhood. She cannot fathom how she missed this house of horrors when it's her business to be observant.

The book spends a lot of time in the three women's headspace giving you a voyeuristic view of the trauma they had to endure. In this way it is reminiscent of Emma Donoghue's Room.

The writing style for Dear Miss Metropolitan was rather experimental with changing timelines, different narrators, pictures and even a freakin nurse's questionnaire. (I still have no idea why this was included. It just made things more confusing for me.) There were moments like this that took away from the story. It was hard to keep up with where you were with the characters and where the plot was headed with Ferrell switching gears so often. I wanted to like this book more than I did but felt that she tried to do too much with her debut.

[Anneliese Grassi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really don’t even know where to start with this book. I tried, I really really tried - really I did! I am usually not so blunt with my book reviews but I have to say I really disliked this book (and I am being nice here!) because it teetered on DNF almost from the very beginning.

The story itself wasn’t so bad and could have been great. Three troubled girls are kidnapped and held against their will for a decade by “Boss Man” and suffered all kinds of abuse at his hand, left for days in the dark without food, and only having each other to rely on. One of them has a baby in captivity and then “disappears” leaving the other two girls to essentially raise the baby. Finally the remaining two girls and the baby are miraculously found and have to get well physically and mentally, then figure out how to re-enter society.

Sounds like a great story, right? Well, it would be if it didn’t jump all over the place taking you from past, to present, to 30 years ahead, to people that had nothing to do with the story, making it very difficult to follow. On top of that, I didn’t understand what the heck was going on as far as just throwing things in there, like the start of a newspaper article, random pictures that had nothing to do with the story, endnotes, what I can only assume to be the answers to doctors questions without the actual question shown - A to Z and then some!! And don’t get me started on the lack of quotation marks for dialogues!

Yeah, it is safe to say I really did not care for this book. Great potential but, honestly, left me scratching my head wondering what happened and what the !$&%# did I just read!

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway as an ARC.

Did you read this book? If so, please share your thoughts! I would love to hear your take on it and if you felt differently.

[Diane Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ferrell's novel. Wow. This novel is remotely linked to the true story of the girls who were kidnapped and held hostage by this monster for ten years in Queens. The novel starts out with the readers hearing the stories from the three kidnapped girls. I could read the novel before bed before the kidnapping took place, but not after that. It's a harrowing story. The narrative and way the book is set up is intriguing. Oddly enough, the novel is named after an elderly woman who is an advice columnist, and I wonder if I am missing something, for the book to be named after this character. She enters the story in the last two thirds, when we also jump from 2007 to decades later, and the writing regarding this woman became a bit hard for me to follow (this weighs more on me than the author). This woman lives near the home where the girls are found and she wonders why she missed not seeing anything out of ordinary at the home.

The horrors in this novel are truly sickening. Ferrell does a wonderful job showing this. We learn a bit about Boss Man, the monster who kidnapped him, and learn that his mother would tie him to the tree while neighbor women would tell the mother to treat him better, and we are led to believe that this cycle of abuse carried on because of his experiences, but other than that, we don't learn much about Boss Man.

I liked learning more about the girls in the beginning of the novel, where they had desires and dreams. After they are released, Fern's brother is the only family member who gets involved with these lost girls, and offers them refuge. Don't want to offer spoilers, but I will say the prose is gripping, and pretty much works throughout the novel.

[Mairy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As one of my favorite audio book narrators, Bahni Turpin did not disappoint once again. Bahni made the three victim girls so relatable. This book was not an easy book to bring to audio considering the unorthodox writing style: bullet points, lists, scratched off words, etc.

I recommend this audio to anyone looking for a contemporary drama: three girls being kidnapped in Queens, NY and kept captives for a full decade without any neighbors noticing anything. When finally found, Jesenia is missing but her baby girl is found at the house and immediately brought to social services. An interesting take on how one’s life can turn upside down when kidnapped, whether you are the victim, or à loved one of the victims, or even a neighbor of that « House of Horror » who had no clue what was happening next door for 10 years.

Thank you Net Galley and Macmillan Audio for this ARC in exchange for my honest review..

[Natalie ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.75 stars*

**I won this ARC as a part of a Goodreads giveaway sponsored by Henry Holt & Co. Thank you to any and all parties involved for sending this book my way!**

When I first started reading the book, I thought that I was not going to like it because the writing style was very weird to me. However, I actually ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would! After getting past the first 50 pages or so, the writing style grew on me and I felt that it actually suited the plot. However, I can see how people would not like it due to the writing style and how the plot kinda jumped all over the place. Also, the ending was a bit confusing to me and I still had a lot of questions that went unanswered after finishing the book. Overall, I liked it and I think everyone should give it a shot!

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A profoundly moving and stunning story of survival. I enjoyed this book so much. It took an unspeakable crime, where three girls were abducted by Boss Man. All their Dreams and Love of Life before the incident are erased. What is left could have been horrendous and unreadable, but the author has an outstanding talent. She manages to use glimpses into the horror as the girls memory also unfolds and shows the ability of one to retain hope. I came to really love these girls and route not just their survival, but for a triumph over the unspeakable. This is a story that will long sit with you. An added element is the author uses different photographs that give a NYC vibe throughout the book.

Thank you NetGalley, Carolyn Ferrell, and Henry Holt and Company for a copy of this book.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do you write about what’s unspeakable? Carolyn Ferrell uses fragmented prose that beautifully suits her story of three Black and Hispanic girls held captive and tortured for a decade in Brooklyn. The story loses a bit of focus when it broadens the scope to deal with a group of older neighborhood women, a section that gives the book its title, but otherwise, I found it a gripping, heartbreaking read and a deserving finalist for the 2022 Pen Faulkner Fiction Award.

[Nicole (Bookiesandtea) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dear Miss Metropolitan by Carolyn Ferrell is a loosely based fictional account inspired by the Castro kidnapping.

It explores the lives of three girls who have been kidnapped and tortured by their abuser and held in captivity for 10 years. The 1st half of the book explores the lives of the girls before they were kidnapped and when Fern and Gwin find each other when they are both held captive in the house, chained, beaten, starved, and raped. After a few years, they discover a third girl Jesenia who eventually gives birth to the captor's baby. Jesenia is the one who gives them a sense of hope and escape from all of the trauma they experience daily. This section also gives glimpses of their lives after they are free again.

What kind of is really confusing to me is the title is based on a journalist who lived on the same street in which the girls were held captive. But we only get bits and pieces of her in the story and nothing else. She is not a main character in the book at all. Then there is the 2nd half of the book that really threw me for a loop, it skips like 30 years in the future. Also there is a whole chapter on Jesenia's daughter that was really confusing with her answering questions on her attempted suicide. Then there are footnotes and pictures throughout which are not explained until the very end of the book. I feel as if the 2nd half of the book were more aligned with a short story collection and was very difficult to connect back to the overall story.

Overall the 1st half of the book was amazing. This story is very lyrical and devastating. The author's ability to give these girls a voice and show how they are traumatized by their experiences are vividly illustrated. It's just the structure of the book did not work for me.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Silence in Plain Sight: A Review of Dear Miss Metropolitan

I almost quit reading Carolyn Ferrell's Dear Miss Metropolitan after the first few chapters. The story felt like trying to piece together a puzzle in the dark. But then it hit me – that confusion was exactly the point.

The novel introduces us to Fern, Gwen, and Jessenia, three girls whose lives were stolen from them. Kidnapped, abused, and held captive, their stories unfold like a nightmare you can't wake up from. Ferrell doesn't just tell us what happened to them; she shows us who they were before – normal girls with dreams and fears and favorite songs – making their fate even more gut-wrenching.

But here's what really gets under your skin: this isn't just their story. It's about an entire neighborhood that walked past that house day after day, year after year, never knowing. Or maybe never wanting to know. Sound far-fetched? Think again. We've seen this movie before, except it wasn't a movie. Ariel Castro held three women captive in Cleveland for over a decade. Jaycee Dugard spent 18 years in captivity while the world moved on without her. Even Jeffrey Dahmer's neighbors complained about the smell but never imagined the horror next door. We're all really good at minding our own business, aren't we?

I experienced this story through Bahni Turpin's narration of the audiobook, and her voice carries the weight of every character's pain and resilience. Fair warning, though – the audiobook throws you into the deep end, switching between narrators without announcing who's speaking. It's like eavesdropping on multiple conversations at once, forcing you to lean in and really listen. At ten hours long, it's a relatively quick listen, but these stories will stay with you much longer.

Dear Miss Metropolitan isn't an easy read. It's not supposed to be. It's disturbing, heart-shattering, and, at times, almost unbearable. But maybe that's exactly why we need to read it – because somewhere, right now, someone is walking past another house, thinking, "Something seems off, but it's probably nothing."

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lives of three girls and how they unfortunately intersect upon being kidnapped and held hostage and made to suffer absolute horrors for many years. Knowing the subject matter you know it’s going to be a tough read and it is when you read what they are put through.
The author is wholly original in how she approached the storytelling. It really is something special.
Much thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co for providing the copy.

[Natasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing style or styles were not my cup of tea. It was a little bit too much jumping around where it was hard to follow for me. I was listening and thought maybe it would have translated better in print but based off the reviews, people still stated that is hard to follow. I will probably give this author another try if she comes out with more work. But I may read instead of listening in case its a similar hodge podge of writing styles and time jumping going on. I am familiar with the kidnapping story this was inspired by even though going in I wasn't aware of that connection. I think if it was less chaotic, I may have enjoyed it more.

[Pam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had almost decided not to finish this book when the story became a little (very little) more coherent and held out the possibility of wrapping up a few loose ends. Finishing it was somewhere between perseverance and grim self-torture. Three teenage girls are kidnapped and held hostage for ten years by a sadistic, evil man (reminiscent of the Ariel Castro story in Cleveland). The story jumps around between narrators (and not just the three victims), includes stories of extraneous characters that range from mildly interesting (the elderly neighbor who writes an advice column for a local newspaper and ends up being institutionalized after two of the young women are found) to totally irrelevant (the granddaughter of one of the elderly women who live on the block where the “House of Horrors” is located). This was a very unsatisfying read, not to mention excruciating as the details of the young women’s sexual, physical and psychological abuse are repeated often. There is a long list of loose ends: Did Mattie’s inability to function in the current age sabotage her reporter instincts making her miss obvious clues about what was happening in the house across the street from her? After the girls’ liberation, does Mattie’s guilt cause her to lose her mind? How were the victims found? Did the Boss Man give up his claim on the young women and the child he fathered because of what he did to Jesenia? What did Katanya and the retired detective, Cliff, find out when they went to California? Did Cliff abandon Katanya? Do Fern and Gwinnie live out their lives in some sort of sheltered living arrangement because they wanted that (or do they move in with Fern’s brother)? Why are there so many extraneous characters? Why is the narrative full of stream of consciousness distractions? Why did the newspaper continue to employ Miss Metropolitan (Mattie) so long after she was a successful reporter/columnist? Why are there footnotes?