There's not much way for me to talk about this book without spoilers, so... sorry. I tried to block out as many as I could. Has anyone here read it? I just finished it and am mulling over it. I think it is a book many people on this site would enjoy.

Essentially, this is an alternate history where Hillary never marries Bill. She's still Hillary, in terms of her personality, but the overall moral of the book by the end seems to be that she's better off without Bill.

In this version, he breaks up with her, but reading between the lines, although she is devastated, she really was the one who wanted out. She had started to realize who Bill truly is -- less intelligent than her, with some serious problems around women (including one woman who confides in Hillary that Bill sexually assaulted her). Hillary also discusses some incidents between her and Bill that to my mind are sexual assault.

I'll pause here to note that if you haven't read it, I'd HIGHLY encourage you to skip a few sections. No one needs to read a graphic Bill-Hillary sex scene. No one. Even if you think you do, you don't. I'm sorry to police your reading but I promise you, it's too much. I almost put the book down because of this, but I figured she'd leave him soon enough. And she does.

Anyways, it's an interesting premise. I don't think the author quite found HR's voice in the novel, although she got close. The alternate history is by turns thought provoking and amusing. For example, Donald Trump never runs for President in this world, and Bill is the one who runs three times and loses every time. No more "Lock Her Up"! from Donald -- instead, he endorses her because he hates Bill Clinton so much. Bill Clintonis the one leading rallies to chant "Shut Her Up!" instead. Also, Bill Clinton as thrice-divorced vegan tech billionaire is kind of amusing. The author really makes him come across as slimy. There is a lot of discussion of Hillary's womanhood, of being the "only" woman, of the expectations that come from representing all women--and the author lets Hillary fall short many times.

For example, she at one pointjumps over Carol Mosley Braun, preventing Mosely Braun from becoming a Senator. At another point, she makesa staffer shave her legs, although she later acknowledges during a Presidential Debate that this was wrong (and wins the election due to her openness and authenticity). She's sort of single throughout the book, but not quite. She has an emotional affair with a married guy and later kinda gets a guy to be her beard when she's accused of being a lesbian! She makes mistakes on almost every other page, but she also wrings her hands over it, and pushes forward.

I'm not sure if this is a good book or not. It's interesting. At times, the author tried too hard to pull in things that actually happened and fit them into her alternate history, but it overall worked for me. The time jumping from the 70s to the 90s, to present day, got really confusing. Has anyone else read it? What did you think?