“If you’re even remotely feminist, you’re going to be mad reading it.”

I’m a lifestyle and pet writer with over a decade of experience in copywriting, covering viral animal moments, well-being topics, and lifestyle trends.

"Lissa Evans (a fine author in her own right) expressed it better than I ever could:

'A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry is an exquisite novel of loneliness, of tentative happiness and chosen family, but it is also so emotionally painful that I could never read it again – I’d neither want to relive that pain, nor to feel the impact of it blunted by familiarity.'"

"Yes! I was talking books with a woman at a party, and she was saying she was going to read it, and I couldn’t figure out how to provide a warning without totally spoiling it. I ended up talking to her husband and gave him the warnings (I knew him better and figured he would know if it would likely be triggering for her)."

"Finished this book yesterday and absolutely loved it… possibly pointing towards my inner masochist.

We’ve obviously made long strides socially since Hardy wrote Tess but I still feel this is a book that should be taught in schools. While it is impossible for men to truly experience womanhood, and vice versa, this book, from the perspective of a man, forces you to acknowledge how cruel society can be towards women. Besides this, the book may have the best prose I’ve ever read. I found myself rereading pages at a time just to reexperience Hardy’s writing again.

"The whole short book was devastating. The ending hit and shocked me even more. Still one of the best books I’ve read."

"I only just now healed from trauma this story gave me as a teenager after being haunted by it for 12 years. Jesus."

"I picked it up and read it because I've heard it's highly ranked on sci-fi greats.

The sci-fi is like 5% of it; the rest is a gripping, devastating journey."

"I just started this one and had to stop after the first chapter because it was so traumatic. Honestly, I wish I hadn't read that first chapter because it keeps replaying in my head."

Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.