CityBeat is partnering with Under Cover Book Club on a book-based scavenger hunt in Cincinnati. Every month, the Under Cover Book Club will hide books around the city for you to find with clues posted on social media and CityBeat will publish short reviews of those books to give you a taste of what’s to come. These are the reviews of the books — We Pretty Pieces of Flesh, The Expert of Subtle Revisions and Wild Dark Shore — that will be hidden in March.
In honor of Women’s History Month, I’ve chosen books by incredible female authors whose voices deserve to be celebrated. These stories highlight resilience, creativity and the diverse experiences of women. The books will be hidden on Saturday, April 5, starting at 11 a.m. in Covington — so mark your calendars! Stay tuned for clues and coordinates. Happy hunting!
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown
Colwill Brown’s We Pretty Pieces of Flesh transported me straight into the heart of Doncaster, immersing me in the unapologetic rhythms of a Yorkshire dialect. It spans decades, offering an unflinching look at the complexities of girlhood and the enduring bonds of friendship.
The story follows three adolescent girls — Rach, Shaz, and Kel — coming of age in 1990s Doncaster, a gritty, post-industrial town in Yorkshire, England. Their inseparable friendship faces challenges as they grow older, with a long-buried secret threatening to tear them apart. The language sets the scene and is the beating heart of the novel, giving Rach, Shaz and Kel’s friendship a raw authenticity that makes their triumphs and betrayals feel even more poignant. There were many moments where I felt like I was eavesdropping on real conversations at the pub or walking beside them through their hometown.
What I loved most was how the dialect mirrored the girls’ relationship over time — full of energy and warmth in their younger years, then shifting as life began pulling them in different directions. It became a tether to their roots, a reminder of where they came from and what they were leaving behind. The banter between them felt alive—biting at times, tender at others — but always real. Brown’s commitment to writing in the girls’ native dialect added an emotional texture that made the novel’s exploration of girlhood, class and belonging feel deeply personal. The result is a story that doesn’t just depict friendship but makes you feel its messy, complicated and enduring nature.
For readers of: Douglas Stuart, Emma Cline and Kerry Hudson
Henry Holt and Co. ᐧ 336 pages ᐧ March 4, 2025
The Expert of Subtle Revisions by Kirsten Menger-Anderson
Kirsten Menger-Anderson’s The Expert of Subtle Revisions weaves a mesmerizing tale of time, intellect and the pursuit of the impossible. The novel straddles between two different settings: 1933 Vienna where brilliant yet imperiled intellectuals reside, and modern-day California where a woman goes on a cryptic search for her missing father. Our protagonist, Nadia, navigates the complexities of love, identity and ambition. Nadia embarks on a journey of self-discovery, confronting the expectations placed upon her as both a writer and a woman while grappling with the blurred lines between truth and fiction.
Menger-Anderson blends historical intrigue with speculative wonder. The whispers of a machine capable of transcending time add a tantalizing layer of suspense, while the novel’s exploration of academia, political turmoil and human ambition grounds the story in stark realism. The prose is elegant, startling and propulsive, and it left me with a sense of both urgency and awe.
I felt like I was forced to confront the fragility of my own history and the history of all of existence. I questioned not just the truth of Nadia’s search, but the very nature of time, memory and the stories we tell ourselves. The novel haunts you and compels you to look at the past and present through a lens that bends and warps as if there’s more to every moment than we can ever truly grasp.
For readers of: Kate Atkinson, Emily St. John Mandel and David Mitchell
Crown ᐧ 256 pages ᐧ March 18, 2025
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
It is an honor to hide books by so many amazing writers, and an even rarer one to hide an author’s work multiple times. Under Cover Book Club alumna Charlotte McConaghy’s latest novel, Wild Dark Shore, will be her third work that I’ve hidden, and it is a triumph. It is such a haunting, atmospheric novel that blends survival, secrecy and the weight of an unraveling world, all against the backdrop of a remote island near Antarctica. The Salt family are caretakers of the world’s largest seed bank on the island of Shearwater, where a woman named Rowan washes ashore during a frightening storm.
The island setting is beautiful and unforgiving, adding to the tensions within the characters as they navigate distrust, buried secrets and the fragile hope of starting over. The slow-burning suspense kept me enthralled, while the lyrical prose infused even the harshest moments with aching poignancy.
This is a story of survival, both in the face of nature’s wrath and in the depths of human relationships. The island feels like a living, breathing character whose shouts, composed of vicious waves and unrelenting winds, mirror the internal struggles of the Salt family and Rowan. McConaghy’s storytelling leaves you with a sense of awe and lingering questions about the human capacity for survival and redemption.
For readers of: Delia Owens, Megan Hunter and Hannah Kent
Flatiron Books ᐧ 320 pages ᐧ March 4, 2025
Learn more about the Under Cover Book Club by visiting undercover513.com. The Under Cover Book Club will reveal more clues about their monthly scavenger hunt on their Instagram page.
This article appears in Feb 19 – Mar 4, 2025.
