The Eights

Joanna Miller

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Publishing Date:April 15, 2025

Format:Hardcover

Pages:384

(NetGalley Description)

They knew they were changing history.
They didn’t know they would change each other.
Following the unlikely friendship of four of the first ever women to matriculate at Oxford University in the aftermath of the First World War, a captivating debut novel about sisterhood, self-determination and the many forms courage can take.
Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the world’s most famous university has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms. Beatrice, Dora, Marianne and Otto (collectively known as The Eights) have come here from all walks of life, and they are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship.
Dora was never meant to go to university, but, after losing both her brother and her fiancé on the battlefield, has arrived in their place. Politically-minded Beatrice, daughter of a famous suffragette, sees Oxford as a chance to make her own way – and some friends her own age. Otto was a nurse during the war but is excited to return to her socialite lifestyle in Oxford – where she hopes to find distraction from the memories that haunt her. And finally Marianne, the quiet, clever daughter of a village pastor, who has a shocking secret she must hide from everyone, even her new friends, if she is to succeed.
But Oxford’s dreaming spires cast a dark shadow: in 1920, misogyny is still rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War are still very real indeed. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time, their friendship will become more important than ever.

So, not easy to talk about this novel because, first of all, I’m not even sure it is a novel. It rather feels more like a collection of episodes related to a crucial time in the fight for women’s rights in Great Britain. And in that regard, it is very interesting. The author touches on the suffrage movement, both its light and its shadows, the role of women during WWI (with a very sensitive and exceptionally realistic depiction of veterans after the war, whether men or women), the expectation towards women’s lives, which sometimes adhered to the past, sometimes diverged. And of course, how women were received in Oxford once they became peers to fellow male students. There is also one of the most heartbreaking, realistic depictions I’ve ever read of what life must have been like for those young people who survived the Great War. Their life was still completely entrenched in the war, whether because of what they remembered, of the people they lost, of the wounds (both physical and emotional) they saw in the people around them and in themselves. I liked this aspect of the book a lot. A lot! Because normally, this aspect is approached in stories set in this period, but never with this level of authenticity. At least, this is my experience.

I really, really enjoyed reading about all of this, especially because the author tried to stay as close to reality as possible, even including real people in the picture. Yet, the focus on these real events made the narration less effective, in my opinion. Because there wasn’t really a story structure to it. It was more a collection of different events which would have been disconnected from one another if not for the central group of women.

However, I have to say that this group of four, very different women, was very empathic. I came to care deeply about them, so much that I cheered for their every success.

It’s clear that this is a thoroughly researched book, and I can only deeply appreciate it because it’s rare to find this level of accuracy in a novel. Yet maybe this accuracy took something away from the narration. But I won’t complain too much about it. I still enjoyed the book a lot.

Hi, I’m Sarah. I write historical fantasy set in the 1920s, and I read a lot, a lot of books set in the same era. On this blog, I regularly share book reviews of novels set in the 1920s (and sometimes 1910s and 1930s). If you love this kind of setting too ➡️ Subscribe to my newsletter

The Eights
Excerpt

When the planchette starts to slide across the board, it moves decisively. The tug on her fingers frightens Beatrice for a moment, but then she realizes with a grin that Otto must be responsible. Their hostess has begun shouting, mocking encouragement to the spirits and is rolling her head around like a medium.
‘
What letter is it? I can’t see,’ says Beatrice when their fingers finally come to a standstill. From where she is the board is upside down.

‘Sit back, Sparks, it’s too dark,’ says Otto.

‘Looks like C, don’t you think, Marianne?’, says Dora.

Marianne nods. ‘C.’

‘Not C for – Charles?’ says Dora, amused.

Marianne looks at her. ‘Shall we stop? I think we shouldn’t stop.’
‘
Absolutely not,’ insists Dora.

They return their fingers to the plancette and begin again. The wooden marker moves swiftly and cleanly down to the lower row and settles to the second letter, O.

‘Not Charles, then,’ says Dora, the corner of her mouth curling up. She sits back into her chair.

‘Hello, Colin or Constance, are you there?’ says Otto, holding her palms aloft.

‘Constance was my mother’s name,’ says Marianne.

Otto raises her eyebrows at Dora.

Beatrice pats Marianne lightly on her forearm. ‘C-O could stand for commission officer or conscientious objector,’ she says.

‘Or commanding officer? It could be Miss Jourdains,’ says Otto, turning to the door and feigning concern. ‘Perhaps she’s watching us right now.’

‘Come on, another letter,’ says Dora.

The Thursday Quotables  was originally a weekly post created by Lisa Wolf for her book blog Bookshelf Fantasy . It isn’t a weekly post anymore, not even for Lisa, but just like her, I still love to share my favourite reads on Thursdays and I still use the original template which included an excerpt.

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