rachbake's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring sad fast-paced

4.25


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

miayukino's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

Incredibly extensively researched but I feel as though the medium of graphic novelization and non-omniscient storytelling made a lot of the information hard to follow. I feel as though it could have been more concise. It seemed to attempt to straddle being both a comprehensive secondary source and a personalized bio and that was tough for me to follow. I was looking for a bit more personal window into her as a person and less of a play by play of her collaborative relationships; I was also hoping they’d delve into her queer relationships but that was not very present at all (especially for a book that  is, in my opinion, well-researched and versed in the true and false rumors of her life). I think this style is not exactly for me and that’s okay. If you want a comprehensive history of her interpersonal interactions then I think this is a great book for you! 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

spellboundchapters's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

2.0

I didn't really learn anything new... I wanna say it's a good book to those who don't know anything (or very little), but again, reading her Wikipedia page takes less time. 😅
One of the things that disappointed me the most was that the authors spent more time showing us all the different men she had affairs with than any of her activist work. But not a word about the women she had affairs with, of course. 🙃 We have a total of ONE page mentioning her bisexuality, and even then, she's kissing another woman whilst being bare chested in a room full of men... Frida Kahlo wasn't even mentioned once? (I know that there are no proofs about them being lovers but still, it's one of the greatest mysteries surrounding Josephine's life after all haha).
Even during WW2, we have pages and pages of her doing different shows for the troops but no information about the kind of information she was providing to the French army nor how she did it.

I felt extremely uncomfortable during the beginning of the book seeing how black people were being portrayed. They basically all have the same features (even Josephine is not differentiable in some strips) and sometimes look like monkeys... I don't know how things like that can still be published nowadays (this book is from 2016).

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...