Reviews

Bad Girls: A History of Rebels and Renegades by Caitlin Davies

schopflin's review

informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Well-researched and really interesting history of this London women's prison, reflecting on prisons in general, their staff and the experience women inmates. The acknowledgements say this was cut down from a far longer MS but actually it does feel a little overlong at times and seems to have false endings. 

masonlou8's review

3.0

3.5

jufira42's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

beulah_devaney's review

4.0

A poignant history of Holloway Prison. Bad Girls provides the reader with both a linear history of women's incarceration and brings to life a host of fascinating historical figures. If the subject matter is a bit heavy for you (and this book comes with all the content warnings you might expect), Davies has a great post on her blog about writing and researching the book which is (I think) trigger free.

kiwialexa's review

4.0

A fascinating and well-written history. I enjoyed the thematic structure rather than simply a chronological history of the prison, as well as the focus on the bad/mad woman dichotomy. I was most interested in the sections on suffragette imprisonment, as well as the development of systems for keeping mothers and babies together. Challenging concluding thoughts about whether prison systems will ever really be reformed and restructured to enable the best possible outcomes for both prisoners and those who work with them.

bxybaby's review

5.0

Change of job

This book is fantastic. It recognises that women can do bad things and be locked away, but also that women can go against social norms and be locked away, and sometimes being locked away was better than the abuse of outside world. Beautifully written, powerful and emotive. I totally thought about changing my job!