Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement

This book reads like a well written screen play. It has it all, suspense, accusations, journalistic integrity. Sometimes you have to remind yourself that this isn't a work of fiction and that it is real life. Highly highly recommend

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jasleensaini's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement is a book about journalism and the grave mistreatment of women by two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists - Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. Kantor and Twohey relay the accounts of their investigation into Hollywood producer - Harvey Weinstein on multiple accounts of sexual harassment and abuse of women over the years.

This is the first book of its kind that I have ever read. It is extremely detailed and fast-paced and relays an extremely jarring account of women who were manipulated and harassed when they were either employed by Miramax or The Weinstein company. While difficult to read at times, due to the sensitive content, I couldn’t put the book down.

It reads like a true-crime thriller. Kantor and Twohey pulled off this book with grace. All of the women and how they came to be in these unseemly situations are described and treated with the utmost respect. The overall message that this book relays is extremely powerful and liberating. It shines a light on issues that have persisted for so long and been silenced due to a system that has long protected perpetrators.

While the expose is on a man, the authors take special care to give us multiple perspectives of the people involved in the Miramax and Weinstein empire. It is sad to see that a lot of people - Bob Weinstein, David Boies, Lisa Bloom, the entire board of the Weinstein company knew the truth and helped this man hide from justice for so long.

The truth of what was happening to so many women in the name of career advancement was hidden under the protection of an extremely unjust financial settlement, which guaranteed that Weinstein walked away. It just goes to say how much a man can get away with due to his circle of influence and financial hold.

A lot of questions call out to the justice system, to an overall system that makes it so hard for women to come forth with their experiences without getting shunned by the public and even their own families. There are points in this book when you are forced to contemplate, what would have happened if Weinstein was detained early on, how many of these instances could be avoided.

Overall, there is this one sentence that pretty much summarizes the ethos of this text -

If the story was not shared, nothing would change. Problems that are not seen cannot be addressed.

‘She Said’ had a lot of things going for it, but I did feel that the story about Dr. Christine Ford’s assault by Judge Brett Kavanaugh is strong and adds to the aftermath of the #MeToo movement but was misplaced in the Weinstein story.

I would have liked to see the final interviews of all the victims before that portion and if not that, get details of what become of the Weinstein Company and Weinstein himself. This is by no means a way to undermine Ford’s account or bravery but a critique of the overall structure of the book.

I rated this book 4.5 stars and would highly recommend this book to everyone.

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brigitte's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.75

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victoria74's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

4.0

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