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amylangdown_'s review
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
A wonderful and witty look into the history of queer women. I learned many new things. I really love a funny historical book, and Kirsty Loehr hits the nail on the head, balancing the seriousness of historical anti-queerness and humorous tales.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Addiction, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Classism
booksjessreads's review
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
Overall, a really informative short book about the history of queer women which was witty and funny but also reflective of identity and queerness for women. There were a lot of gems in this book of whom I wasn't aware, and it was great for them to be written about in such a positive way.
The queer joy that emanated from this book was superior and I really enjoyed this element of the book. To say this is also a non-fiction book, it reads so easy which is helped by the matter-of-fact writing which made things so much more digestible. Alongside the jokes and the wit, this just made it a breeze to read. One issue though, was that sometimes, there was just too much cringe jokes and sometimes they could have been cut out, they just weren't needed constantly. It did stop more towards the end, but especially in the beginning, it felt like the witty writing was used to pad areas out.
Furthermore, another issue was that nothing was referenced throughout, but rather a list of sources was presented at the end. It would have helped to have those references throughout to follow up sources so we could do more research. However, I appreciate that without the footnotes etc. it did make it look more appealing to read and this was probably the purpose behind that.
Regardless, it was a really great introduction to queer women in history and I look forward to going back through and researching these wonderful women in more depth. An overall really good read.
The queer joy that emanated from this book was superior and I really enjoyed this element of the book. To say this is also a non-fiction book, it reads so easy which is helped by the matter-of-fact writing which made things so much more digestible. Alongside the jokes and the wit, this just made it a breeze to read. One issue though, was that sometimes, there was just too much cringe jokes and sometimes they could have been cut out, they just weren't needed constantly. It did stop more towards the end, but especially in the beginning, it felt like the witty writing was used to pad areas out.
Furthermore, another issue was that nothing was referenced throughout, but rather a list of sources was presented at the end. It would have helped to have those references throughout to follow up sources so we could do more research. However, I appreciate that without the footnotes etc. it did make it look more appealing to read and this was probably the purpose behind that.
Regardless, it was a really great introduction to queer women in history and I look forward to going back through and researching these wonderful women in more depth. An overall really good read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, and Transphobia
Minor: Suicide attempt
citrusboombox's review
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.0
Very funny condensed history of queer women (predominantly lesbians). As others have noted it was a bit odd that there were no cited sources or references, but as a beginners overview into the topic it did brilliantly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Racism
mimithorp's review
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.0
Fast to read, enjoyable and humourous, but it's frustrating that no sources are provided during the actual body of the text (there are some notes on sources at the end) and while the witty sarcastic feel helps the pace, it is still used in some more serious moments which feels a little distasteful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Lesbophobia
bronzeageholly's review
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Lesbophobia
ramreadsagain's review
funny
hopeful
informative
fast-paced
3.0
Lots of mixed feelings about this.
A lot of people in the reviews have spoken against the decision to refer to historical people as their assigned sex at birth (i.e. women) rather than what they may have identified as, calling this transphobic. While I largely agree that in the cases where these people lived life as men this book should have treated them as such, I do also believe that we should be very careful when applying modern gender terms to historical people. I attended an event where the author herself spoke about this, and stated that it was largely a decision imposed upon her by the publisher. She also touched upon the fact that lesbians and trans men have a massive shared history and that the lives of people who would today possibly identify as trans men are still incredibly important to talk about in the context of lesbian history.
That aside, the last third of this book was definitely the strongest part, as the lack of complete historical evidence for lesbians before that section meant that the author has padded out her writing with a lot of sass and sarcasm. I am a lover of sarcasm, but when every other sentence is a ‘witty’ comment, it gets old very quickly. For this reason I found a lot of this quite difficult to get through. Furthermore in several cases I couldn’t work out if the author was stating something that existed or was being sarcastic, as she didn’t actually include direct references to anything.
On to the good stuff though, this was still a great and snappy read and a very accessible starting point for those wishing to learn more about historical lesbians. There was a lot in here that I didn’t know about, a lot to laugh at and a lot of sapphic joy.
A lot of people in the reviews have spoken against the decision to refer to historical people as their assigned sex at birth (i.e. women) rather than what they may have identified as, calling this transphobic. While I largely agree that in the cases where these people lived life as men this book should have treated them as such, I do also believe that we should be very careful when applying modern gender terms to historical people. I attended an event where the author herself spoke about this, and stated that it was largely a decision imposed upon her by the publisher. She also touched upon the fact that lesbians and trans men have a massive shared history and that the lives of people who would today possibly identify as trans men are still incredibly important to talk about in the context of lesbian history.
That aside, the last third of this book was definitely the strongest part, as the lack of complete historical evidence for lesbians before that section meant that the author has padded out her writing with a lot of sass and sarcasm. I am a lover of sarcasm, but when every other sentence is a ‘witty’ comment, it gets old very quickly. For this reason I found a lot of this quite difficult to get through. Furthermore in several cases I couldn’t work out if the author was stating something that existed or was being sarcastic, as she didn’t actually include direct references to anything.
On to the good stuff though, this was still a great and snappy read and a very accessible starting point for those wishing to learn more about historical lesbians. There was a lot in here that I didn’t know about, a lot to laugh at and a lot of sapphic joy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Sexual content
Moderate: Death, Racism, and War
Minor: Suicide and Terminal illness