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victoriafrost1991's review
4.0
Really fascinating read. Knew a bit through the film , yet, this novel explained more in depth how Wonder Woman came about and the story of the man who created it. It is interesting to see that fiction can have a bit of truth to is as well as everyone can be censored for what they write, speak or believe in.
lelia_t's review
2.0
This book was full of interesting tidbits, but reading it was a little like scanning microfiche - a bombardment of information that became tedious. I was fascinated by parts of the story, and Jill Lapore is an engaging writer, but overall this wasn't a great read to me, especially when compared to Lapore's fabulous Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin.
barnesbookshelf's review against another edition
3.0
From the title, I was expecting a book about the secret history of writing Wonder Woman, and all the trivia that comes from "this scene or this moment is inspired by this thing" and while that does exist in the book, it is not the main focus. The main focus is on the history of the creator of Wonder Woman, William Moulton Marston and his "unusual" family situation. Let me just say this, if you've seen the movie Professor Marston and the Wonder Women and think you know about the family, you are wrong. Movies do take artistic liberties, but they left out an entire person and changed major aspects of the relationships. The truth is a lot grittier, as real life is.
One thing I majorly like about this book is the way it contextualized everything. I had no idea thatMargaret Sanger and the history of birth control and the feminist movement had such strong ties not only to Wonder Woman, but to her very creation. Sometimes it does feel as though we're getting away from the main point, but Lepore does an excellent job of getting us back on track. Overall, it's incredibly interesting to find out the true Secret History, and I would recommend this to others who are big comic book fans, especially if they love Wonder Woman.
One thing I majorly like about this book is the way it contextualized everything. I had no idea that
melissa_who_reads's review
5.0
Really enjoyed it: very readable. William Moulton Marston comes off as a charming, problematic guy. Three women loved him, and loved each other at the same time. They seem to have lived together all fairly happily, with four children among them - but one wonders at their personal costs. And Olive -one really wonders at her relationship with the others, as she got to be homemaker and child-raiser and typist and writer - and she wouldn't talk ever about her real role in the household or who her children's father really was (Marston). It's amazing to me that it was such a big secret: it seems so obvious reading the book that only one person could have been the father. The book is well-written, fun to read, and well-researched: the end notes were also very good (though I find end notes tedious and wish they had been footnotes ....). She ties a lot of threads together: the history of psychology and of feminism, the story of the lie detector test, and the strong images of bondage in the early Wonder Woman comics (she is always being chained up by men), and the tying of those images back to the suffragette movement. Also interesting to read about the strong relationship to Margaret Sanger and a bit about the history of the birth control movement (Olive was Margaret's niece). Very interesting all the way through.
lunaballz's review
This seemed like it would be super interesting, and it kind of was for a while. Unfortunately, non-fiction is not really my jam and this was a little too ambitious of a read for me.