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teganbeesebooks's review against another edition
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Incest, Infertility, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicide, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Medical content, Violence, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Vomit, Infidelity, Abortion, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Slavery
thelizzabee's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
5.0
kinghornreads's review
This was just moving way too slow for me. It felt like I was reading a textbook. I’m waiting for the audiobook in hopes it’ll be better.
megancmahon's review
challenging
informative
slow-paced
4.5
This was an interesting, exhaustively researched, and sometimes hilarious biography of a woman I couldn't believe I'd never heard of: Madame Restell, provider of abortions and birth control extraordinaire.
This book led me to consider a lot of what I thought I knew about reproductive healthcare. I had no idea that birth control and abortion were actually fairly common (if not entirely accepted) things until Anthony Comstock, who I deeply want to punch in the dick. If I'd thought about it I would have said that women have always had methods to abort unwanted fetuses and provide themselves with birth control, but hearing it laid out like this - that abortion was actually fairly common until a certain point in the Gilded Age - was interesting, and infurating.
I liked the chapters about Madame Restell's life, though I think some parts of the book dragged a little bit. I did enjoy that she went deeply into the lives of each person she mentioned, because that to me is the best part of historical nonfiction. I especially liked hearing her theories about Madame Restell's survival - it certainyl didn't seem plausible to me that a woman of her spunk and with no recorded mental health struggles would end her own life while being persecuted by such a knob (and wow, were her chapters on Anthony Comstock well written). I believe she lived the rest of her life in Europe, a fuck-you to the Vice Committee.
Overall I really enjoyed it, even though I thought the middle was a bit slow. And her call to action at the end was inspiring! I especially appreciated that she acknowledged that access to birth control has always been, at its heart, an issue deeply connected to race and economic status as well.
This book led me to consider a lot of what I thought I knew about reproductive healthcare. I had no idea that birth control and abortion were actually fairly common (if not entirely accepted) things until Anthony Comstock, who I deeply want to punch in the dick. If I'd thought about it I would have said that women have always had methods to abort unwanted fetuses and provide themselves with birth control, but hearing it laid out like this - that abortion was actually fairly common until a certain point in the Gilded Age - was interesting, and infurating.
I liked the chapters about Madame Restell's life, though I think some parts of the book dragged a little bit. I did enjoy that she went deeply into the lives of each person she mentioned, because that to me is the best part of historical nonfiction. I especially liked hearing her theories about Madame Restell's survival - it certainyl didn't seem plausible to me that a woman of her spunk and with no recorded mental health struggles would end her own life while being persecuted by such a knob (and wow, were her chapters on Anthony Comstock well written). I believe she lived the rest of her life in Europe, a fuck-you to the Vice Committee.
Overall I really enjoyed it, even though I thought the middle was a bit slow. And her call to action at the end was inspiring! I especially appreciated that she acknowledged that access to birth control has always been, at its heart, an issue deeply connected to race and economic status as well.