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Reviews
Unsuitable for Females: The Rise of the Lionesses and Women's Football in England by Carrie Dunn
sarahrose_a's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
2.5
Definitely needed a stronger editor. This was all over the place and so hard to follow, I would have DNF-ed if I wasn’t so interested in the topic of women’s soccer.
internationalreads's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.5
Not what I expected at all. A few important points about the early days of women’s football, but most of the book was a mess, jumping around, quoting various players who all had pretty much the same thing to say.
alexamikus's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
madameroyale's review against another edition
2.75
I hate giving this book such a low score, because it obviously took a great deal of research and reporting about a subject that is too often ignored, but it was pretty impossible to follow. It jumped around in time so often, and between players so quickly (sometimes in the space of a few paragraphs), that there was no time to get invested in any one story or even find a through line to guide your reading. I really think this book would've seriously benefited from being formatted as an encyclopedic history of women's football history rather than a narrative. There are some wonderful first-hand accounts here that give readers great insight into what women's football was like day to day in the very early years, or even just a few decades ago. But sadly it all gets lost in the constant shuffle, to the point that by the time I got to the end I could barely remember what I had found most interesting about it all. It's just too much information thrown at you with too little organization to make any kind of lasting impact.
I also found the subtitle/cover focus on the Lionesses to be very odd and frankly misleading. It implies that this book will take you from early history to the modern day, when in fact that modern English women's national team is barely mentioned (except in a few bitter asides from older players in the epilogue). I'm assuming the publisher wanted to capitalize on the popularity of the team, but it's strange to do when they barely even come up in the narrative.
I also found the subtitle/cover focus on the Lionesses to be very odd and frankly misleading. It implies that this book will take you from early history to the modern day, when in fact that modern English women's national team is barely mentioned (except in a few bitter asides from older players in the epilogue). I'm assuming the publisher wanted to capitalize on the popularity of the team, but it's strange to do when they barely even come up in the narrative.
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