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marywahlmeierbracciano's review
medium-paced
4.5
Boy, do I love a period book. This trans-inclusive period anthology features prose, poems, and comics from a diverse group of contributors and will inspire conversation about menstruation and menstrual justice. By nature of its title, Our Red Book includes the reader in its never-ending mission to compile and share stories of menstruation and to end period stigma. Holding space for so many complicated feelings and experiences surrounding monthly bleeding, this book is an invitation to reinvent your relationship with menstruation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Body shaming
Moderate: Dysphoria and Eating disorder
Minor: Death of parent, Sexual violence, War, Death, Antisemitism, Pregnancy, Grief, Genocide, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Miscarriage, Abortion, and Cancer
abifrog's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Thank you Simon & Schuster, NetGalley, and Rachel Kauder Nalebuff for granting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Essay collections are no simple task. They can leave a reader with a dense collection of work that is emotionally connected adjacent, slightly disconnected from the reader, feeling like a clinical take on the human experience. However, Nalebuff had the perfect formula.
This book tells the stories of various people and their connection to their menstrual cycle—an investigation into a historically taboo subject: periods, menstrual cycles, and menopause through an intersectional lens. Nalebuff is tackling questions about various parts of these topics such as: first periods, connection to queerness, cultural experiences, and what a period means to you. Drawing on people from all backgrounds, perhaps even ones you might not expect to hear from regarding a book on menstruating, without leaving the reader feeling overwhelmed. Within this novel, there is a story that is bound to resonate with each reader in some way, shape, or form.
I also particularly enjoyed the mixing of mediums that Nalebuff employed. From poetry to classic essays to visual comics to conversations, the diverse means of storytelling mirrors the diverse stories beings told. The placement of a story conveyed in a form other than prose broke up the story well, allowing for a digestible format creating a story that is not only easy but enjoyable to read.
Essay collections are no simple task. They can leave a reader with a dense collection of work that is emotionally connected adjacent, slightly disconnected from the reader, feeling like a clinical take on the human experience. However, Nalebuff had the perfect formula.
This book tells the stories of various people and their connection to their menstrual cycle—an investigation into a historically taboo subject: periods, menstrual cycles, and menopause through an intersectional lens. Nalebuff is tackling questions about various parts of these topics such as: first periods, connection to queerness, cultural experiences, and what a period means to you. Drawing on people from all backgrounds, perhaps even ones you might not expect to hear from regarding a book on menstruating, without leaving the reader feeling overwhelmed. Within this novel, there is a story that is bound to resonate with each reader in some way, shape, or form.
I also particularly enjoyed the mixing of mediums that Nalebuff employed. From poetry to classic essays to visual comics to conversations, the diverse means of storytelling mirrors the diverse stories beings told. The placement of a story conveyed in a form other than prose broke up the story well, allowing for a digestible format creating a story that is not only easy but enjoyable to read.
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