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835 reviews for:
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick
Mallory O'Meara
4.11 AVERAGE
835 reviews for:
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick
Mallory O'Meara
4.11 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
I’m not even super into horror or sci-fi films, but I listened to this audiobook because I listen to (and love) Mallory O’Meara’s podcast, Reading Glasses. While I’m sure this book is even better if you are familiar with the movies it discusses, I really enjoyed it for Mallory’s commentary about women working in the film industry. The way she talks about what Millicent Patrick means to her personally got me more interested in hearing her story than I might’ve been if it had been more of a straightforward biography.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
This is a combination of biography of an overlooked figure in Hollywood/monster history, the story of actually finding that information, and a side of justified as hell feminist screaming, because holy hell the way Millicent got screwed over is in itself a tale as old as time. There are times when O’Meara seems to veer into centering the story a bit too much on herself, but she always pulls back before making it a bit too much about herself, and with her admiration of Millicent, I can see how personal the story is for her. Also, there are some A+ footnotes. I got this on sale on Kindle, and for the price I got it for, absolutely worth it. Pick it up.
adventurous
funny
informative
medium-paced
This was fun! And convinced me that audio books don’t have to be so dreadful. I learned a lot from this book and found it surprisingly inspiring for a nonfiction book. It got slow in some parts and I wasn’t as interested in the authors commentary as I was the context of Millicent’s life.
2.5 rounded up
Well here we go:
Parasocial relationships are funny aren't they? If I didn't listen to Reading Glasses I probably would have still picked this up but I also may not have finished it. And yet, because I have fantasies about one day kicking it with Brea and Mallory on their podcast explaining my reading habits and reading wheelhouses, I kept going with this book going maybe I'll like it soon! Maybe! Please! So I'm going to try and pause that and just be honest.
I am glad this book exists and I'm happy Milicent's story is getting told. I do believe we need more writing about women in the entertainment industry and the struggles they face. I just didn't love the execution of this.
This was definitely a debut work and definitely from someone who is not a researcher. There is a lot of "I think's", "Probably's" and "She must have". In the first few chapters of the book O'Meara is told by someone that he doesn't believe the story could sustain more than an article. I hate to say it but by the end of the book I had to agree. There was a lot of content that I just did not find interesting. Stories about the men around Milicent, stories about how O'Meara decided to dress and even glimpses of Milicent's career that just didn't inspire me. With the amount of speculation there was I almost think a fictionalized Julie/Julia style novel or movie would have been the way to go with this story.
I did not enjoy the footnotes in this. And I am generally a footnote fan, both in humour fiction and non-fiction but so many of these footnotes which were one of two things. 1. Snarky or sarcastic comments from the author - which made no sense since the actual text itself was full of snarky and sarcastic comments from the author. They could've have been integrated into the core text. Or 2. They were explaining things that assumed I had no knowledge of film at all. I find it hard to believe that anyone picking up this book wouldn't know what a "B-Movie" was. Or who Abbott and Costello were. I mean maybe I am the snob here but it just felt like the author was assuming I was naive to the industry. This happened constantly. I think that would be fine if this was marketed as non-fiction for young adults looking to go into the industry. At one point O'Meara even states "Depression is a mental health issue" like...yes I know?
I think my main gripe with this book though is the way Milicent's beauty is talked about. O'Meara is critical of the men (rightly so) who undermine her because of her looks but then a photo of her is captioned "You could roast marshmallows over this picture." O'Meara is constantly commenting on what a knockout she is. Milicent IS conventionally very beautiful but we can see that with our own eyes. But when that is remarked upon as much as it is, it's hard not to see this story as "This woman was beautiful AND she had other talents who knew?" instead of "She was a wonderful artist but could never be seen as anything other than beautiful." I 100% believe O'Meara agrees with the later but goddamn it is pretty evident how hard it is to NOT comment on a woman's looks.
I was disappointing in this. I hate that I was disappointed in this. I am excited to see what O'Meara does in the future regardless of my feelings on this book. If I took anything away from this read it's that women need to stick together in showbiz and amplify each other's voices. We need more monster girls.
Well here we go:
Parasocial relationships are funny aren't they? If I didn't listen to Reading Glasses I probably would have still picked this up but I also may not have finished it. And yet, because I have fantasies about one day kicking it with Brea and Mallory on their podcast explaining my reading habits and reading wheelhouses, I kept going with this book going maybe I'll like it soon! Maybe! Please! So I'm going to try and pause that and just be honest.
I am glad this book exists and I'm happy Milicent's story is getting told. I do believe we need more writing about women in the entertainment industry and the struggles they face. I just didn't love the execution of this.
This was definitely a debut work and definitely from someone who is not a researcher. There is a lot of "I think's", "Probably's" and "She must have". In the first few chapters of the book O'Meara is told by someone that he doesn't believe the story could sustain more than an article. I hate to say it but by the end of the book I had to agree. There was a lot of content that I just did not find interesting. Stories about the men around Milicent, stories about how O'Meara decided to dress and even glimpses of Milicent's career that just didn't inspire me. With the amount of speculation there was I almost think a fictionalized Julie/Julia style novel or movie would have been the way to go with this story.
I did not enjoy the footnotes in this. And I am generally a footnote fan, both in humour fiction and non-fiction but so many of these footnotes which were one of two things. 1. Snarky or sarcastic comments from the author - which made no sense since the actual text itself was full of snarky and sarcastic comments from the author. They could've have been integrated into the core text. Or 2. They were explaining things that assumed I had no knowledge of film at all. I find it hard to believe that anyone picking up this book wouldn't know what a "B-Movie" was. Or who Abbott and Costello were. I mean maybe I am the snob here but it just felt like the author was assuming I was naive to the industry. This happened constantly. I think that would be fine if this was marketed as non-fiction for young adults looking to go into the industry. At one point O'Meara even states "Depression is a mental health issue" like...yes I know?
I think my main gripe with this book though is the way Milicent's beauty is talked about. O'Meara is critical of the men (rightly so) who undermine her because of her looks but then a photo of her is captioned "You could roast marshmallows over this picture." O'Meara is constantly commenting on what a knockout she is. Milicent IS conventionally very beautiful but we can see that with our own eyes. But when that is remarked upon as much as it is, it's hard not to see this story as "This woman was beautiful AND she had other talents who knew?" instead of "She was a wonderful artist but could never be seen as anything other than beautiful." I 100% believe O'Meara agrees with the later but goddamn it is pretty evident how hard it is to NOT comment on a woman's looks.
I was disappointing in this. I hate that I was disappointed in this. I am excited to see what O'Meara does in the future regardless of my feelings on this book. If I took anything away from this read it's that women need to stick together in showbiz and amplify each other's voices. We need more monster girls.
Had high hopes for this book but sadly I would dread picking it up. The writing lacks momentum and focus. As other reviews have mentioned, the research methods are sort of infuriating. There were some odd footnotes that explained obvious things.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
The perfect mix of funny, intimate, informative, and angry. Highly recommend.
I got this book expecting a nice bio of Milicent Patrick, but was blown away by a story about a woman erased from history by a jealous man and a much misogyny. Every true fan of Creature From The Black Lagoon knows she was the creature's creator, but little else was known about her, and WOW prepare to be amazed! Your journey along with the author is just one revelation after another.
I downed this book in one evening. Why is this not a Tim Burton movie, like, yesterday?!
I downed this book in one evening. Why is this not a Tim Burton movie, like, yesterday?!