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836 reviews for:
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick
Mallory O'Meara
4.11 AVERAGE
836 reviews for:
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick
Mallory O'Meara
4.11 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
What I thought I was getting:
A focused telling of Milicent Patrick's life, zeroing in on her work in Hollywood on monster movies. An homage to Patrick and new things to say about the treatment of women in Hollywood.
What I got:
A lot of the author talking about herself, her research journey, her obsession with Patrick, a LOT about the men in Patrick's life (you'll read more about her father and the William Hearst before you hear much about Milicent), and some interesting and never-before-told information about Milicent Patrick.
I want people to read this book because Milicent Patrick was walking, talking glamor and skill who smashed glass ceilings with poise and a dazzling smile. She deserved better in life and in this book. She deserved an author who would let her shine on her own instead of fangirling over her.
I had a lot of problems with the technical skill in the writing and how unsuited the author is to telling a biography, but it is a recognizable, researched book so I won't dive into that here. I'm glad I read this because it does include information that you won't find anywhere else on Milicent Patrick and it was a delight to learn more about her.
Content warning: Note that this book does discuss sexism and sexual harassment quite a lot but there are no on-page depictions of sexual assault.
A focused telling of Milicent Patrick's life, zeroing in on her work in Hollywood on monster movies. An homage to Patrick and new things to say about the treatment of women in Hollywood.
What I got:
A lot of the author talking about herself, her research journey, her obsession with Patrick, a LOT about the men in Patrick's life (you'll read more about her father and the William Hearst before you hear much about Milicent), and some interesting and never-before-told information about Milicent Patrick.
I want people to read this book because Milicent Patrick was walking, talking glamor and skill who smashed glass ceilings with poise and a dazzling smile. She deserved better in life and in this book. She deserved an author who would let her shine on her own instead of fangirling over her.
I had a lot of problems with the technical skill in the writing and how unsuited the author is to telling a biography, but it is a recognizable, researched book so I won't dive into that here. I'm glad I read this because it does include information that you won't find anywhere else on Milicent Patrick and it was a delight to learn more about her.
Content warning: Note that this book does discuss sexism and sexual harassment quite a lot but there are no on-page depictions of sexual assault.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexism, Sexual harassment
medium-paced
Unfortunately this book is a memoir of the author researching Millicent Patrick’s life, rather than being about her. I generally dislike memoirs so this was pretty disappointing and I was only able to enjoy the book once I shifted my expectations. In the first chapter the author says one of her friends suggested this would be better as an article rather than a book and she should have taken that friend’s advice. The author makes a lot of comparisons of her own life to Millicent based on speculation about how millicent felt. The best parts of the book were when the author explains some of film industry history and millicent later life. The worst parts are when the author projects her own experiences onto millicent. The book also doesn’t add much to the conversation related to women working in the film industry - all of its been said before by frankly more interesting people with more nuanced opinions. I wish the book talked more about millicent specifically because I really did want to learn more about her life and experiences. This book could have been great but should have been an article.
informative
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
I gave this three stars. I really enjoyed all the parts about Patrick. I was excited to learn more about her. Unfortunately I felt like the book was more about the author’s life and journey in researching the subject than the subject itself.
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
2019 Reading Challenge: A book featuring an extinct or imaginary creature.
I can't say this was fully uninteresting: There was some interesting stuff I learned about Hearst Castle (lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!), about Walt Disney, about Ink and Paint, about sexism in the film industry... I can't say I learned an awful lot about Milicent Patrick in particular.
There was some fully uninteresting stuff I learned about the author, how hard it was to find out anything about one lady who worked in the 1940's, editorializing assumptions about how she might have felt (definitely not facts), and how pretty and elegant the author thought she was.
The whole thing was discussed through the lens of sexism and it was the only conclusion the author seemed to draw about the source of various events. She might veer into an interesting tangent for awhile, but always always coming back to sexism. (Also it was very drawn out and repetitive. She'd conclude an argument at the top of the left page then essentially rephrase the same thing on the bottom of the right.)
There was some fully uninteresting stuff I learned about the author, how hard it was to find out anything about one lady who worked in the 1940's, editorializing assumptions about how she might have felt (definitely not facts), and how pretty and elegant the author thought she was.
The whole thing was discussed through the lens of sexism and it was the only conclusion the author seemed to draw about the source of various events. She might veer into an interesting tangent for awhile, but always always coming back to sexism. (Also it was very drawn out and repetitive. She'd conclude an argument at the top of the left page then essentially rephrase the same thing on the bottom of the right.)
Well, this book is so cool! I loved learning about the creator of the Creature. Milicent is a bad ass woman of horror who deserves more recognition! Mallory is such a cool person for doing all of the research and writing this amazing book! I loved this book and would definitely recommend to nonfiction fans, horror movie fans, and anyone who wants to read more feminist based books!
4.5 Upon further reflection I am bumping this up to a 4.5 I'm still thinking about it regularly.