A review by bunceyyy
Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults (Including a new Preface and extra Essays) by Laurie Penny

3.0

This was more like 3.5 stars, and I might be being harsh as I’m not sure I was in the right headspace to be reading these kinds of essays. Penny makes a lot of very valid and interesting points, and I was relieved to find that I felt understood for the first time in a while - especially when it came to her anti-capitalist sentiments. However, I personally would’ve liked there to have been more examples of what I/we can do to challenge social and structural inequality, although I appreciate that I may have to look elsewhere for this. Some concepts were confusing and/or difficult to get my head around (not necessarily Penny’s fault) and where I found it quite jarring was in the amount of repetition there is. I was prepared for themes to be repeated/readdressed across essays, but I’m talking about word-for-word repetition of complete sentences, within the same page/paragraph. It also would’ve been interesting to have info/context accompanying each essay, relating to its original publication - when/where etc. If you’re pretty upset and/or angry about the status quo, and would like more information (or to feel less alone), I’d recommend this, but would suggest you tackle it whilst in a pretty positive/robust mindset!