A review by pia_uhlenberg
The Word for Woman is Wilderness by Abi Andrews

5.0

This book was such a pleasure to read. What makes it even more impressive to me is that this is not an autobiographical recollection as I had thought when I first started reading it. Maybe it’s because of where I am in my life as a twenty-something year old college student or because we are in lockdown with little chance to go explore the Alaskan wilderness on our own and meet fascinating people, but I was immediately taken with Erin and her journey to find something she wasn’t even sure of what it was. Witty and insightful, she reflects on femininity, environmentalism, the macho Wilderness man and the Unabomber, the indigenous people of North America, death, the space race and the women of Mercury 13, and what it means to be coming of age in a time of global warming and environmental destruction. It’s definitely not a book I could have read in a single sitting.

I also feel like I need to mention how Abi Andrews is not afraid to put little illustrations in the book, too few authors do it nowadays and it was very sweet. And how could I forget the chapter titles (some people say there were too many but I didn’t mind much). A selection include: Chivalry isn’t dead, guys just get sick of ungrateful bitches; England, just like America but different; and my personal favorite: the clitoris is a direct line to the matrix.

Overall, 4.5 out of 5, sometimes I was a little lost and I do wish we had seen more of her doing stuff in the wilderness but alas, very impressive debut novel.