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A review by bookph1le
The Change by Kirsten Miller
5.0
This was exactly the angry, vengeful book I needed at the moment. Give me all of your feminist rage and then some.
This book is a deep exploration of how deeply steeped American culture is in misogyny. Miller is not shy about detailing the myriad ways in which women are up against a system in which they have little chance of winning. From suffering through casual sexism to the grotesque ways in which men use and abuse women, this book explores them all.
It's also something of a superhero narrative. Harriet, Nessa, and Jo are all imbued with powers that don't exist in the real world. And while all three characters are developed and unique, they also stand at metaphors for the need to root out the rot from within, burn it down, and see that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
Naturally, plenty of people will cast this book as man-hating. It isn't. Both men and women are nuanced in this book, and men aren't the only ones guilty of the crimes committed against various women in the novel. The book clearly shows how good men can do their part to tear down the biases and institutions holding women back, how they can treat women as equal partners and respect their abilities.
I have to give special props to Harriet. I pretty much ate up every word of every scene she was in. I loved how the book charted her evolution from a woman trying to conform to the unfair rules of the world in which she was living to a woman who unabashedly and unashamedly claimed her own power. She's a very morally gray character, and while her actions certainly made me uncomfortable at times, there were so many passages where I thought, "I would love to act just like Harriet. I would love to say exactly what she just said here." It it not at all hard to see why a woman like that would scare the ever-loving shit out of many men.
This is my first Kirsten Miller book and I can't wait to dig into her backlist.
This book is a deep exploration of how deeply steeped American culture is in misogyny. Miller is not shy about detailing the myriad ways in which women are up against a system in which they have little chance of winning. From suffering through casual sexism to the grotesque ways in which men use and abuse women, this book explores them all.
It's also something of a superhero narrative. Harriet, Nessa, and Jo are all imbued with powers that don't exist in the real world. And while all three characters are developed and unique, they also stand at metaphors for the need to root out the rot from within, burn it down, and see that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
Naturally, plenty of people will cast this book as man-hating. It isn't. Both men and women are nuanced in this book, and men aren't the only ones guilty of the crimes committed against various women in the novel. The book clearly shows how good men can do their part to tear down the biases and institutions holding women back, how they can treat women as equal partners and respect their abilities.
I have to give special props to Harriet. I pretty much ate up every word of every scene she was in. I loved how the book charted her evolution from a woman trying to conform to the unfair rules of the world in which she was living to a woman who unabashedly and unashamedly claimed her own power. She's a very morally gray character, and while her actions certainly made me uncomfortable at times, there were so many passages where I thought, "I would love to act just like Harriet. I would love to say exactly what she just said here." It it not at all hard to see why a woman like that would scare the ever-loving shit out of many men.
This is my first Kirsten Miller book and I can't wait to dig into her backlist.