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A review by bitinglime
Girl Squads: 20 Female Friendships That Changed History by Sam Maggs
3.0
I would only recommend this book to become introduced to the amazing groups of women we never learned about in history class. HOWEVER - I'm a bit disappointed in Sam Maggs' biased writing. When writing about two particular women, it is clear in their actions and correspondence to each other that they were lovers. Maggs seems to derail the very idea by writing in the same breath: "...in her journals... she wrote: 'it was in this rustic place, in this profound solitude, that I realized the value of intercourse with this most attractive of women.' Aren't gal pals just the best?" And again about two other women in a later chapter: "...while on trial, Mary said she only got into piracy because of 'Anne Boney, who was her lover.' Such pals." But then, in an even later chapter, while not even on the subject of lovers, the word "gay" becomes used and Maggs completely MISINTERPRETS the meaning. "...he received a letter from three friends, Peggy Pegrine, Valerie Davey, and Betty Webster, self-described 'sporty girls' who were 'also gay and bright' [Author's note: nice]." As though "gay" itself is a key token word for Maggs and only means one thing, but clearly having intercourse and being lovers with attractive women simply just mean being "gal pals." Extremely disappointed.
Overall, I did learn about a lot of amazing women. Did you know the Dahomey Amazons of Africa were the inspiration behind the all-female Wakandan army in the Black Panther series? But you wouldn't know this as it wasn't even mentioned in the book. Instead, Maggs compares them to the Amazons of Wonder Woman, simply because of their titles. So my three stars I'm giving this book are not at all celebrating Maggs or her writing style. It's celebrating the women mentioned and that I would not have known about them had I not picked up this book, but do yourself a huge favor and research the women mentioned in this book on your own after reading it.
Overall, I did learn about a lot of amazing women. Did you know the Dahomey Amazons of Africa were the inspiration behind the all-female Wakandan army in the Black Panther series? But you wouldn't know this as it wasn't even mentioned in the book. Instead, Maggs compares them to the Amazons of Wonder Woman, simply because of their titles. So my three stars I'm giving this book are not at all celebrating Maggs or her writing style. It's celebrating the women mentioned and that I would not have known about them had I not picked up this book, but do yourself a huge favor and research the women mentioned in this book on your own after reading it.