A review by acouplereadss
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O'Meara

emotional funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

5.0

When @literary_lizard recommended this to me I thought to myself, could this book be any more tailored to my brain!? A book about the only woman who designed a major monster creature in Hollywood. A book about the film industry, specifically the horror side and movie creation. A book about a feminist trailblazer. And to top it off an investigation into the unknown life of this woman. I knew I’d like it but what I didn’t know what how much I would love it and how much it would touch the deepest recesses of my soul. Yes, how dramatic of me. But this is the first time I’ve cried at the end of a nonfiction book, it’s fitting.

Mallory O’Meara, a young woman working in the horror film industry, discovered one day that the  creature from one of her favourite monster movies was designed by a woman. But for someone who should have been celebrated and deemed a pioneer in the horror industry was strangely erased from the picture. O’Meara set off to discover the life of Milicent Patrick and her contributions to the horror world from her childhood to her work in the industry. Discovering what happened to Milicent was a journey I didn’t know I needed to take.

This was such a captivating book both due to the incredible writing and story weaving but also because of the emotion you can feel seeping from the pages. This book is a project from O’Meara’s soul.

Thank you @literary_lizard for gifting me this during one of your book swaps. I can’t wait to revisit it in the future, 5✨. If you’re a horror fan or not, if you’re a movie fan or a fan of stories about independent badass woman you need this book.