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A review by rhii_reading
Watching Women & Girls by Danielle Pender
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
As someone who prefers character driven narratives, short stories are already not me favourite thing. It didn’t help that a lot of these stories are more memorable than others - having read this nearly a month before out book club chat, I struggled to remember some of the stories during out discussion.
Paper Dolls, Junction 64, and Self Portrait were the stories I enjoyed the most as I found they were the ones that were willing to provide a deeper commentary on female friendships, expectations and pressures of how women should present themselves, self-actualisation, etc. The rest of the stories felt like they were telling rather than showing.
It’s hard to describe what felt unsatisfying about this collection without sounding like it was unenjoyable because of how much it just describes instances of womens’ suffering - ultimately that is a reality of the world we live in. However, whilst I agree it’s important to acknowledge and highlight the struggles that women face, I also think if you need to be saying something about it - otherwise it just feels gratuitous.
Paper Dolls, Junction 64, and Self Portrait were the stories I enjoyed the most as I found they were the ones that were willing to provide a deeper commentary on female friendships, expectations and pressures of how women should present themselves, self-actualisation, etc. The rest of the stories felt like they were telling rather than showing.
It’s hard to describe what felt unsatisfying about this collection without sounding like it was unenjoyable because of how much it just describes instances of womens’ suffering - ultimately that is a reality of the world we live in. However, whilst I agree it’s important to acknowledge and highlight the struggles that women face, I also think if you need to be saying something about it - otherwise it just feels gratuitous.