A review by bonha
Patriarchy Stress Disorder: The Invisible Inner Barrier to Women's Happiness and Fulfillment by Valerie Rein

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.5

This book offered genuinely mind- blowing information (the cherry blossoms!) and validated many of my feelings/ difficulties as a woman. I would recommend it to women who have felt their mental health was suffering, or who felt they were not “reaching their potential”. It was interesting, wide- reaching and, at times, powerful. I felt compelled to read with a highlighter in my hand to highlight passages which spoke to me, and I used it frequently.

However, I struggled to follow the book in places, and I found myself wanting to skim read. I can’t say I “enjoyed” reading it. There were a lot of long sentences with complex vocabulary which I found I needed to reread a couple of times to fully grasp the meaning. Additionally, the author used many metaphors to explain her theories and they became very difficult to track. Prison guards, jail breaking, pleasure police, references to faulty electrics, Formula one cars… it all got a little rambled and unclear in places.