Tuesday, 9 January 2018

What's A Girl Gotta Do?- Holly Bourne BOOK TALK

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Holly Bourne is one of my favourite contemporary writers and this book was a great example as to why that is. What's a Girl Gotta Do? is part of the Spinster Clubs series. I've previously read Am I Normal Yet? and I loved it so had to move onto this one too. This series follows the same characters but focuses on different protagonists and separate stories.
This book was always going to steal my heart because it's predominantly about feminism and it's a subject that I'm extremely passionate about. Holly Bourne is such a great ambassador for this cause and writes about it so well! There was real sense of girl power throughout the story and I felt really empowered when reading it. It was a lot of fun and I'd recommend it for everyone.


SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD
I didn't fully get into the book until Lottie stood up to those van guys and maybe even got them fired. I felt so empowered through that whole section and, even though I'd never be able to do it myself, I was super proud.
I also liked the link of philosophy that threaded through the story. I'm really jealous that she studies philosophy because I wish I could've done a course on it and Holly Bourne uses it to make an interesting connection with Lottie's decisions in what to do. I really appreciated the fact that Lottie is the same age as me and goes to college- our lives are in such a similar position and the feminism empowerment and strength really inspires me.
Seeing snippets of Evie's life was amazing as well. I don't remember much of what happened in Am I Normal Yet? but it was great to see that Evie was doing well with her OCD and that she'd gotten together with Oli and... was happy. It was a nice piece of closure to her story. There were also references to Amber's story (How Hard Can Love Be?) which I assume is about her and her American boyfriend, Kyle, but I've never read that book because I didn't realise there was an order to these books... oops.
I loved the Plan that was established for this feminism project. I'd never have the guts to go through with it myself, but it was fun to watch it happen and it felt like I was living through it as well (you have no idea how many sexist things a day I notice now).
I specifically enjoyed the shopping trip they had because it fascinating seeing everything they pointed out that I'd never even considered before! It felt like my eyes were being truly opened to all the details that cause inequality within our society.
As soon as Will sauntered onto the page with that cockiness... I knew I was gone. I cannot resist arrogant and clever guys and, dammit, Holly Bourne knows this!!! Will was such an interesting character and, while he had many an opinion that I didn't agree with, you could tell he was a good guy at heart. And it was also beyond obvious they'd end up together.
I liked watching them argue because it really brought out a passionate side of Lottie and I was kind of cheering her on. I will say, I'm not a massive fan of their first kiss because, as this is a feminism book, I don't think the whole arguing-and-then-aggressively-kissing worked for the point the book was trying to make.
Sometimes Lottie did annoy me because she's a bit loud for my taste and can come across slightly self-centred instead of headstrong. I also thought it was stupid of her to reply to all those hate comments because, honestly, that's obviously gonna make everything worse.
We had the whole subplot mystery of what happened to Megan and while I liked the progression of her becoming friends with our three main girls, I was a bit disappointed with how her story finished up. We didn't get specific confirmation of what happened and I wanted it to truly be dealt with. It wan't justice!!
Overall, this book was so much fun and made me feel very liberated as a woman.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment your thoughts. Stay amazing!
Chloe

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