Book Review - What's A Girl Gotta Do?

Title: What's A Girl Gotta Do?

Author: Holly Bourne

Series: The Spinster Club (Book 3)

Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd

Release Date: 1 Aug. 2016

ISBN-13: 978-1474915021

Synopsis

HOW TO START A FEMINIST REVOLUTION:

1. Call out anything that is unfair on one gender

2. Don't call out the same thing twice (so you can sleep and breathe)

3. Always try to keep it funny

4. Don't let anything slide. Even when you start to break...

Lottie's determined to change the world with her #Vagilante vlog. Shame the trolls have other ideas...

My Review

I've been powering through this series, but I was always hesitant about this book as Lottie is very loud and shouty and I was worried how she would come across in this book. I knew it would be focused heavier on the feminist issues and I wasn't sure if it would come over in the best way.

Lottie is always the strong one, the most opinionated, and the most clever. Her parents are expecting her to go to Cambridge and study politics with the hope that one day she will be Prime Minister. But things are never simple, especially when you have strong beliefs. Walking to school one day, Lottie is confronted by a couple of men and feels threatened by their sexual innuendoes. Deciding that she never wants to feel that way again, she starts her new project. For one month she will call out every little piece of feminism that she sees, no matter how petty it may seem. The more aware people are, the easier it will be to change things. But there is more to deal with than Lottie first thought, and this may turn out to be the longest month of her life.

The idea behind this story was good, raising awareness and calling behaviours out, but with Lottie's attitude, the whole thing came across as very aggressive and I felt like she made things a lot worse for herself and others. It was so over the top.

Throughout the book, Lottie gets called all sorts of names, one of them being 'man-hater', she argues that she is a true feminist and is fighting for equality for both genders, but a lot of what she does is very one-sided. There is one scene when Will comes to her house for a visit and makes a comment about how her room is decorated and then calls her 'psycho'. She immediately blasts him as sexist and says he can't call her that just because she is passionate and emotional. Then in the next breath calls him a c*ck. That to me is then sexist the other way. You can't tell someone off for calling you a name, and then calling him one in return. Unfortunately this happens quite a few times throughout and it makes it all seem a bit hypocritical to me.

My other issue is that the story is too much in Lottie's head, and follows a pattern of 'I'm angry, I'm tired, I can't do this, I have to do this...' pretty much on a loop, I understand this is an emotional project and that she is bound to struggle, but nothing ever seemed to change or resolve. Lottie is very pig-headed and refuses to back down on anything - even when I think she is definitely wrong.

I do think the issue of feminism is important - but to use Will's word - 'Equalitist' would be a better phrase - making life equal for BOTH genders, this book to me came across as very women based and in fact a bit sexist towards men.

Once again the other characters are in the background but don't really develop much. At one point I was only still reading because I wanted to know what would happen to Megan, but apart from her few odd appearances and the idea that 'something has happened' - it never goes anywhere else.

I just felt that this was a really disappointing end to what was a fairly good series, I really liked Evie and Amber and felt them grow a lot as characters, but this book just fell a bit flat for me and I had to really push myself to keep reading. I kept going to hear about Megan, and to see if Lottie actually manages to get into Uni - which you still don't find out! (I'm assuming she does).

Overall, this book just didn't do it for me, it felt quite aggressive and angry. There is quite a lot of strong language in the book too. Worth reading to finish off the series, but not the best.

My Rating