I think this book would be better read on paper rather than an e-reader. I found it hard to appreciate the artistry and information given when having to fiddle with my screen because I'd resized it to accommodate my eyesight.

None of that is the author's fault. It was fascinating to read about these different women from such different times and walks of life. I would like to reread it in book form before wholeheartedly recommending it.

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

The narration style felt rather choppy and way to formal for me to really enjoy the book. The author seemed to ignore that their is a difference between justice and revenge. It seems that the author glorifies revenge way more than she does justice. The book also fails to acknowledge that people who have made a difference in the world have also made bad choices or bad decisions in their life. This made the book hard for me to read and enjoy.

I deeply appreciated the opportunity to read and review this book. I'll be using it's contents in my teaching and will make sure to keep an eye out for more works from this author and publisher.

This was such a fun journey through some graphic mini biographies of lesser known but still kick-ass women in history! Students will gobble this book up!

An absolute pleasure and wonder to read: the info is fantastic, the artwork really brings it to life, and the whole experience of reading it is joyful. More books like this are a must.

Brief overviews, as in this collection, are a great way to introduce readers to important figures. Bagieu introduces the reader to 28 women who challenged societal norms in some way. A few will be familiar but most will be entirely unfamiliar to the average reader. They innovated in music, art, science politics. We see elements of their early lives and how this influenced them later. And she doesn't whitewash - we get both the exemplary events and things we might find problematic. If even one of these tales inspires a young reader to learn more or to challenge the world, then Bagieu has achieved her end.

I'm buying this for everyone in the next year or so. It included such a wide variety of woman and gave them all the time that they deserve to have their stories told. I mean, they deserve a lot MORE but, but this book is a collection not a comprehensive series. It made me want more.

This book is a necessary read. So many of these women's stories are so impressive, all the more because they have been airbrushed out of history for so long. Even the stories about the women I was familiar with (Peggy Guggenheim, Josephine Baker, etc.) revealed something new to me. And Bagieu's graphic style is fun, bright, and uplifting even while dealing with disturbing trauma that most of these women had to overcome.

A fantastic mix of historical women both ancient and modern, detailed in an exquisite comic format.

Really liked this. Bagieu avoids bios of the more obvious 'inspiring women' (that are being used to sell the massive run of feminist icon books put there at present) and chooses the more obscure. This is a great thing as I'd much rather read about Las Mariposas that Earhart again.
My only gripe is the quality of the egalley from the publishers. Quality of text is poor and badly defined, and the art looks scratchy and unrefined in some part Because of this, I can't fully review the art style.

The vignettes in this book tell the stories of powerful women throughout history. They are not necessarily the usual women in typical books though. Instead this book was filled with women whose stories have been nearly untold until this brief collection. The art is as unique as the women profiled. This is a great read and will make a nice addition to your library's shelf.

I loved reading about the diverse, international group of women included in this collection. Will appeal to students from middle to high school of any gender.

This book was so good - and introduced me to so many strong women from the past and present that I was unaware of at the present time. This reminds me of Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls and Sea Queens by Jane Yolen, but for adults. The art is also wonderful. Penelope Bagieu is a strong writer and her other books are also excellent - they are realistic biographies about strong women, or adventures about a editor of newspaper named Zoe. The translation is also very well done.

Thank you for sending me this galley, however unfortunately I was unable to access this book on my e-reader.

A beautifully illustrated and curated set of vignettes about unconventionally noteworthy women from throughout the world. A necessary read for all ages. Highly recommend!

Beautiful book full of stories that are amazing, exciting, and sometimes not very pretty but still important. The illustrations are great, but what really shines is the approach to celebrating a diverse group of women and their stories. Each feels like a standalone piece which helps prevent comparisons and judgement from one story to the next. The arrangement of each vignette still retains a nice flow, though, from beginning to end. Loved it!

There’s been quite the trend lately in collections of short write-ups of women in history you may not have heard of, so I didn’t have high expectations for Pénélope Bagieu’s Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World. I should have had more faith — I found myself surprised and enlightened by how many of these women I hadn’t heard of, and the amazing things they did.

These 29 profiles run the gamut from astronaut to rock star, actress to queen, rebel fighter to scientist. There’s a lot of material here, and much of it will be new to many readers. You’ve heard, probably, of Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz), but you likely didn’t know of the determination that got her to that part. You may have heard of Josephine Baker, but you likely didn’t know she spied against the Nazis or was friends with Grace Kelly.

You probably haven’t heard of Nzinga, queen of what’s now Angola in the 1600s, or Lozen, an Apache warrior in the 1800s. Then there’s Annette Kellerman, an Australian swimmer who overcame polio and also redesigned women’s swimwear before becoming a movie star, as well as Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins. Some of these women are still alive, as well, such as peace activist Leymah Gbowee or animal researcher Temple Grandin or long-distance runner Cheryl Bridges.

Each lady gets four to seven pages of her story, told through lots of panels and small but potent drawings (mostly of figures, with no backgrounds, which would be clutter), followed by a gorgeously colored impressionistic two-page spread. So this isn’t highly artistic comic work, but it’s very approachable, and the content is fascinating (and easy to take in with this format). The global approach is also welcome, covering a variety of cultures.

These women do what they want and achieve what’s important to them, whether that’s business success or destroying their enemies.

Brazen is absolutely beautiful, as is all of Bagieu's work. I really loved how much information she managed to include in each story so that they felt full, but not overwhelming. I wound up researching most of these women as I read, finding out even more stories and trying to fit their biographies into my life and onto my bookshelf. This is great and should be read by many people.

I thought this book sounded perfect: biographies of amazing women, presented in comic-strip form, for children. The 29 women (plus a short autobiography of Bagieu herself) are a fairly diverse bunch, many of whom I had not heard of previously or knew very little about. The mix includes an astronaut, a bearded lady, a Liberian activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, a warrior and shaman, a journalist, and actresses Hedy Lamarr and Margaret Hamilton. I was a little curious about the inclusion of rock group The Shaggs since in Bagieu's account the story seems to be more about the father than the sisters themselves. Unfortunately, the writer does not give any sources or references for children interested in finding out more and the biographies are brief. The discussion of the women's sexuality and issues some of them faced - rape, domestic violence - means that the book is in my opinion not suitable for young children. While I found the writing style to be at times a touch laboured and the comic-strip illustrations were not always terribly appealing, some of the larger-scale colourful illustrations separating the biographies were gorgeous - eg. pages 186-187.

I received this ebook free in return for an honest review.