*Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the free ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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"Women need to see women, too," Professor Montgomery says. "If we don't see each other, if we don't see ourselves, how can we expect anybody else to?"
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This book is a collection of 30 short stories that examine and highlight the lives and struggles of women across the world. This collection seeks to be intersectional and creative, using magical realism and other genres of writing to break open the conversation about things like racism, mansplaining, pigeon-holing, being placed on a pedestal, xenophobia, toxic masculinity, and more.
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What I appreciated about these stories was the way in which cliches were imagined literally (in one story a woman gets her wish of being swallowed up by the floor, in another a woman actually unravels). This writing device casts a light on the severity of how sexism, racism, transphobia, xenophobia, and so many other forms of hatred impact the lives of women making flourishing a complicated task. What I didn't appreciate was the huge variance in quality of stories and examination of specific realities--what I mean by that is that some perspectives were thoughtfully and carefully fleshed out, while others felt rushed and two-dimensional. I wish that the quality and intentionality of each of these stories was more uniform. I also think that this writing style took away from the human feelings and realities of these situations, and I wish that these stories had done more to embody these issues and represent women in less of a caricature.

'Even when practically invisible, she was still fighting to be seen.'

There is a story a woman of any age can relate to in this collection, whether you feel like your age or situation is making you fade to nothing, or you’re struggling with time slipping through your fingers, your most precious moments are running away from you and all you want is to eat them up and live in them. A woman returns her husband, she just has no use for him anymore, ‘Paddy wasn’t defective, he wasn’t faulty’, she had just ‘grown out of love‘ but then what happens if he is put back up for sale?

What happens when a woman walks in her husband’s shoes? She learns that men carry themselves differently, not always walking through the world as freely as she imagined. They too have expectations due to their sex, as much as women, but the best part of the story is when she runs into another man, Bob, who has his own surprise. “Our world is the same but it’s not.” Another story is about a woman who, due to a birth defect, wears her heart on her sleeve. It gives her away, her emotional state, beating loudly when her face tries to mask her feelings.

The Woman Who Wore Pink is quite interesting, as Gender Police make sure you don’t overstep your identity as male or female. It’s a damning and frustrating exploration on gender roles, how dare a woman hold open a door, that’s a ‘man’s duty.’ This story in particular reminded me of something I could easily see in the show Black Mirror. There was an eerie feeling that washed over me, all of the ‘supposed to be’ of it. There is no doubt there are unspoken rules regarding gender roles in modern-day life, and maybe there aren’t gender police, and sure you don’t get penalized or fined for doing something considered masculine/feminine (for the most part), say the type of food you eat or the color you wear but there are ‘rules’ aren’t there? I think about how a boy wearing a pink shirt when I was a kid in school would have certainly been an invitation for bullying. It’s a color… a color! The author is saying a lot in this story, and it’s my favorite.

I can’t think of a woman who can’t identify with The Woman Who Spoke Woman. Women need a translator in order for the men ‘in power’ to understand them. The men in charge demand women who are ‘man-speaking’ and don’t ‘harp on about women’s issues.’ Sound familiar ladies? The Woman Who Guarded Gonads is a loud message, how different the world would be if men had to fight women’s ‘opinions’ about choices regarding their bodies, as we are forced to do. It comes off as preposterous, doesn’t it, and yet it’s a reality for women. I wonder what a man’s take on this short story would be, I welcome their thoughts.

The collection is a fast read but has bite, and of course the stories are meant to engage the reader to question the culture we live in relating to gender issues. Women are so hard on themselves, but so is the world. There is surrealism, as in The Woman Who Unraveled, meant to invoke deeper meaning. Visibly unraveling would likely be easier, because then maybe others would notice and one could take the time they needed to ‘feel whole again.’ Of course, our struggles are invisible in the real world, and we keep a face on, truck along, usually at the detriment of ourselves, and others. It’s not lost on me that I am dealing with a health issue and in doing my research about other women who go through what I will be soon, confess they didn’t slow down enough, nor have support enough to recover from their surgery because of the load they carry as a mother/wife. Unraveling indeed, women don’t listen to their bodies enough, and what a sad world it is when they don’t have the support they need.

Yes, read it. It’s strange but the author is playing with very serious feminist issues, to make it easier to confront she engages the reader with magical realism.

Publication Date: April 16, 2019

Grand Central Publishing

Roar by Cecelia Ahern is an upcoming short story collection. Each of the thirty story focuses on a woman in a unique challenge or situation. These situations aren't unlike ones women are often faced with in life. The difference is these women have very literal experiences of happenings. For example, what if when you were embarrassed the floor literally opened and you were swallowed whole? Or what if your biological clock was a literal timepiece? Or what if there was a way you could be literally invisible due to your identify? This was such a unique read. There were so many of the stories where I thought to myself, "Yup, been there," and I could totally relate to what was being detailed even with the added literal layer. It was an intriguing read given the dynamics of each story, and I so enjoyed it. However, with enjoyment, it was also a reminder of the honest realities that women face. The ridiculous scenarios really didn't seem that ridiculous given the layers of truth that were interwoven. It was just such a creative way to tell this tale. Thanks, as always, to my pals at NetGalley for the sneak peek of this one to be released in April.

I will admit that I only downloaded this book because of the author's name. It is just too bizarre for me. I do know it will circulate and be chosen for book groups.

ALL FEMINISTS NEED TO READ THIS! And if you're not a feminist... reading this book could transform you into one. 

Cecelia Ahern created this book of short stories that envelopes the female experience. The stories have this metaphorical brilliance about them; words fail me when trying to describe her unique structure. The stories read like fables, and yet are entirely raw and relatable.

For example, the woman who was disappearing... she speaks as though this woman were physically invisible, though it's a metaphor for the fact that women feel invisible in the society in which we are living. Each story as extraordinary as the next, Ahern delivers one of a kind stories.

I enjoyed these stories greatly, and was able to savor them over time. Each story was short, but had its special and hidden meanings. This is a book that needs not to be read fast, but needs to be read carefully.

I can't wait to see what other women (and feminists alike) think of this piece, as I found it to be enlightening, engaging, and inspiring.

I really had a hard time with this book. I get where she was going but it was just so over the top that it was hard to take seriously. I loved her idea of doing short stories about everyday challenges modern day women face. Unfortunately, the transformations were so whimsical that it was hard to really look at the issue she was trying to represent which were strong enough on their own.

I love Ahern's writing but this just didn't work for me. I appreciate what she was trying to do here but this just fell flat for me and seemed very superficial at best. Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for gifting me a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Winter Coyer Back To Basics
I struggled a lot with this book. I liked the diverse voices but the stories were very predictable and didn't take a lot of risks. The endings were very predictable and covered issues in expected patterns. Nothing groundbreaking.

This collection of 30 stories was such a disappointment! The allegories based on hardships suffered by women were so unsubtle and repetitious it was hard not to scream in agony, especially at the lapse of creativity compared to Ahern's previous books. She seemed to be going for a vibe like “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, in which a salesman wakes up one morning to find himself inexplicably changed into a huge insect.

Similarly, Ahern creates a series of tales about symbolic transformations, in this case intended to highlight gender issues. But she was so over the top, and the writing was so leaden and trite, the stories could arouse no sympathy whatsoever in me for the characters, only in me as a reader.