'The Invisible Corset' is a very interesting read, which at times feels like two separate books joined together. The first half or so is a very intriguing deepdive into beauty standards, the pressures to conform to certain ideals, etc. It is written in a very personal tone, with Geertsen sharing freely from her own experiences. I was glad that she also drew from the insights of professionals because otherwise it very quickly, for me at least, drifts off into "connect to your divine inner self, girl", which is not my vibe. However, I definitely saw the empowering messages being shared here as well. The second part leans more heavily into the self-help advice, which is just not something I really connect to.
Overall, 'The Invisible Corset' is an interesting read, but it depends on your own tastes regarding self-help whether it will properly connect with you.

This book is a very good eye-opener about the many ways women are kept in this tight corset that restricts everything about them. The first half of the book deals mainly with showcasing all this. It can get a bit repetitive there, but know the focus shifts after the 50% mark, going to more concrete ways to get in touch with yourself and what your heart really wants. A lot of people will say all this sounds very woo-woo...but if you're into woo-woo, this is really going to resonate with you.
However, as any coach or therapist or even teacher knows, the information is there, but who will choose to hear it, let alone listen to it? Some people might not be at a place in their lives where this work is going to resonate with them, but that's okay. This then makes it one of those books that would be good to revisit time and time again - you never know what or how something in there could resonate with you

Enjoyed the beginning of the book! A lot of information and was written well - left me feeling empowered and ready to take down the patriarchy!
The second half was generalized and gave ideas to break free of societies roles, but that's the thing - its society not necessarily women. So found that to be kind of counter productive!
I feel like most young women should read a book like this!

This is a really powerful exploration of how women are taught to view their bodies and how they can form a positive and healthy relationship with their body.

This was an interesting book, not at all what I was expecting, but better!

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

The first half of this book is great. It explains all of the different ways that women have been and currently are trapped by the invisible corset. It also goes into what the future will look like should things not change.

The second half goes into different strategies on how to break free from the corset. Unfortunately the majority of the strategies were simply not my cup of tea and I can’t really see myself attempting them seriously. It felt a little too “woo woo” and I’m still not really sure that I agree with her statement that you can’t love anyone differently than you love yourself.

Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have to say that, usually, I am not a huge fan of non-fiction books, but something on this title said to me that it could be a good reading, if I had a chance to read it. And I want to say that this is totally true.

First thing I need to say is that I had never heard about Lauren Geertsen, but I really like her way of focusing the different parts of the book. The amount of parallelism that she uses is so interesting and makes you, as a reader, think and think again in order to find that the things that you believe since you were a child are “dangerous” to you and you need to change it.

Each chapter talks about a different aspect, this is something that makes the reading experience enjoyable, but sometimes the chapter was too long for me.

This is not a light reading, but it is a fluent one. Maybe it does not make a lot of sense, yet it is the only true statement because when you start a chapter you feel involved in it and you can’t stop reading. I have underlined a lot of sentences to return to them later.

To sum up, an interesting, powerful and rewarding novel that made me think a lot and I will recommend it to all the women.

I want to express my gratitude to Netgalley and to Sounds True to give me the chance to read and review this book.

So much to love about this book! I enjoyed the author's choice to split this book into two portions, so that we lose none of the beauty here by trying to weave it all together. We're delving into the world of corset culture and society's embrace of beauty. Fascinating stuff. Delivers more than you expect.

I really liked this book, it reminded me a lot of other books I’ve read about body image like Body Positive Power and Come As You Are. In that way, I didn’t really feel like I was reading anything new per se, but I’m just glad that more books like this are out there.

I am actually quite conflicted over this book, which is why I'm giving it a solid 2.5/5 rating. I think that this is just one of those rare cases, where I can see why others might like this book, or even love it, but it's just not for me.

I will say that I loved the first half of the book, which I actually found quite informative and helpful. I also believe that most of the exercises and journaling prompts offered here will be quite useful to a lot of people. However, about half way through the book, I felt like the author just put too much on her plate. Essentially, she tried to tackle the issue from all possible angles, but to do so effectively would need about 3000 pages. So, at that point, I just felt like I would like to see a bit more depth in the topics, see them develop a little bit more.

In addition to the "problem" of seeing certain good points not get the attention I thought they deserved, I have to admit that I disagree with some of the author's own stances and views. Her views are actually not that clear on many occasions, and they often seem conflicted. However, one that kept popping up was the whole idea of "You can only love others as you love yourself", something that I fundamentally disagree with.

I think it is an interesting book, and it certainly has many interesting points (it also quotes many wonderful works, Audre Lorde and bell hooks included, so it's definitely a good starting point if you wanna go deeper into feminist literature), but I think it just doesn't agree with my particular philosophy or way of living, so it didn't really click for me.

** An ARC was provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. **

In my history classes, I teach about how men have evolved throughout history in their ways to control women. The author points out that the extreme emphasis on a woman's appearance as her self-worth and character and aptitude has become the most socially acceptable form of sexism.

I especially appreciated the journal exercises that help readers understand ways in which the invisible corset has affected their own lives and provides a way for women to get back in touch with their true bodies and own the power of our natural selves.

How frustrating is it to be told by all the different sources the things you must do to be successful in life? This book definitely does NOT do that. It instead takes an empathetic approach and gives bite size approaches and allows you to have kindness and patience with yourself when dealing with life. This is so necessary for everyone to read in life. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is the first book I have read by Lauren Geertsen and was drawn to it due to its title. I was really intrigued about what "The Invisible Corset" will present and how I will be able to associate with it.

"The Invisible Corset" is split into two parts, where Lauren focuses on how the "corset" has impacted the life of women in the past, present and how it is likely to in the future if there aren't changes. I particularly enjoyed the first part, where Lauren goes into specific detail when highlighting her points. Unfortunately, some of the exercises were not for me but saying that I could see how they can be helpful and insightful.

Overall I enjoyed reading the book and felt that it was written well.