I felt like this book was mis-advertised. I it was promoted for fans of Lessons in Chemistry but in fact the main character, Kathleen, was the total opposite of Elizabeth Zott. Elizabeth has a clear understanding of herself and her goals. Kathleen, on the other hand, is a weak victim who reacts to the challenges in her life with panic and confusion. The supporting characters also were not as vividly drawn as the Chemistry crowd. There were some amusing word sketches of a friend or her philandering husband but for the most part, the portraits were pretty shallow..
In an earlier decade The social cause to which Kathleen attaches herself, We All Bleed, would have been great satiric fun, but in current times, the championing of this bodily function is taken very seriously, and I’m sorry, friends, the ick factor could not be totally eliminated.
The book is a commentary on the power strangers have over us through social media and eventually the lessons are learned, but I sure would have rather had Elizabeth Zott teaching those lessons than Kathleen who was never comfortable in the role of teacher.

An entertaining take on cancel culture from the perspective of a politician’s wife caught up in her husband’s cheating scandal. Kathleen Held, loyal wife and mother and reluctant dog mom, finds herself at the center of an emerging women’s rights YesWeBleed movement after a photo of her sizable period stain goes viral. We follow her as she longs for peace and privacy but instead is a trending Twitter hashtag.

This was certainly an unusual story and I enjoyed the premise and commentary on fleeting Internet trends, lofty standards for public figures, etc. etc. I felt like the Society of Shame gatherings dragged at times and I didn’t necessarily connect or empathize with any of the characters. Kathleen “Kat” Held isn’t particularly likable or a protagonist to cheer on, however, I was still engrossed in her whirlwind journey of famous person’s wife trying to fade into the background to the new Rosie the Riveter of menstrual rights. The interludes of press clippings and interviews often had me chuckling, particularly cisgendered straight men complaining about their exclusion from the YesWeBleed movement. There is a lot to like and think about in this provocative yet lighthearted novel.

Thank you very much to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

Kathleen Held comes home from the airport to find her garage on fire, her husband—who happens to be running for U.S. Senate in his underwear outside, and a woman scaling her fence with her panties in her hand. But, when a photo of the incident goes viral, what really grabs the internet’s attention is the fact that Kathleen was on her period and had bled through her pants. Suddenly, Kathleen finds herself the face of the #YesWeBleed movement and caught up in a social media storm.

This book explores the power of the internet, cancel culture, the fickleness of social media loyalty, and tenets of modern feminism—though not in the most intersectional way. While by the middle, I was feeling like some period overload, I appreciated the messages and the satirical look at how movements are born, change, and can be squashed.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this advanced copy of the manuscript.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor and #NetGalley. Thank you to the publishers, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Fun, cute and a lively look at cancel culture. Well done, I was highly entertained.

I really enjoyed reading the Society of Shame. It was a humorous look at internet culture, social movements, and cancel culture. Fun writing while offering social commentary.

Highly entertaining.
I laughed out loud.
Love the satire and the secrets and the society of shame.
Really well done.
Thank you so much

I didn’t expect this one to be a satire in the vein of Don’t Look Up. An important book about menstruation that also deals with the negative aspects of (social) media, a part of the story I enjoyed. I definitely need a physical copy!

**Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review**

This book was a bit absurd/over-the-top, but I enjoyed it. I thought the author did a fantastic job of capturing our culture's obsession with social media and cultural movements. I found her critiques of twitter hashtags, liberal infighting, and men's insistence on inserting themselves into issues they know nothing about, spot-on and funny. I also appreciated that there was no romantic interest for the main character--the story was really focused on her growth as an individual and there was no man to get in the way. I initially picked this book up because of the senator/campaign angle, and there is actually very little of that in the plot, but that didn't change my enjoyment. Overall, this is a fun piece of women's fiction that is smarter and more biting than I expected.

Just wasn’t for me. A little too tongue in cheek but without any edge or bite. Characters were unlikeable as well, but not in a good way. Um, yeah, no.

The story of our protagonist Kathleen Held is something that could easily happen in these Internet times.
Some of the points that seemed very accurate to me are:
The importance of destigmatizing menstruation.
The ridiculous thing about canceling people on the internet.
The impact of social networks on movements.

Among the cons I could include that I found that sometimes the author covered many topics and left them halfway, so it felt like she was only using them to cause drama and it felt overwhelming.

Yes, she went there! Kathleen finds her world turned upside down by learning her husband is a cheat and her tampon leaked. Amazingly, it is the blood stain on her pants that becomes the inflection point that drives her future. Kathleen is, by turns, vilified and sanctified. This evidence of a menstrual mishap causes Kathleen and her daughter to become involved in the YES WE BLEED movement.

At this point the the novel becomes a satire of all the movements and social media that drive our current world. I enjoyed the start and end of the book, but I found it dragged in the middle. I really admire Roper’s use of menstruation as a centerpiece of this novel. It is thoughtful and provocative.

I highly recommend this to all my reading groups. I think the time has come to truly examine this issue and begin to make systemic changes to the way this body function is treated.

Bravo Jane Roper and thank you Netgalley for this extremely interesting ARC.

Cleverly put together with the articles and transcripts of shows being a part of this story. Indeed, three men talking about women's reproductive health without even a single woman being part of the discussion is weird, yet unfortunately still very common in this day and age.

That said, this book was not for me. I loathed her the moment Kathleen turned into Kat with her highlights, supporting Yes We Bleed simply to feel empowered, talking about her brand and narrative. From there on it was somewhat predictable, even up to her still clinging to her highlights in the end. What is wrong with being mousey?

And as we're on the subject of bashing, shaming, ridiculing and exclusion... I really don't understand the absence of at least a wee bit of diversity when it comes to skin color, sexual preferences, religion, history, cultural background, income (or lack of), and chronics. Couldn't her best friend have been a woman of color, or in a wheelchair?

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book.