This is a great book to buy for the young women in your life. A great read of history. Also, beautiful cover for a nice coffee table book or on your shelf.

I wanted to love this book, but I've read other books about toxic patriarchy and society, and this didn't seem like anything new. If you're completely new to feminism or new to personal growth, this book may be appealing.

I was very interested in the idea of this book, but after I read a bit, something felt very off. I looked up the author and found out she has been heavily involved in Goop, which puts out a lot of dangerous messaging. I stopped reading at that point and will not recommend any book by this author..

On Our Best Behavior; The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good by Elise Loehnen was an interesting read to me! I was truly thankful to have gotten to read this before most people!

This is a fascinating look at how deeply ingrained the "seven deadly sins" are in our society's understanding of goodness, even if you don't engage with Christianity, and particularly for expectations of women. It's a really thought-provoking book that crams a lot of ideas into this framework. It's at its strongest, in my opinion, when more academic and history-focused. It lost me in the more personal spiritual beliefs, although I still found them interesting. Overall a really engaging read that will change your understanding of "goodness".

Uses an ancient Christian moral framework to examine the societal and interpersonal pressures placed on women to self-sacrifice for approval. Powerful and insightful, leaving me with lots to think about.

This book felt way too dense to talk about feminism and I didn't finish it after reading one chapter.

I really enjoyed this. I thought the framework of “dismantling” the seven deadly sins was an interesting way to unpack the feminist issues mentioned. I don’t think the author said anything groundbreaking, but, I think this would be an important read if you haven’t read anything similar!

I have underlined SO MUCH of this book. It is paradigm shifting, shocking, tender, revolutionary. Elsie takes time to dig through significant history, relevant research and current conversations on top of her personal experiences. I feel like I’ll read this over and over through time to absorb all the really important opportunities for deconditioning

A moving read that takes you through many of the ways that we as women conform ourselves to society’s (and the patriarchy’s) expectations. So much in this book rang true.

I'm obsessed with this book. The writing is accessible and clear and Loehman lays out bit by bit how women are forced to be 'on their best behavior' and how our behavior is policed. I enjoyed reading it and think about it weekly. It honestly changed my perspective on so many things.

As a frequent reader of Elise Loehnen’s substack newsletter and a guilty enjoyer of Goop Lab on Netflix, which Loehnen co-starred in as Goop’s former Chief Content Officer, I was very excited for On Our Best Behavior. Centered on the 7 deadly sins and the insidious ways they impact women, On Our Best Behavior is a thorough and engaging exploration of modern womanhood through this seldom-considered lens. ‘Behavior’ is at its best when Loehnen is framing her exploration through the lens of her personal experience, but unfortunately these moments are too few and far between. Instead, it suffers from the plight of many nonfiction books in that it heavily references and regurgitates works that came before it, too infrequently adding anything new. It feels as though Loehnen was eager to assert herself as more than an ex-Goop employee, and she’s certainly done that, but at the cost of some personality that could have made On Our Best Behavior shine. 3*.

Thank you to The Dial Press and NetGalley for providing this e-arc.

Not a bad book but I guess I was expecting something much deeper, with more historical and philosophical insights which I didn’t ultimately get. However, the author does talk a lot about her own experiences and those of other women, which I found very relatable. I’m also not much aware of the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins, so I definitely learnt quite a bit.

Overall, it just wasn’t the kind of the expecting and what I got was not entirely new material.

WOW. I read this over the course of a weekend and have bought my own copy to write all over and recommended it to all my like-minded friends. A beauty!

I picked this up thinking it was going to be quick read about bad habits women have picked up as part of our desire to constantly people please. Boy was I wrong. This smart, insightful book was filled with a mix of the author's own experiences and well-laid out research. Instead of rushing through it, I savored each chapter/sin and examined my own behavior and beliefs before moving on to the next. Highly recommend!

I was excited about this book and then it quickly became a book I only continued reading to provide an adequate criticism.

The book is written for women, but truly this is for privileged white women who think that being a woman is the ultimate uniter in struggle.

It was very white and euro-centric, but even if that is what you're going for, she fails to acknowledge the experience of other women who look like her.

Writing style: This very much reads like "content" and not actual writing. The author has not transitioned properly into writing for books.


It's a shame such an interesting concept has been wasted on this.

On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good is all about examining the pressure women are put under by society. It is written through the lens of the Seven Deadly Sins. In case you are not aware the Seven Deadly Sins are: pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth. Each of these play a key role in making women feel like they should never be "too much".

As I was reading this, I nodded my head multiple times. Author Elise Loehnen writes in a style that pulls the reader while also forcing them to think critically. She uses the tools that are often used to teach us (fairy tales, myths, folklore, history and religion) in order to analyze and explains how each play a role in the overall philosophy of the Seven Deadly Sins. The overall majority of these texts encourages women to ignore their desires because their desires are dangerous. This book is an argument against that idea and instead is encouraging women to own their desire and actually experience life. Experiencing life is not a sin!

As I was reading this, I nodded my head multiple times. Author Elise Loehnen writes in a style that pulls the reader while also forcing them to think critically. She uses the tools that are often used to teach us (fairy tales, myths, folklore, history and religion) in order to analyze and explains how each play a role in the overall philosophy of the Seven Deadly Sins. The overall majority of these texts encourages women to ignore their desires because their desires are dangerous. This book is an argument against that idea and instead is encouraging women to own their desire and actually experience life. Experiencing life is not a sin!

While I am hesitant to regard anything associated with Gwyneth Paltrow as thoughtful or good quality, it seems the research was done here, and I think many women can see themselves in these pages. It's incredibly validating to see our feelings and stories backed up by statistics - we're not just imagining it. It really does suck.

(Some of the content is a little too woo-woo, even for me. And while it's beautiful to think about, it's not super helpful. It doesn't necessarily mean anything in this modern world we live in now.)

The real kicker though is what do we do now? While this could be eye opening for some, it unfortunately isn't for many of us. We know it sucks. So now maybe a few more people know that it sucks. But what do we DO? In the conclusion, Elise mentions that she's loathe to suggest we DO anything, as we already do so much.
But sadly that means nothing will change, as it's unlikely enough men will read about the plight of women and choose to move toward middle ground. So we're back where we started. Now what?

On Our Best Behaviour pitches sinning as a disempowering concept and details how each of the sins cause us to deny ourselves something vital.

It explains how the seven (originally eight) deadly sins were chosen, how religion and patriarchy has responded to them, and how the shame they make us carry still effects us today.

A really interesting read for the modern feminist. For those who enjoy light critical analysis.

I wish footnotes were at the bottom of each page instead of condensed at the end of chapters. I just didn’t read them because I was no longer in the moment of a specific idea.

This book vacillated between non-fiction and memoir which made it difficult to invest in either.

The premise - FASCINATING. I was hoping this would be more informative. It felt introductory.

If you haven’t thought much about this question, feminism, or women’s role in society, this is worth the read.