"Woman's Lore" didn't quite work for, probably because I expected a bigger focus on mythology around the world. Instead this focuses very much on Western mythology and how it changed with and reflected the current culture of the time.

Some passages also felt rather repetitive with the same point being made again and again.

Still, tracing the origins and development of these myths was quite interesting.

Thank you NetGalley for approving me to read this book! A highly enjoyable read that is nice started I couldn’t put down.

Excellent read, I really enjoyed this one.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my review.

I have read a lot of myth retellings but not much non fiction about the myths and I really enjoyed it. Information.ative without making me feel bored or bogged down

Having really enjoyed reading mythology retellings I was very intrigued by the premise of this novel. I was not disappointed; an exploration of females in mythology and how this affected beliefs and culture. An interesting and engaging read; 3.5 stars.+

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.0

There's a lot of mythologica female "bad guy" and they were considered the alter ego of the good woman since the Ancient Babylon.
It took ages before they became a symbol of female liberation and not the wrong type of girl.
The author did a good job and this well researched and informative book is highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

A really interesting and detailed history of womens mythology. It explores how ideas spread over time and places.

What intrigued me about this book was seeing how feminine mythology has evolved through time and culture, and it is what it delivered. You can really sense that Sarah Clegg is truly involved in this topic and has a passion for sharing it. With that said, the book did feel a bit dense at times, but I do believe that is because of the type of reader I am. I loved learning through reading this book, but the act of reading itself wasn't as exciting as I expected, however, another type of reading might not find it dense at all.
All in all, a good read, especially if you don't know too much about the topic (like me).

Thank you so much to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book.

A fascinating exploration of female monsters through centuries of folklore. I enjoyed seeing the threads through history of creatures I wasn't familiar with to those I was and how they came to influence each other. The pacing lagged in places and some of the connections between creatures i thought were tenuous, but the overarching narrative about the clear difference between these early symbols of feminine fears and how completely they changed under the male gaze shone through.

“Their tradition was initially something that gave women a degree of comfort and control in the horrifyingly dangerous situation of childbirth and pregnancy, and helped them through times when their children were sick or dying. Over time, however, it was appropriated by men, who co-opted these demons into appallingly misogynist stereotypes that focused entirely on men's own imagined fears.”

I was pulled in right away! I found the writing very engaging and easy to read. The footnotes had some humor to them which I liked. It’s both informative and entertaining, making it an easily accessible read!

The book covers stories from Mesopotamia to Victorian England, including lore about demon goddesses, mermaid-sirens, nymphs, vampires, and “snake women” (like Lilith and Melusine). Also looks at the reemergence of these stories in the present day, specifically Lilith and mermaids, which have been reclaimed by feminists and LGBTQ groups!

I loved getting to know more about the Melusine legend that features so prominently in my Tudor/Plantagenet historical novels! I was also intrigued by the discussions on Dracula by Bram Stoker and how he reinforced the Victorian fears/morality of femme fatales vs “the ideal woman” and the “feminization of men.” Lastly I loved learning that calling a woman a mermaid used to be an insult?! I found myself both speeding through the book because of how interesting it was and also trying to slow down my reading to savor it.

Woman’s Lore spans thousands of years and multiple continents so as the author said in the introduction, each legend could have its own book. It definitely felt like a great starter but also provided enough information to fully understand each demon story if you’re only mildly interested in this sort of history. It was cool to learn about how the stories around each of the “demons” were passed on and adapted throughout time, moving between the East and the West. As well as how they influenced art and literature! They have different names and sometimes different aspects but the stories share many similarities.

Fascinating look at how these legends were turned into evil seductresses, femme fatales, and monsters who “failed womanhood” by men, when originally they were tales used by woman to connect to each other on issues such as miscarriages, infant and maternal mortality, the fears/anxieties of childbirth, and infertility (which were typically, and still even today, seen as things to suffer in silence). They put these fears onto demons perhaps to provide them with some comfort and have something to blame if/when something went wrong.

The legends grew in the idea that these women were demons created to destroy men when in fact they were stories to warn/inform or connect women to one another through! These stories and beliefs survived despite churches and scholarly men trying to explain them away, because women continued telling these stories. They passed the stories on to their daughters and neighbors, thankfully because of that we now have the stories today to learn about how they lived!

Highly recommend for anyone interested in mythology, feminist history, and/or women reclaiming their stories. Will definitely be a favorite of the month!

A tremendous amount of research has gone into this book, and I found Clegg's dedication to the subject infectious. I particularly liked how she contextualises her evolving demons in the society and culture of their time, empasising how these monsters have been reimagined as the storytellers see fit.

I wasn't able to download this, no matter how I tried, but it looks brilliant and I will be buying when it come out.

Not my usual read but I thoroughly enjoyed this. Highly recommend for anyone who is interested in women's mythology and their stories throughout history.

Woman's Lore is an interesting and indepth exploration of feminine mythology, and how these beliefs have spread over time and across cultures and continents.

While I found some sections a little dense and repetitive, the overarching narrative is fascinating. A tremendous amount of research has gone into this book, and I found Clegg's dedication to the subject infectious. I particularly liked how she contextualises her evolving demons in the society and culture of their time, empasising how these monsters have been reimagined as the storytellers see fit.

I also got the sense that Clegg knows she herself is continuing this tradition of rebirth by capturing this history on her own terms, and its satisfying to see this reclaimation play out.

Fascinating exploration especially if you have a great interest in the Greek and Roman myths and legends. A focus on female and feminist themes. Will read this over again.

This is an informative read about different feminine creatures from mythology, and how the creatures are represented in different mythologies. Clegg writes about how the notion of the woman as a type of monster or demon has developed throughout history through the legends and stories.

Sadly enough I'm unable to read this book properly on my Kindle due to the formatting. This is really unfortunately because I was so excited to dive into it. I may buy it when it comes out to purchase.

3 .5 (rounded up)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book.

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book, and I’m glad to have read it.

The author has clearly done thorough research and presents to us the many iterations of the female as demon, seductress and ideal woman and how different cultures and time periods have interpreted or presented this in their religion/culture.

I was especially interested in the inclusion of Melusine, who I am already very familiar with. It was interesting to read about the connections to earlier female iterations.

This book is an excellent read, though, accessible for people who haven't got a broad knowledge of History and a great place for anyone who has enjoyed the rewritten fictionalisation of mythology to look into the Historical role of some of these 'demonic' women. Well researched and entertaining.

It was interesting to read more about the mythical female creatures and how they developed over time and across different cultures, with this book exploring a mix of ‘monsters’, from mermaids to lilith. There was a lot to learn and I’m not much more knowledgeable on this topic, and I enjoyed seeing how interlinked the portrayals of different creatures were and the ways they featured in literature and language. However, the book didn’t cover as much as I thought it would and I did find it somewhat repetitive and it did keep circling back to the same mythical creatures again and again.