I wasn't sure if I would like this book when I started, from the first page we're shown what it's like to be a person who gets overestimated and has meltdowns under intense stress and it's easy to assume a person dealing with that intensity is being terrible - instead you get put into the thick of Fern's experience and shown how hard it can be. That can't have been easy to do when her level of meltdowns and intense overstimulation are high and often involve violent outbursts she feels powerless to control, the sort of thing that gets many autistic people judged and often harmed by those who don't understand. I'm grateful she could be so honest with these things, discussing many parts of her experience that can be triggering and are often left out of the discussion because of how much of this experience causes people to leave or panic, even loved ones. Here you'll read about the highs and lows of sensory seeking, violent meltdowns, shutdowns, substance abuse, social struggles, the trauma of growing up nuerodivergent without treatment or diagnosis, and the difficulty of learning to manage your experience. Like Hannah Gadsby's Ten Steps to Nanette, Fern Brady's Strong Female Character brings attention to the feminine autistic experience with blunt honesty and frankness that is needed, particularly for women who have their own experience with it like myself, and by society as a whole. There are so many things about womanhood that get pushed aside, suppressed, limited, and tamped down and all of these things are only that much more poorly accepted or understood when the woman involved has experienced trauma and has a nuerodiverse mind, I'm grateful for Fern's honest memoir.

“Strong Female Character” by Fern Brady is an honest memoir that gives a deep look into her life as an undiagnosed autistic woman. Brady doesn’t just touch on her struggles—she faces them directly, offering a clear view of the challenges she dealt with growing up in a world that often pushes people to hide their differences. At first, I was surprised by how direct she was, but as I kept reading, I realized that this straightforward approach is what makes the book so engaging.

Brady’s writing is clear and simple, mixing humor with emotional moments, especially when she talks about her tough childhood. As the book goes on, the tone changes to reflect the more serious and frustrating experiences of her teenage and young adult years, showing how the lack of support and understanding really impacted her.

What makes this memoir stand out is Brady’s honesty. She doesn’t hold back, bluntly pointing out how society often fails to support autistic women. Her straightforwardness is both comforting and thought-provoking, challenging readers to rethink their own views.

If you’re looking for a genuine read that will make you laugh and think, “Strong Female Character” is definitely worth picking up.

I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I must apologise that it has taken me so long to supply my review. Severe chronic illnesses have affected my life in recent years (not COVID) and have left me unable to write reviews. I have still read the books, left myself notes, but can’t give the level of review I usually give. It is my hope to return to that level in the future, and will include posting detailed reviews here, to my blog, to Amazon Australia, and Goodreads.

Please accept my apologies, along with the following basic review:

This book was sent to me, via Netgalley, for review.

I loved it! The raw, open honesty about growing up with autism while being told you don't have autism. I can relate to that a lot.

This book made me want to yell at people, give Fern a big sisterly hug, lecture anyone who made eye contact with me on where they could stick their autism misperceptions, and become an even bigger fan.

I loved it so much I bought a paper copy.

Highly recommend to anyone willing to learn about how we neurodivergents deal with "their" world.

I appreciated a lot about being able to listen to this book, with the opportunity to hear about someone whose life was really so different from mine. Brady is a comedian, although like with Hannah Gadsby's memoir, Ten Steps to Nanette, the actual content and focus of her memoir is not to be funny and it really isn't. Brady hasn't lived an easy life and it's fascinating to watch how in looking back she's so clearly able to identify what made her autism difficult to manage. Sometimes her chapters would leave me confused though about the timeline of things and for how long she experienced some things that she did. I know timelines are difficult to put together (or at least, they are for me), so I tried to shrug it off, but I wound up really confused. I think when you're not familiar with the subject of a memoir, it's difficult to not have some additional context when reading about their lives, but that's likely more a me problem than a general one. One of my favorite aspects of Strong Female Character was when Brady spoke about her time as a sex worker (specifically, working as a stripper) and how that career path was relatively beneficial for her as an autistic woman. I do think that this memoir was quite real and unfiltered, which are qualities I highly value in memoirs and so I would recommend if you're already invested in Fern Brady or if you're interested in learning more about one woman's experience being diagnosed with autism later in life.

I received an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This memoir was honest and thoughtful. I loved Fern on Taskmaster, and I appreciate the spirit with which she approached telling her story.

"Strong Female Character" by Fern Brady is a witty and incisive take on feminism and pop culture, offering refreshing insights with humor and intelligence. Brady's unapologetic voice and sharp observations make this book a must-read for anyone interested in gender dynamics and representation in media.

a really interesting memoir, and Brady’s voice is very readable and entertaining although this was a bit less comedic than advertised. being diagnosed with autism as an adult was an interesting perspective and I wish it dove a little further into more recent events but this was still a great memoir, something I’d widely recommend.

My god how I loved this book! I am a late-diagnosed autistic woman and saw so much of myself in Fern. Her writing style is conversational, and the book is very humorous (despite it's more upsetting subject matter at certain points). I had several moments when I audibly laughed out loud and others where I caught tears forming in my eyes. This book is without a doubt one of my favorite reads from 2023.

This was a fabulous memoir from beginning to end. Autism can present differently in females than it does in males, and Fern's POV was both heartwrenching in moments and endearing in others. Her story is one that deserves to be amplified and I highly recommend this book.

This is a great memoir with clear author's voice and lots to learn about autism, especially in women, through Fern's story.

Fern Brady, the author, is a woman with autism, who was diagnosed as an adult rather than a child because autism presents differently in women than in men. This memoir is her personal story, and covers her life up to the time the novel was published. It is a raw and rather gripping story, and includes some disturbing incidents in her life, ranging from her time in a mental facility to her choice to become a stripper to make the money she needed to finish university. Her personal experiences demonstrate just how difficult it can be for women with autism to be properly diagnosed and receive the assistance they need, and also underscores the difficulty many women with autism have with relationships, with their families, with friends, and with significant others. There are some references to research into the field of autism, but largely Ms. Brady presents information from her own perspective. She has a tendency to present her own experiences and then state that her experience is representative of all women with autism, which may or may not be true; certainly, it appears that many women with autism may hold similar viewpoints. Recommended for ages 16 and up, due to subject matter.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I only knew of Fern Brady from watching Taskmaster on YouTube; and then we watched some of her standup shows and an interview she did after this book came out. This is much more than a confessional autobiography. Brady tells us more about the sickness of “normal” society than about being different. She confronts the conformity, the complacency, sexism and intolerance of normal life. Anyone who has felt like an outsider, who has suffered from being different, and has trouble doing the facework needed to play social games is going to recognize aspects of their own experience in Brady’s book. She writes beautifully, shies away from nothing, and has a keen sociological eye.

Before this book I knew Fern Brady not at all. She’s made a name for herself between the UK comedy and television scenes, and while I enjoy a British panel show I’ve managed to miss Brady entirely. I decided to request this book from NetGalley based purely on the fact that this is a memoir of a woman who was diagnosed with autism as an adult and that’s a story I am very interested in. Like Brady, I too do a reasonably convincing impression of a normal woman. I also am increasingly uninterested in the cost of that trade-off.

In Strong Female Character she reflects, utilizing her piercing clarity and wit, on the ways her undiagnosed autism influenced her youth. This memoir tracks Brady’s attempts at employment, her increasingly destructive coping mechanisms, and the meltdowns that left her mind (and apartment) in ruins. Her chaotic, nonlinear journey is a testament to life at the intersection of womanhood and neurodiversity, of how being female can get in the way of being autistic and how being autistic gets in the way of being the ‘right kind’ of woman.

My autism also didn’t get on radar until well into my adulthood. I didn’t pursue an official diagnosis because I felt it wouldn’t bring me any additional supports. Learning how to cope with my autism (and various neuro-spiciness) is in part from my therapist – who is a wonderful woman who has helped me in some very big, important ways – but in larger part from the autism communities online comprised of other late-diagnosed women and non-binary folk. The autistic social media folks who put aside any worries they might have about being so public about their own experiences are filling the void where support from the health services and medical community should be. As is Brady in chronicling exactly what her meltdowns look and feel like and what has worked for her and what hasn’t and what they’ve cost her over the years. It simply isn’t out there.

Without the kind of transgressive honesty Brady is using here, a lot of us would be in much worse shape. While reading I found myself wondering would we know how to live in a way that avoids meltdowns and shutdowns and having the plethora of maladaptive coping mechanisms that I do if the system cared at all about dealing with and understanding the kinds of autism Brady and I experience (they have overlap while still being quite different… because it’s a spectrum). These mechanisms are now very deeply entrenched, and I will have a lot of work to do if I want to undo them. But at least I have another book by a late diagnosed woman to go to.

I received an ARC of this book from Penguin Random House via NetGalley. It has not affected the contents of this review.

I enjoyed reading Fern’s story but like so many books it seemed really disjointed, we learned a lot about her sad childhood and stripping career but then suddenly she was a successful comedian on TV and it seemed like it came out of nowhere. I kept going to back to see if I had missed a chapter but I hadn’t.

I was very interested in reading this, but the author's style put me off. While initially amusing, the lack of further connection or interpretation of events eventually is wearing. Readers would do better with Hannah Gadsby's Ten Steps to Nanette.

What a profound, hilarious, and original memoir! I never see any books told from the perspective of an autistic one, and Fern Brady does such a fantastic job of portraying the world through her eyes. One of my best reads of 2023!

Thank you to Net Galley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of Strong Female Character by Fern Brady!

Ummm, what is kind enough to say? Although I did not get far (too much angst and drama for me) I did get that the author was trying to find answers and workable solutions to 'fix' her life post autism diagnosis but I wonder why she was so set on finding out how to integrate/blend in with neurotypical society instead of embracing her obvious differences and using them to her benefit. Definitely not meaning this in a critical way, just curious. As the text was so chaotic and full of EVERYTHING IS JUST TOO MUCH, I have to add this book to my DNF pile. Hopefully, I can come back to it later and read just one or two pages at a time so as not to be overwhelmed by the author's highly emotional brain-drama to find the purpose of the book.

much like my opinions when I read Hannah Gadsby's book, I felt very seen whilst reading Fern Brady's non-fiction. This is a book for the unpalatable autistics who have big destructive meltdowns and do horrible things to people because we just didn't have a fucking clue how to navigate the world as undiagnosed teenagers and young adults. For the kids you ended up wrongfully punished or stuck into mental health wards or programs because they didn't know what was wrong with you but they know you were wrong. But also being so detached from societal expectations, you're light years ahead of others when it comes to unpacking the bs you were taught because... we never really learned it in the first place.
Whilst there were moments I felt uncomfortable with how certain things were worded (sometimes it would come off as fatphobic or ableist, and I couldn't really tell if these were past-Fern thoughts or present-Fern) I'm glad this book was written and really appreciate the research and citations that have gone into this book as well as the attempt to also acknowledge other marginalised autistic people.

I'm not even finished with this book and I wanted to write a review immediately because I can hardly put the book down! Fern's vulnerability with sharing such an emotional journey is not taken lightly. She gives readers a front row seat to her autism diagnosis and the experience of getting there. As a viewer, I felt honored to be invited into her mind and experiences.