I really didn't like the style it was written in. Since she writes about realising she was gay in the 1990s, the author is obviously not that young, and it felt like she was trying to write in the style of "kids today" rather than using her own authentic voice. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe that is her voice, but it grated. It's also a book presenting itself as one about lesbians that immediately starts off with the personal experience of someone who identifies as being pansexual.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I'm 40 and have been out in the queer community for 20 years. I'm definitely not the target audience, but I'm sure this would go over well with people who are young and/or newly-out.

"Live, Laugh, Lesbian: Navigating Life as a Lesbian in the 21st Century" by Helen Scott invites readers into a candid and humorous exploration of lesbian experiences in the modern world. From the challenges of Lesbian Bed Death to coping with workplace microaggressions, Helen Scott serves as a guiding and supportive figure for those navigating their unique journey.

The book, blending memoir and guide, is positioned as a lesbian big sister's embrace, offering insights, advice, and a good dose of humor. However, while the intention to provide a supportive and informative resource is clear, the execution may not resonate with everyone. The humor might be hit-or-miss, and some readers might find the content falling short in addressing certain aspects of lesbian life.

Funny and enjoyable but not groundbreaking. It took me a while to get through it but I still enjoyed it. Thank you for the advanced copy.

I received this book for free for an honest unbiased review from Netgalley.

I wish more books were this well written. Characters were witty and the setting fantastic.

This book was honestly disappointing. I love that the term lesbian was used frequently and openly but other than that, nothing in this book was particularly groundbreaking. I suppose if you are a young lesbian/questioning person this could potentially be helpful, however the information it contains is very basic and also very specific to the UK. Although I was not the target audience for this book I can appreciate that it may be much more valuable to someone else, which is why I’ve bumped my rating from 2 to 3 stars.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: October 19, 2023

I loved the title and premise of this. As someone relatively recently out, I thought this would hit home but it was a big miss for me. I’m not sure the intended audience, but it wasn’t me. I felt the language sometimes outdated even though the authors voice seemed young. In the end, I DNF because this just didn’t find a space to fit into my queer world.

2 Stars.

DNF @ 15%. I rarely, rarely ever DNF, but I just couldn't get into this book or want to continue. I think there's a chance that I'll pick it up again eventually, but I'm not sure. The writing was a bit scattered and I felt like I couldn't follow it. When little blurbs came in from other people, it felt clunky. Like we'd be in a passage, someone would pop in with a beginning that made sense, then continue their thoughts, and then at the end it would just go back to the original passage and it just got confusing.

I will also say, seeing "vagina tingles" multiple times within 10% made this hard to continue, and was scared how many more times it would be included.

While reading, I noticed it was partially anecdotal and partially self-help. Maybe I'm just not the ideal audience (I came out over 8 years ago) but it felt very surface level from what I read and very ideal.

I was really excited for a book focused on lesbianism but this one just didn't hit for me! I hope the audience that needs it finds the book, and I may eventually pick it up again, but between the discombobulated writing and the idea that I loved but just wasn't fleshed out in a way I was enjoying, I decided to DNF for now.

The title made me LOL but unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me. I found it a little cliche and simple. It might be cute for someone who’s a newly out lesbian or just discovering their lesbianism for the first time, but it didn’t resonate with me.

As others have mentioned, more of a memoir than a guide. Writing style needed some editing. Thanks for the ARC

This is a very funny and enjoyable read. Written as a guide it is still useful for Bi women or people who want to be supportive of their lesbian friends

Pretty disappointing read. I think the marketing on this is a little off, it only came off as a memoir which is fine, just didn't really offer much navigation for the reader. This felt a bit underwhelming when there's a lot of more substantiative essays out there.

Described as part memoir, part guide, I would say its more memoir than guide, except the focus of it being a guide detracts from the memoir too. It reads like a collection of social media posts, especially the use of language, which I found irritating, I suspect I am too old to be the target audience, I certainly felt old reading it. DNF

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting conversational book. Live, laugh, lesbian explores the many areas of being a sapphic woman in modern society with stories from a range of people. One criticism of this book can also be its strength, the book almost doesn’t know who it is aimed at with advice for women newly discovering their queerness and also aimed at those who are more sure of their identity but because if this the book and the author cover enough topics that it is useful to return to this book and consider more with different people/life stages.

Honestly, as someone who is dyslexic the way this book was available on the netgalley app was very difficult for me.

I had really wanted to like this book but I just could not get into it.
Some memoir parts were great and others were hard for me to read. Also some of the vocabulary was difficult.

That being said it may still end up on my shelves because the cover was everything

love the title and the cover. i think the concept is very interesting.
I read up until the 40% mark, and then it was skimmed to get the gist and see if any other chapters peaked my interest.
could be interesting for teens, but overall i found it too superficial (the tone, condescending at times, didn't help), both on the memoir end and the guide end. i have read essays and thoughts from many others that are deeper and more structured on all of these issues before. also a lot of it is just life experience*. hence, why i think this might be better for teens.

*on that note, much of what i read in the last chapter i disagreed with, so i just think me and the author have deeply different ways to live and be in the world. (diversity win!)

disclaimer: book obtained via Netgalley. This review is frelly given and reflects my true thoughts.
ps. tiktok didn't invent queer online community. the queer nerds have been online since the moment we could.

Live, Laugh, Lesbian is a part-memoir, part self-help book aimed specifically at Lesbians to help them feel more confident in their identity. It's written by lesbian presenter and content creator Helen Scott, and features anecdotes and opinions by other lesbians and queer people recounting their experiences growing up.

I think that this book is exactly what the lesbian community need, it's definitely something that I could have done with when I came out and was discovering my identity, and although I have seen some critiques of the author's choice to have anecdotes from members of the queer community who do not identify as a lesbian, I feel like this addition can help questioning individuals with deciphering their identity themselves.

There are multiple similar guide-memoirs about various queer experiences, but this is the first one I have seen by a lesbian, and I love that the author doesn't hide that, down to the name and the cover being in the lesbian pride flag colours, meaning that it will stand out on the shelf to those who need it.

I found myself enjoying the concept of this book much more then the execution. While this was an easy read that went through a lot of useful information I couldn't help to think about how this was advertised as a book for lesbians but very rarely included them. The majority of the people interviewed in this book weren't lesbians. I found it strange that the author brought up how she wanted to use the word lesbian on the cover explicitly meanwhile she completely lacked in bringing in lived experiences of lesbians other then herself. While the book struggles with including lesbians, it struggles even more with intersectionality for lesbians. All of the pieces that could be considered intersectional were done by people who aren't lesbians leaving a gap in information surrounding trans lesbians (both trans femme and trans masc), nonbinary lesbians, Black lesbians, POC lesbians, fat lesbians, disabled lesbians, etc... This also lead to a lack of nuance in the book that made it hard to read as someone knowledgeable of lesbian history.
I don't even think this book could count as an introduction to lesbianism because of the more mature themes in some parts. The writing style would have been better used in a situation like that because of how informal and conversational it felt. I really feel like I got to know the author, but that isn't what I thought I'd get from this book.

I will start with the positives: there were a couple of funny jokes, and the Fletcher & Taylor Swift mentions were fitting. Besides those two redeeming qualities, I can not think of much else I enjoyed. The modern slang was, for lack of better words, cringe, and the writing was poor. I would not recommend this to anyone.