In this fantastic exploration of storytelling techniques, story structure, and character archetypes, Douglas Burton brings a modern pop culture approach to a new paradigm focusing on female-centric and heroine-led fictional narratives. Drawing on a wide variety of texts from myths and literature to TV and film, this book focuses on the archetypal designs that form a heroine-centric narrative arc unique from other structures used to explore modern female protagonists in pop culture. Providing readers and writers with tips and strategies for approaching heroine-led fiction as viewer and creator, this new model transforms standing perspectives on female-centric media and centers these stories about unique narrative moments and challenges that women experience. With beautiful images, many relevant examples from popular culture that readers will be familiar with, and a fascinatingly engaging organizational structure, Burton’s book is a must-read for writers, feminist scholars, academics, and others interested in heroine-led narratives. Building off the more established hero’s journey and heroine’s journey from the late twentieth century, this new updated version takes many narratives and many women characters into account in the construction of this particular brand of storytelling. A brilliant, exciting, and engaging story with so many fascinating examples and activities for writers, this is a definite must-read in the world of modern heroine-led narratives.

Writing a temporary review until I'm able to obtain a copy; I love the premise of the book as well as the academic nature, however I'm somewhat put off by the tone used in the synopsis and hype around this book. It's not the first book looking at the heroine's journey, if the archetypes exist then how can the narrative be "stunning and new", and if it's focusing on the female led narrative then why are the main cited examples of male characters or creatures.
Reserving judgement at this time.

tbh pensé que iba a ser algo asi como una novela buena, pero terminó siendo todo lo contrario. La escritura podria haber sido cautivadora, la historia interesante, etc etc.
Me desepcionó.

Thanks to NetGalley and Silent Music Press for the ARC.

I like the ideas for story structure here, as someone who has always struggled with that in my writing. Taking this approach to a heroine's story in a way that almost runs parallel to the hero's journey is food for thought, and he provides some good examples of the archetypes he believes are central to the heroine's labyrinth. But I would only use it as far as writing inspiration, rather than anything farther-reaching in scope. He largely uses modern books and movies as examples in order to make the concepts widely understood, and while that's great, I would have liked to see more mythological samples as well. If you're going to keep calling this the feminine monomyth, I'd expect to find examples throughout most of the history of storytelling and not just the past century or so. I also haven't seen most of the shows he mentions. They might be too recent to serve as widely understood examples. I also wish that, in the end, he would walk through one or two stories or movies and how they fit the heroine's labyrinth to bring it all together in a clear picture. I guess that's available on his website, but I would have preferred it all in one place.

There's also the nagging feeling that this is a little too reductive, coming from a man summarizing a wide swath of women's stories to fit his theory. He mentions trying to fit the life of a Byzantine empress into the hero's journey for a book he was writing, finding that it wasn't working, and decided to work on this. He also uses memoirs as examples, and I dont entirely feel comfortable with shoving real women's experiences into a narrative structure for fiction, we're so complex, of course it's not gonna fit right. There are reviews recommending writings by Gail Carriger and Maureen Murdock that cover the heroine's journey from two different perspectives. To the author's credit, he does mention both of them as part of the research he did in writing this book. If you want to dive further into the subject, or if you feel like it's missing something, those are good places to start.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6393957723

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/09080d10-65e2-4146-a2b7-baca803f04c8

Check out this review of The Heroine's Labyrinth: Archetypal Designs in Heroine-Led Fiction on Fable. https://fable.co/review/0cbc5b98-13ec-429d-a96d-f442e15853a8/share

Absolutely loved this new reference book by Douglas Burton examining and naming the female protagonist archetype in narratives that corresponds to the hero’s journey for males but examines and includes the different aspects that are associated with female heroine characters as they do not appear to have the same narrative patterns as the male hero’s. I’ve begun to boot ice this in all my books about femalr heroines and I find it incredibly accurate and interesting. It filled a void in analysis and character archetypes

A cis man who has true talent with the pen uses the pseudoscience of tarot reading to tell the world how to write "the feminine."

Let me start with the good. Burton can write! Most of my highlights relate to his ability to weave words wonderfully. And those tarot cards! Who's the illustrator? I tried Googling but didn't get anywhere. Curious minds want to know. I also appreciate the reach of the material: the author has indulged in quite an array of media, and uses this knowledge amply and clearly, allowing even those of us who are unacquainted with particular examples to grasp the point. I also think there's much to be learned here, but perhaps not in the expected ways.

On that note, the bad ... I went into this expecting a feminist take on crafting narratives that centre feminine characters, but what I got was Stereotyping the Narrative 101. I mean, Burton starts by admitting that he never really got how to write women, and ends by arguing for mother mother-daughter narrative strife. This is not feminism, man! I'm also aware that others have done this before, and better. And with more feminism. I suspect that, if I had the time and will, I could take each one of these scaffolds and find (a) many counterpoints and (b) many examples across a range of hero narratives. What really bothers me is that at a meta levelーand this is a book for writersーthe driving point is that there's stories for men and there's stories for women (and maybe sometimes things are genderqueered up but also no genderqueer narrative structures apparently exist, since everything is pretty much binary here). I'm actually filled with a bit of dread at the thought that future writers may lean on this material for guidance. This more or less helped me realize just what kind of stereotypes (cis men) writers have about gender, and the steadfast urge to gender characters, as in erecting and subjecting characters to (traditional and constraining) gender roles. I'd rather do away with the whole kit and kaboodle ... just because it's been done for x-number of years, doesn't mean we have to or should stick with it. Finally, the whole tarot card circumscription bit was a gimmicky (albeit gorgeous).

Writers, go in with a discerning eye. This might give you ideas, including what not to do.

I had to roll my eyes quite heavily at the introduction where a male writer is surprised his female characters don't fit the standard pattern for the (male) hero's journey. Women not fitting the standard male norm? Who would have thought! On the one hand it's great that any writer is trying to write more believable women. On the other hand, I found the tone of the book a bit irritating, and while I can see what the author is trying to achieve, I find the whole formulaic concept of a specific hero/heroine's journey a bit limiting anyway.

The Heroine's Labyrinth or How I learned to unmask my bias and enjoy the journey.

I requested this book on NetGalley because it seemed to have an interesting premise. An alternative to the Hero's Journey, but from the female perspective. It's been years since I've read the famous Hero with 1000 faces, but the concept of a Hero's journey is omnipresent in today's pop-culture so I was eager to see what's different when you have a Heroine instead of a Hero.

The introduction made me skeptical, as I always am when people imply the have The Answer. The focus on contemporary references over classic ones and the use of tarot cards as placeholders for archetypal designs made me DNF the book early on. I read a couple of reviews that confirmed my bias and I kind of just forgot about it.

Flash forward to a month or so later and I was talking to a friend about Hummingbird Salamander (by Jeff VanderMeer) and how I found the book to be similar to another one of his, but the fact that this one had a female lead really didn't work for me. This made me give the Heroine's Labyrinth another go, focusing more on the story elements/archetypal events and less on the things annoying me.

Turns out the book is actually good as a guide to observe or write stories. It showcases a series of recurring key points that many stories have in common. I took the time to think of examples from the books I've read and I found that a lot of the points applied to both ancients myths and modern books. Obviously, there are exceptions - I Who Have Never Known Men (by Jacqueline Harpman) or Meike Ziervogel's books didn't fit much at all, but when looking at more mainstream-focused stories I could recognize those elements.

I'm not gonna list or explain all the archetypal designs, you'll have to read the book for that. I do want to say I liked that the focus was split between the character motivators (reasons why the story is happening) and the elements that make the story compelling.
Considering the premise that these archetypes are based on stories told orally (before the invention of writing) then the only way they could pass forward the information they needed to was by being memorable.
Focusing on both the message and the medium is the right way to go.

I would've liked an analysis on how the Labyrinth framework applies to the popular "feminist retellings" of ancient stories, but I guess I'll have to do that myself.

And a few ending notes:
- about half the examples given are from Disney movies and shows, that seemed a bit too much;
- the representation of non-western stories was almost non-existent (for a book about universal human archetypes I expected more) and
- the author quotes Barbie and Nietzsche on the same page - I loved it!

Unfortunately I had to DNF this book. While it has an excellent premise, I found myself unable to get past a handful of pages before getting distracted. It seems wonderful, but not for me.

If I find a physical copy at a library or bookstore I’ll give it another try, but for an Ebook, I’ll be DNF-ing for now.

Very inspirational book, I've had "writers block" for a while now but this book has reawakened my creativity. The ideas are laid out nice and clear and easy to follow. I would recommend this book to anyone that writes or creates fictional female characters.

I have written many stories and manuscripts with female characters, but I am always worried that I'm missing something. I always blamed my Y chromosome for holding me back from getting the most out of these really cool stories.

But Douglas Burton has shown me the way, and he has written The Heroine's Labyrinth to encourage writers to take their female characters on a journey that is fundamentally different from the Hero's Journey, the template that most myths follow.

To make his case, Burton provides examples for each of the 18 elements of the Labyrinth, using modern movies -- his was the first book I've read that cited the Barbie movie -- and classic tales with female heroines. This really helped me to understand in a deep way these elements, and he provides follow-up questions at the end of each section to help readers internalize the lessons he is giving.

Unlike the Hero's Journey, the Heroine's Labyrinth, as the title suggests, often begins and ends close to home, with many of the conflicts incorporating societal constraints and gender norms. Along the way, they encounter disguised villains, the "Minotaurs", and Burton even provides an explanation of the animal friends that pop up in so many Disney movies like Cinderella and Snow White.

I highly recommend this book for writers, especially those males who -- like me -- have struggled with realistic female protagonists. Thanks to Net Galley for providing me with a free copy of the text in exchange for this honest review.

I really enjoyed this book with an alternative to the hero's journey. Anyone who is interested in archetypes and mythology will no doubt find this fascinating. I do wish there was a little less emphasis placed on the "mysteries" of menstruation. But I guess that is almost typical of a male author. Other than that minor hiccup, I really, really enjoyed this.

Great fantasy story world building and characters.
Couldn't put the put done.
Loved every minute of it.

I misunderstood the premise of this book and expected it to be an analysis of heroines in myths etc. That is entirely my fault for not reading the information properly. Having adjusted to that I found it a very interesting view of the roles heroines may have in literature and stories. As others have noted it is a worthwhile companion to the Hero’s story and would be of real value and interest to students and scholars in the field of literature, women’s studies etc.

5 stars
I thoroughly enjoyed the journey I went on while reading this writers' craft book! I wasn't quite sure what to expect since I'm not a writer by trade, but Burton took me on a wild ride of exploration and self-discovery regarding feminine power, creativity, fire and strength, all in the service of helping other authors of fiction find their voice and create truly dynamic, feminine-led stories.

The book is designed to provide a fluid framework for authors wanting to create an authentic exploration of the heroine's journey storyline. But perhaps the most crucial point here is to understand that the heroine's journey is usually much more inwardly focused than the typical hero's journey away from home. Most of us are familiar with Joseph Campbell and his work on the hero myth/fable/story as it pertains to human storytelling history. But less often explored is the heroine archetype and how it differs dramatically from the typical hero model in certain, distinctive ways, i.e. personal conflict or growth via internal versus external loci of control. Burton's book seeks to remedy that historical imbalance of information, and I would argue that he does it quite well.

I feel like Burton does a big service to his audience by framing the entire book as a tarot deck reading to lay out the 'labyrinth of the heroine', so that we ourselves must follow along as it organically twists and turns in order to understand how the given narrative may come to final fruition. We experience how the narrative structure can shift, flow and bend to the author's will via the use of powerful archetypes that are explained in further detail. It is incredibly evident how much research and effort went into structuring this book, with the author providing dozens of examples of the heroine's labyrinth themes in modern books, television and movies so that a modern audience can more easily relate to and immediately understand the thematic tropes being referenced. Burton also includes an overview of various storytelling genres at the end of the book in which he speaks to how the model of the heroine's labyrinth is particularly suited to provide for compelling storylines in each of the genres.

As I said before, I am not a professional writer but I've read LOTS of books across various literary genres and feel like I know what makes a story interesting enough to grab its audience's attention. But I definitely learned a few things about the basics of effective storytelling as it relates to the mythic labyrinthine journey of the heroine, and how and why those stories can be so utterly compelling.

Thank you to NetGalley, Douglas A. Burton, and Silent Music Press for this advance digital readers copy. All opinions are my own.

Heroine's have their own 'heroes journey' according to this book and it is nothing like the male version. Heroines fight social convention and their enemies are people they knew, people with hierachical social power and culture itself. The book is fascinating and I am planning to buy a copy when my digital editions version runs out. I mostly write female leads so its useful, beautifully presented and deeply fascinating. Well worth it if you are a writer and worth it if you want to see a world beneath Alice in Wonderland, Labyrinth, Buffy The Vampire Slayer etc...

Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey has left an indelible mark on popular culture, from Star Wars onwards. Campbell's work was deeply comparative, drawing on tales across centuries and continents. Despite how erudite it is, however, the Hero's Journey is not without its critics. In The Heroine's Labyrinth, Douglas Burton attempts to establish, seemingly, a female equivalent, to mixed results. Thanks to Silent Music Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have recently picked up a new creative writing project (as if I don't have enough to do) and then got stuck on a certain plot element relating to my heroine. I knew a certain thing had to happen for the plot to progress, but I did not want this thing to rob her of the agency I had established for her. Then I stumbled across The Heroine's Labyrinth on NetGalley and gave it a go. In my mind, The Heroine's Labyrinth was a writing guide which focused on crafting heroines. That is what Burton's book is. However, it is also an attempt to establish the "Heroine's Labyrinth" as a counterpart to the "Hero's Journey" since, or so he argues, Burton feels that the Hero's Journey does not really fit onto female characters. Below I will explain in more detail what the issues are that I have with this second endeavour. As a writing guide, however, I found The Heroine's Labyrinth very interesting. It gave me some useful impulses and avenues to explore, specifically with the idea of my own heroine in mind. The archetypal designs he sets up can definitely be useful, although the imagery used within the book (specifically that of tarot cards) feels a little over-the-top to me.

Burton lays out the Labyrinth as an image for the journey female characters go through. If I understood him correctly, he argues that the Hero's Journey doesn't really fit onto female characters as they are frequently restrained in their mobility, meaning they don't usually set out on grand adventures in foreign lands and rather experience their adventures within their own culture, sometimes within their own house. The labyrinth provides a metaphor for this internal journey, during which female characters confront the limitations placed upon them by their own culture and face a minotaur, who figures as someone who means to entrap them. I found the steps Burton outlined interesting, as said above, purely from a creative writing perspective. But, while I found it mostly intriguing, in the sense that I enjoyed how Burton presented his labyrinth, I did have some issues with it.

The first is, that it is slightly unclear whether he is proposing interesting writing strategies/suggestions, or indeed a whole new monomyth. He states at the beginning that he mostly wants to focus on modern texts, and this is usually films (I also feel that some of his novel quotes refer to the film adaptations instead), as many of Campbell's sources in The Hero of a Thousand Faces are old and unfamiliar to a general public. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this when crafting a writing guide. However, if you do want to make an argument for a "feminine monomyth", as Burton frequently calls his labyrinth, then you quite simply have to go deeper than cultural output of the last half century. Again, as a storytelling tool, useful and fine. As something intended to match Campbell, it is simply not deep enough. This might also come from my background in medieval literature, but the idea that you could want to say something about storytelling in general and not consider medieval material, which simply bursts with evocative and inventive takes on male and female characters, just does not pass the vibe check.

Secondly, I would have wished that he would have chosen at least one text or film which he analysed throughout the book, moment by moment, element by element. For each marker or element in his labyrinth he gives plenty of examples, often the same ones to show how one single story contains the whole journey. However, these examples do not always feel entirely fitting once I considered them within their context, i.e., the rest of the novel/film. He does mention in an afterword that he has analyses of specific films on his website, but, in my opinion, this should have been a key part of the book to show that his labyrinth stands up to scrutiny.

Thirdly, I have an issue with the word 'labyrinth'. Burton repeatedly comments about the "linear" nature of the Hero's Journey, which rankled me a little. The Hero's Journey is famously circular, in the way it is usually depicted and in the fact that the hero literally returns home. Although Burton makes it very clear (sometimes overly so) that he does not intend to take away from this monomyth, he seems to underestimate how flexible it truly is. The names of the stages, for example, are also not meant literally. In the Hero's Journey, for example, the hero descends into the "Belly of the Beast/the Whale", a moment of symbolic death from which the hero emerges with a new outlook, having faced his fears. (This is obviously inspired by the tale of Noah, whose sojourn in the whale is very much also symbolic.) Burton feels this stage does not apply to female characters, I guess, and then suggests something which feels almost exactly the same to me, in which a heroine is immobilized, faces a moment of crisis and darkness, and emerges more strongly.
The labyrinth, meanwhile, is presented by Burton as something non-linear, something flexible, that allows for multiple journeys. The thing is, labyrinths have only one correct route, which always leads to the centre. I appreciate that this journey to the centre, where his Masked Minotaur hides, was important for his structure. A maze, however, allows for multiple possible paths, some of which lead out, some of which lead to the centre. I think the idea of a maze, so similar and yet crucially different, could have worked better if he wanted to emphasise a certain flexibility in his model.

Finally, and I've saved this for last because it might just be personal, I rankled a little at this model coming from a male author. I know, men are absolutely allowed to write female characters and quite a few do so very well. However, in The Heroine's Labyrinth the tone at times feels as if Burton cannot believe that he, finally, has figured out how heroines and female characters function, that he has finally discovered one must always consider heroines as active in their own story, and not a perpetual victim. A lot of what he says feels intuitively correct to me, as a woman, and I don't know if I needed it explained to me. I also feel that the second half especially leans on ideas of "female nurturing" or the "female divine" a little too much without interrogating this. And this is again where I come up to the question of: is this a writing guide or a genuine claim to a new monomyth? Because if it is the former, almost all of the above complaints fall away. If it is the latter, however, then these concerns only become stronger. Burton's labyrinth is interesting and it definitely gave me some creative writing ideas, but it is in no way rigorous or sturdy enough to stand fully alongside Campbell's monomyth.

In short, I am torn on The Heroine's Labyrinth. I found it useful as a way to brainstorm my own creative writing and to come up with fresh ideas. As a creative writing guide I think it can definitely add something. That is what my rating is for. As an attempt to complement Campbell's work, however, The Heroine's Labyrinth didn't stand up to scrutiny for me. For that, it simply does not draw on enough material to say anything close to definitive about storytelling and leans to heavily on ideas of the "female divine" etc.

The Heroine’s Labyrinth by Douglas A. Burton
I read this courtesy Net Galley and Silent Music Press. There are other works detailing the heroine’s journey, but this one is unique in the form in which the journey is presented. The author uses techniques that draw from sources ranging from tarot to books to TV to movies, all the way to comic books, in which archetypal heroines must make their way through their trials and tribulations, and those journeys are examined in fresh ways—in the form of a labyrinth. This work looks at the anatomy of an archetype, even includes exercises for writers to better understand the archetypal concepts that could be useful.

#TheHeroinesLabyrinth #NetGalley #HeroinesJourney #Archetypes

DNF at 15%?
Honestly I love the concept of this story, however the pdf format being the only way to read the novel and feeling like the author was mansplaining half the time. Caused me the constant urge to put this read down. Take this review with a grain of salt; since I didn’t end up finishing the read any it may be for you.

My DNF rating is 2 stars

LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH. I RATED IT 5 STARS BECAUSE I LOVED EVERYTHING IN THIS STORY. IT'S DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS AND THAT'S WHAT I LIKED THE MOST.