Shrill

Starred review from April 11, 2016
West, a GQ culture writer and former staff writer for Jezebel, balances humor with a rare honesty and introspection in her debut. Over the course of the book, West details finding her voice as a writer and a feminist through stories about her family, her weight, having an abortion, and the emotional toil of being harassed online. West's chronicle of the series of highly personal online attacksâand of how much Internet conversations have changed in the past decadeâmarks this book as required reading. Always entertaining and relatable, West writes openly and with clear eyes about embarrassing moments and self-esteem issues, and has a remarkable ability to move among lightheartedness, heavy hitting topics, and what it means to be a good person. By reading about West's thought-provoking responses to online rape jokes, gender-specific attacks, and being trolled about a family tragedy, readers learn by example how to navigate the Internet's sometimes soul-sucking terrain with dignity and retain a sense of adventure. Agent: Gary Morris, David Black Agency.

The 34-year-old author is known for writing about feminism, fat-shaming, and social justice for magazines and her blog. Here she offers a series of autobiographical essays about her transformation into a self-affirming, outspoken social critic. Her writing is stream-of-consciousness style, and her performance spontaneous, but she never sounds unhinged. The undercurrent of moral confidence and personal pride in her voice blends her opinions and vignettes into a coherent message. And though her language is blunt, she sounds authentic--like there's a real person behind these observations and opinions. Her stories of growing up in a world in which large and outspoken women are shamed will be welcome by all women who feel reluctant to be who they are in a culture that too often is cruel and disapproving. T.W. � AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine