This book was so interesting, I learned a lot about different authors like Anne Brontë and more. Plus, the art style was beautiful. I gave this book 4.75 stars for sure!!

Most of this book is a graphic novel, which was unexpected. It also makes it very appealing to teenagers and young adults. There is a lot of information here and it’s well presented. A great introduction to some little known female authors.

Why She Wrote is a graphic biography of 18 well known women writers. Burke and Chapman let us explore the lives behind many of the writers we love from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Why She Wrote discusses the backstories of many authors while highlighting some very important topics and difficulties that they had to overcome.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. I love books that look at different women from history and the mix between informative paragraphs for introduction to the subtopic and for each author alongside the graphic novel narrative that follows made the reading experience great. I found myself learning a lot through both storytelling forms and enjoying it. As I read, I kept wanting to pick up all of the books that were mentioned for each author so don't be surprised to see me reading some Bronte and Austen books soon lol.

I really liked the artwork in this graphic novel. I found it fit well with what was being discussed and was really well done. Having the same illustrator for all of the "chapters" allows for consistency while also seeing some slight changes depending on the topics.

The reason this is not getting 5 stars is because I did lose interest part way and did have to remind myself to keep reading. I did find some sections to be repetitive and I think this was the reason why I struggled a little bit and it was mainly in sections about the authors I didn't really know. However, I still think this was a great book, once I was able to get back on track and back to authors I know, I thoroughly loved and enjoyed it. Would recommend 100% to readers of all ages.

This is such an innovative way to tell the stories of pioneering women writers. While the biographies are fairly standard, especially of the usual suspects when talking about women's writing (Austen, the Brontes, etc.), the illustrations really delve more deeply into pivotal moments in the authors' lives and really create more emotional depth and connection. And it's an excellent introduction to lesser-known figures like Alice Dunbar Nelson and Edith Maude Eaton, among others, who deserve to have their voices recuperated and in front of new, modern audiences. I also really like how the chapters have been divided and how Burke and Chapman make parallels between the writers in each chapter. The graphic novel element makes this book an excellent intro to women writers for older kids/teenagers, but I'd also recommend it to anyone interested in Austen, the Brontes, or women writers throughout history.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for this ARC. I am a long-time fan of Bonnets at Dawn, the podcast that inspired the book, but this does not affect my review.

A fantastic read!
For fans of all the classic women authors and the newest hit Bridgerton and all things regency bedazzled!
This graphic novel is a great history lesson for those who admire the women themselves or want to learn more about writers of the past. I read this as a digital ARC from Netgalley but will be obtaining a print version as soon as it is release! A definite must have!

This book is so fun & really beautifully put together. As an avid reader, I enjoyed reading about some of my favorite authors and learning about others! I would recommend this to anyone looking to get into writing because the authors spotlighted here come from all walks of life and started at different stages in their lives - making writing an endeavor you can lean into any time. I'd also recommend it for readers as it provides interesting insights into the writing processes of well-known authors and it was such a fun glimpse behind the scenes. On top of all of this, the illustrations are so fun in and of themselves. I think anyone would appreciate this book.

The overall premise of Why She Wrote really caught my attention, but the execution just didn't work well for me. I expected a full graphic novel detailing the lives of women authors, but instead, it was a mix between written biography and graphic novel in a way that just didn't work well together. I can definitely see how people would love this, but it just wasn't what I expected and isn't my taste. Ultimately, the flow, pacing, and organization of the collection threw me off. Not to mention, the lack of BIPOC in this is... frightening. "Classic" women's literature needs to stop being confined down to European/American white women. The oppression they felt and their stories are extremely important to discuss and never forget, but there are women with different experiences that still count as classic literature. If you're going to discuss classic women's work, let's at least make it inclusive of ALL women. Most of the authors that were included in this graphic story had similar experiences and that allows for easy comparison between them, but that's looking at the world from only a Eurocentric viewpoint which just cannot be tolerated in these times. Overall, I enjoyed learning more about authors I had some knowledge about and learning of authors I wasn't familiar with at all. I also really liked the list of works at the end of each author's story. I will definitely use those to add to my more detailed list of classic works to get through. But, alas, I just felt this wasn't particularly inclusive and the organization threw the flow off for me personally.

I love the idea of this book, how it combines several different elements from different text types and genres into one book. I love that each author is a powerful female and it will help to inspire future writers.

In a combination of comics and prose, Why She Wrote glimpses into the lives of famous women writers from the 18th and 19th century. Each author is shown at a pivotal point in her life when she took control of her career. The style and format works really well, making it a really fun way to learn about literature history. However, I really wish the subjects of the comics were more diverse and carefully selected. The writers covered are largely white and almost entirely from the U.K. and U.S. I think it would have gained a lot from focusing on women writers from across the globe, even if that means they are lesser known by Western audiences.

This book was a delight! It features 18 short biographies of some of the most famous women writers in the 18th and 19th centuries (Louisa May Alcott, the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, etc.). The unique twist is that each woman gets a little comic dedicated to them and the reason they became writers. As a graphic novel, it works well with a one-page written introduction of each writer followed by a few pages of illustrations and text.

My favorite part of this book was insight into female writers who I had never even heard of. What a great way to educate people about less famous writers who deserve more admiration (such as Anne Lister and Alice Dunbar Nelson.) The book also includes some diversity with women of color and LGBTQ+ folks. The text felt super readable and easy to digest, which is sometimes lacking when talking about historical writers from the past. There were tons of tidbits I didn't know - this made the book so fun to read!

My only complaint is that some of the text in the graphic novel portion was hard to read (especially the cursive-like font). I was reading an e-book so maybe this is best read as a print copy. Otherwise, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about these famous, inspiring women.

Delightful book/graphic novel about the lives of some of literature's greatest female writers. I learned a lot and had fun doing so. Recommended for anyone interested in classic authors.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fantastic! This is the book that as a girl you want to own and hold in your hands because inside there are the greatest women writers that inspired you all your life with their writings and their amazing characters that made you love literature and books in general.

I can't describe how much I loved reading this book and enjoyed each page of it in addition to the comic part that I liked it so much. This book made me discover some new authors and to find out about some parts of my favorite authors' lives that I didn't know about until this book.

"Why She Wrote" is a book about some famous female authors and the reasons why they decided to take the pen and start writing either for love, money, to be heard or to be remembered. The authors were joined in groups of three writers that shared the same motivations or inspirations and so on in their careers. It was a great idea for this book and the comic part was even greater. I just loved it.

I have read biographies of some of these authors like Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters and you discover that these female writers were the heroines of their lives some ended well and some others suffered a lot and had a dramatic ending. They have lived in less free societies than ours, they had faced sexual discrimination, male chauvenism, poverty, racism and so on. But they never gave up their dreams to be a writer or to express their thoughts on what they regarded as wrong.

I loved how the book was arranged with the chapters and the illustrations, it made it so much interesting to read.
I hope that there will be more books by this authors that I thank so much for their great job. Thank you.

Okay, love this! This would be a perfect coffee table book or a gift for a friend who likes to read. A great inspiration to learn about all of these women and their lives. Would definitely purchase myself a copy.

— thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher Chronicle Books for providing me with an e-ARC of #WhySheWrote in exchange for an honest review.

WOW! I! LOVED! THIS!

whose idea was it to mix graphic novels with biographies and iconic classic female writers? because it was an idea of gold! i loved every bit of this!

honestly i went into it not expecting a lot more than just a biography but a pretty one... and this was just that expect better and more unique! i’m a fan of classic literature and especially women’s fiction. so to say i absolutely devoured this would be an understatement.

i liked how the book was divided into parts, all very unique in title and pretty in color and design. i loved the little one-page summary of each author’s background, because some authors i had no idea about but still could connect with their stories and really enjoyed reading about all of them. the panels of the comics were very well done. right from the start i could see a lot of thought and feeling when into each one and i appreciated how smoothly it was all laid out. i just adored it, all of it!

i can’t think of any faults this book has. it is purely perfection. i have it on my to-buy list for when it’s published. i’d definitely love to see more of this style of biographies!

This work was a disappointment because it features ‘Classic’ women writers AKA mostly white women from the 1800s. I think the idea of what ‘classic’ is was extremely white-washed and centered on Britain. This work needs diversity because it practically reiterated information about women authors that are frequently discussed. I had higher expectations for this read. The description does mention that it features women authors in the English language, but I thought there would be an inclusion of people of various races and ethnicities. I did not expect to read about many of the white women authors that are frequently discussed and studied.
The portrayal of information was sectioned off into different chapters that had a focus and overview. Then they went into specific authors where there was a text block of who the author was and random information, then there was art done in a comic-like style of a scene involving the author. The art was pretty, but I have complaints about some of the text that was used. There was this cursive text that was used to represent words being written and although that was a decent idea to showcase the difference from spoken word, the fluffiness of the cursive was too difficult to make out some words, so people with difficulty reading (for whatever reason) will have difficulty making out the words.

Why She Wrote lifts up the stories of women writers of the 19th c., highlighting the contributions they made and the challenges they faced. In these pages, the women become super-heroes of their time, breaking down barriers.

Presented in groups of three writers under a specific theme, the authors share a brief biography followed by an illustrated episode from their life. A full reading list is offered that includes each author's works and books about them for further reading.

It is a combination of a traditional biographical sketch with the graphic novel form, which I expect would appeal to younger readers.

I wholeheartedly approve of any venture that brings classic writers--especially women writers--to the attention of readers.

I was given a free egalley by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

This book is so good. It's such a unique idea, and honestly one of the most informative books I've ever come across.

This book talks about the contribution of all these amazing women, in the literary world. It shows how each of them played a role in impacting the world.

It's always hard to look at authors as real people, when we read their work all the time. We read their characters, romanticize those characters. But sometimes, we as readers just forgot how human these writers were. They dealt with problems, they had their lives.

I love reading classics, and I admire all these authors. When I read the premise of this book, I was really thrilled to read it. Stories of all these Iconic women are just simply inspiring.

Being someone who's a crazy fiction reader, this book was so easy to get through. It felt like a story, even when it wasn't. I got through it within a few days, and honestly it was worth the read. If you're someone who finds non-fiction work hard to read, check this out. It's amazing, and will make you actually ponder over stuff.

The only complain I have is about the illustrations. Even though I do admire how beautiful and colourful they were, in some parts of the book it got a little too chaotic.

Other than that, I enjoyed this alot. I think writing a non-fiction in the form of a graphic novel is a really smart idea, because it becomes more accessible and easy to read, for people who aren't that into non fiction, people like me.

Just adored it. AND I DON'T LIKE NON-FICTION BOOKS.

I think that the authors that were selected were perfect and I really liked how with such little informations I saw the human part of the authors of some books I adore.

I also liked the representation, from this book I descovered new classics to read. New authors of color and LGBTQ+ authors.

It was such a good combination of real life facts about women authors and storyline that the graphic novel part seemed like a story. I, in such little time, grew attached to the characters of the stories I was reading.

A fantastic book.

Why She Wrote is not a book I would have stumbled upon without NetGalley, and I would have been missing out. This collection of graphic biographies takes 18 women who wrote and, in sets of three, seeks to illuminate their lives and motivations just the tiniest bit. I really like the way this is presented. Each author gets a page-long bio, followed by a short comic answering the titular question of why she wrote, and finished off with a list of published works and important facts. It reminded me of Rejected Princesses, though I can see where it would have even more in common with Monster, She Wrote, which I have yet to read.

By presenting each writer as part of a loosely linked trio, we see how motivations can bind together even those who never met one another. Whether the wrote to explore the human condition, provide for their families, express themselves through a persona in ways they never could in their real lives, or make their voices heard as they fought for rights and freedoms, all of these women had compelling motivations for setting pen to page that still resonate today.

I don’t believe I have ever read a graphic biography, and I very much enjoyed the ways in which the illustrations brought these women to life. The art was very well done and expressive. I found it incredibly tasteful. Also, the writing itself is lovely, without distracting from the lives and works being discussed. The information included was just enough to make me very interested in all of these women. By the time I read the final pages, I read more about all eighteen, and I wanted to read more of the things they wrote themselves.

Some of the subjects are women I had never heard of, others about whom I thought I knew a good deal. It was interesting to see new facets to the latter and to be introduced to the former. There were motivations I wouldn’t have naturally considered without having read this collection. Some of these women were protecting their sexual identities for various reasons, or fighting the system to protect their rights to their own work. Reading about the drive all of these women had to put pen to page motivated me to write more myself.

Why She Wrote is an insightful, encouraging, and empowering look into the lives of eight incredible female writers. While I truly believe this could be read and enjoyed by both sexes and almost any age bracket, I think this would make an exceptional gift for girl or woman over the age of ten or so. This would be an especially impactful gift for any young girl who dreams of becoming a writer.

Why She Wrote acquaints the readers with iconic women authors who have been read and researched extensively. The graphic novel is a good mix of text and illustrations keeping the interest of the readers alive throughout the book. Key experiences in the women's lives that had an influence over their writing have been highlighted giving us a glimpse of the strength in these women. and the struggles they had to go through before they could achieve what they set out to do. I would recommend this book to other readers and to be used in schools and colleges.