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.

Wow! I am obsessed with this book! I was initially interested in reading this as I love the Brontes + Jane Austen and wanted to learn more about some of my other favourite female authors that paved the way for the future of literature.

I learned SO much that I didn’t already know which made me want to explore more of the works of the authors mentioned in this book.

If you’re looking for an expansive history of each of these writers, this is not what you’re going to get out of this. It’s more of a condensed biography of each writer’s background and how/ why they turned to writing. Accompanying each mini bio is a comic depicting an important aspect in that woman’s life.

My only little critique is in the production of this book. Some of the comics have cursive and the font size is so small that it’s pretty illegible, especially if you were reading this on a small screen like I was.

I ended up giving this a solid 4.5/5 stars + is perfect for any literary lover!

Why She Wrote is a graphic novel account of the lives of several influential writers such as Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, Frances Burney, and Louisa May Alcott. This book was delightful as it broke away from traditional rigid academic structure with comics that enriched me with details of the authors’ lives and made for a fast paced and engaging read. I highly recommend this book to any fans of classics, and I recommend checking out the associated podcast, Bonnets at Dawn.

“Why She Wrote” by Hannah K. Chapman and Lauren Burke, Illustrated by Kaley Bales is a remarkable nonfiction graphic novel retracing the drive for writing in the classic english speaking female writers.
This is an incredible amount of work, a truly thick volume of many informative facts and little known facets of the women writers so many of us love. I have a particular fondness for Elizabeth Gaskell so I was very excited to read her section, but she is just one tiny speck in a very vast collection of names, a lot I didn’t know and that I now want to discover.
There is a short biography of every of the women featured in this volume, as well as a bibliography, which make our work as reader so easy, we just have to look for the title given on our e-reader and off we can start reading a wonderful classic.
Every writer also has a little comic illustrating one of the moments when writing was a struggle in her life, where she questioned what her motivation was and if it was worth it to publish. Some of those comics are incredibly insightful - I must admit I now understand better why I always found reading Mary Shelly viscerally disturbing. Some talked to me a lot less. But in all cases I really loved discovering about all those strong women that braved the social codes of their time and wrote wrote and wrote despite all the barriers put in their way.
The illustrations are simple and clear. The features and expressions of the people populating the pages are all well defined making every single one of them recognisable and their feelings more real. They serve the book very well.
This is a book that should be in every public library. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves books and the writers behind them.

This was a really interesting exploration of the lives of female authors in the 18th-20th centuries. I’m giving this four stars instead of five because some of the graphic stories seemed a little bit disjointed from the biographies that came alongside them. Overall, I do recommend!

I'm reviewing the ARC provided by NetGalley.

I really liked the book, it shows really well how those important women in the literary scene inspired each other. I also liked the fun facts or the additional elements of context put at the end of each part.
Sometimes though, I thought the extracts of the lives of these writers chosen by the book to be drawn in comic form was not pertinent.. With that said, the comics were brilliantly composed and their storytelling was really entertaining. Also the division of the chapters was very well done and approached very interesting themes (.The Horror of the Everyday, Finding Their Voice, Activism as Art, Private Lives, Public Identities, Protection and Profit) and the distribution of each authors between the chapters was also brilliant.
I loved learning of these women too.

Why She Wrote is a graphic collection about classical female writers including: Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Brontë, and Frances Burney. Throughout the book it explains why these eighteen writers wrote or how they wrote. Each chapter briefly summarises a certain theme along with 3 female authors. It talks about their life, their family, and most importantly their writing.

It is an interesting book to say the least. It was great to get to know these classic writers and learn more about their history and books. The illustrations were creative and bright too.

What I wasn't a big fan of was mostly the graphic parts. I found the writing for these parts to be a bit boring for my taste, apart from Beatrix Potter's. Adding to this, I had a bit of a hard time to read certain sentences because of the chosen font.

One last thing I didn't like was the transition between the written biography to the graphics.

I recommend this to anyone who likes to read classics, or is a literature geek.

This was good, well-researched and informative! The illustrations were a plus!
Would definitely recommend it to anyone who would be interested in the backgrounds of some iconic women writers. Definitely inspiring!

Why She Wrote by Hannah K Chapman and Lauren Burke with beautiful illustrations by Kaley Bates is a glimse into the motivations of some of history's most notable female novelists, poets and columnists. From Louisa May Alcott to the Bronte Sisters, Anne Lister to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and many more , the book looks at a single pivotal moment in each of the women's lives and explores its impact on their writing careers through the medium of Bales' illustrations. The authors also provide background biographical information about the authors as well as a bibliography of their publications, in an easy to access format that makes the book suitable for readers of all ages and a great stepping off point to inspire further research and reading. I appreciated the inclusion of suggested reading included at the back of the book and could certainly see myself seeking out some of the titles at a later date. While I was familiar with many of the women included in the book I was also introduced to some new writers, most notably Edith Maude Eaton who wrote about the experiences of Chinese immigrants in North America. This is an inspiring and informative book that should grace the shelves of libraries everywhere.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

What an adorable book. This book serves as an appetizer to whet your thirst for some women writers. It is more inclusive than the English lit cannon I studied at university, so there were a few names I was not familiar with like the Chinese American Sui Sin Far the pen name of Edith Maude Eaton.
There were also tidbits I didn't know about some of the more familiar authors. For example that Frances Burney has a mastectomy in 1811 and that she wrote about her operation and subsequent recovery.

The book also covers some more familiar ground, authors such as Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Louisa May Alcott, George Eliot, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Beatrix Potter. It is apparently based on a podcast which I have yet to check: Bonnets At Dawn. The authors are gathered by threes with some theme that unites them. The last chapter gathered three authors who fought for the protection of their work and their monetary rights. The is usually one or two pages of written biography followed by graphic storytelling that brings the historical setting to life. I found the format interesting but it did bother me a little that it disturbs the chronological order.

Thank you to Chronicle Books and NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#WhySheWrote #NetGalley

I seen this on Netgalley and figured i would love to learn about the amazing women who wrote back in the 18, 19, & 20th centuries. Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Anne Lister, and more like who would not want to learn about how they became who they are/were!