This book is simple introduction to complex ideas, but often offers opinion as fact - & while the author frequently checks her privilege, it's worth noting that she's still holding the mic. I listened to and ARC audiobook from Netgalley, and the narrator's (Given herself) voice drove me bonkers & not in a good way. While her diction was nice & accent was cute, her inflection bordered on the monotone & lacked the enthusiasm I'd expect from the author. I often found myself drifting and not being concerned when I'd miss some bits.

This book is very much a primer on modern feminism. While it would be an excellent read for anyone who is new to the concepts (or a particularly resistant friend or partner), there wasn’t much new to dig into for someone looking for more. I do appreciate the author’s style and found several good takeaways for concise examples to add to my memory bank for those times I need to defend feminist ideas to someone unfamiliar. However, I’ll still be looking for a deeper dive elsewhere.

At first, I would like to thank Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for allowing me to review this book. Keep in mind that my review, however, is my true opinion on this book.

A friend of mine told me about "Women don't owe you pretty". She was very excited about the book and thought I should read it. I read a few chapters in her book, and a few hours later, I got myself the audiobook. I would not normally listen to a book like this, but for some reason, I enjoyed listening to it. But it is nice to have a physical copy of this one to see its true colors and the layout of the book, which is pretty neat.

Florence Given, the author of the book, is a very interesting woman, and I love her passion.

If you are one of those who post about modern feminism all the time and is all over the place with self-acceptance and self-love, this is a book for you. But I think you have to be a specific person to love this book. You have to be a true modern feminist to agree with the statements and to truly connect with the author and the content of her book. If you already know Florence Given and love her character, you will love her book as well!

This book will motivate and inspire a lot of women, and you could be one of them!

The book covers some serious and important topics and those are described in a good and understandable way.

Remember that you do not owe the world anything! And especially not being pretty!

Read by the author, this is a nice introduction to feminism. Good for both those who want to learn the basics and for those who want to feel not alone.

A quick listen I think everyone, especially young women, will benefit from.
While these weren’t entirely new ideas to me, it gave me ways to express them in a way I previously hadn’t been able to.

I was really excited to read this book, and I expected to love it. I didn’t in all honesty. I enjoyed parts of it. I had a very big issue with chapter 19 Accountability. Throughout the book the author speaks of empowering yourself, prioritizing yourself, respecting yourself, boundaries, etc....and then in this chapter she talks about apologizing to people even if you don’t feel like you should. That even if you didn’t do anything you should make sure to make others feel better. I felt like this was hypocritical and actually really unhealthy advice to put it nicely.
Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I chose to listen to this audiobook because it was available on Netgalley as a ‘listen now’ option and had been on my GoodReads to read shelf, however, after starting the audiobook I have come to realize that it is quite juvenile in its writing, poorly structured, and worst of all may be a rip off of another lesser known author’s work. I would prefer not to rate this at all but as it is required, 1 star.

Florence Given's "Women Don't Owe You Pretty" provides clear, concise commentary on a range of matters pertaining to womanhood, including privilege and internalised misogyny. When you think about it, the standards we allow ourselves to be held to are ridiculous. There's nothing in here that's new or groundbreaking but it is useful to have all of these lessons, advice and guidance in one handy resource.

Audio ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Florence Given narrates her own book with competence. This does tend to work very well with non-fiction if the author has a decent voice because the author knows better than a hired narrator where the stress needs to be.

The book itself was interesting. I found I agreed with 90% of it and I'm sure many women will have had similar experiences and perhaps similar realisations. Where I depart from Given's rhetoric is when she suggests that any oppressed minority cannot be guilty of the same oppression and/ or prejudice as those in more privileged position. Basically, yes, the system is broken in many ways and those who benefit from the system are its victims in a different way. It's everyone's responsibility to fix it. It's a bit to easy to ignores statistics that don't fit your narrative and a lot of these sorts of books do so that. I don't think this is what Given has done, but there are aspects that are far more complicated than she has expressed them as being.

That said, this does address the deeply entrenched issues regarding women being viewed as a consumable resource for men. Most of it is subtle or so deeply ingrained that we don't see it at all. This would have been a really useful book for me when I was 14, well over 20 yrs ago. As it was, this didn't deliver anything I hadn't already discovered for myself but Given's take on things is clear, assertive and uncompromising. It's a good book for women who do need to take more agency in their lives. It's a good book for today's teens, regardless of gender. I would personally like to see a bit more robustness of character and sense of humour being preached too. But everyone has to find their own path.

This book is terribly repetitive and full of rude statements. I felt that sometimes she spoke about things that she didn't understand. Other passages were full of clichés and quotes that don't make any sense. I haven't enjoyed it, because sometimes she contradicts herself. The way she sees feminism is troublesome, you can defend women and still be condescending towards them a few chapters later...
I think that if it was a book I would have dnf''d but with the audiobook was a bit simpler

This book is a brilliant mix of feminism, self-love and learning to be yourself, and I really enjoyed it! The multi-media format stopped it from feeling like an info dump and generally speaking, I found it really engaging. It works really well as an introduction to feminism, with a particular focus on how sexism disproportionately affects women of other minority groups and our own self-worth, however didn't really present me with any new information. But then, it is marketed as an 'accessible entry point into progressive feminist discussion', which it definitely was. Overall, I'd say this is a really interesting read, but would most recommend it to younger readers, or people new to feminism!

Sometimes I need to hear someone telling me it is okay to enforce my boundaries.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free audiobook copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is a phenomenal book, and one I wish would have been available to me as a teenager, as this book is filled with all the topics that were never talked about when I grew up. I loved this book! I feel empowered, called out, and motivated to be a better version of myself. Doing so will not only create positive changes in my own life, but in the world too. Florence covers a multitude of very important topics in relation to our own bodies and habits, but also in relation to the way we think about, view and treat others.

I listened to the audio book version and really appreciated that Florence read her own book. This is short, but packed with information and I have already decided I need to buy myself a physical copy of the book in order to mark it up, highlight, and make notes in order to refer to it again and again. It's that kind of book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC of this book. I LOVED IT! (oops, I already said that once)

2.5 Stars
I jumped at the opportunity to listen to this book, especially as I have been on the verge of buying it myself. In fact, not only did I jump at the chance, it is actually one of the quickest I have ever downloaded and then listened too, listening to it instantly and in one sitting, listening to it while enjoying the sun.

There are a lot of things within this book that is definitely not brand new information and things that I wouldn’t say are life changing information, but then again it really depends on the audience of the book. I have never been the person who has felt comfortable wearing loads of makeup, maybe because I never knew how to apply it right in the first place, so wearing it has always made me feel more self conscious than when I wasn’t wearing any. Although, I’m not going to lie and say I’ve never been envious of women who can apply it effortlessly, because it always seems like magic to me. There are parts of this book that seemed like common sense more than anything and obvious information or ‘advice’, but maybe that may have something to do with my age and my life experience, being 28 years old, which I believe is older than the author of this book.

There were times when I was listening to this book and it got me thinking, more towards the fact that I know somebody that it would be perfect and more beneficial for if they were the ones who were reading or listening to this book. From that aspect, I am actually contemplating buying a copy of this book, or one similar, to give to them because I think it would be more beneficial and that they are the intended audience for a book like this. It is hard to judge a book like this, especially to rate a book like this, where it isn’t any good for you but you believe that it would be good for somebody else, it just that you weren’t the intended market or audience for this read.

So although I didn’t personally benefit from this book, it was still somewhat enjoyable, an easy listen, if little repetitive in parts, but I do know others who would greatly benefit from reading it. The fact that the author included her own person history, prepared you for trigger warnings before each chapter, for a good way of connecting the reader/listener a little more and a good way of showing examples of what may and may not work for some.

I understand why I’ve been seeing this book pop up everywhere, especially with current events. It is a quick read/listen, but I would say it has a specific audience, maybe a younger age 16+ range.

This book is brilliant. It's been a long, long time since I've read something this empowering, informative and accessible - to the point where I'm even considering using some of it in our school curriculum, as I think it has some very important messages for teenagers.
By all means, it's not unique or ground-breaking in the ideas put forward, but what it does manage to do - and do well - is keep you engaged and interested the entire way through it. Which, I'll be honest, doesn't tend to happen too much with me and feminist writings, as I sometimes feel like I'm being lectured to.
The audiobook is narrated brilliantly by the author, who is clearly passionate about her beliefs, and it really helps drive the message home to hear her deliver it in such an impassioned and heartfelt way.
Would definitely recommend, for anyone interested in a feminist read!

While this book provided some good reminders regarding body image and toxic patriarchal expectations, I found some of its suggestions problematic. For example the correlation between prettiness and the likelihood of sexual harassment in the beginning of the book. This type of violence has everything to do with power and very little to do with the beauty of the people it targets.

This book is probably best suited for young readers or readers who are not familiar with feminism. That being said, it's a good primer to internalized misogyny, and key questions in feminism. Florence Given provides many opportunities for discussion. As a former college instructor, I can see this being a useful text in the classroom.

I was intrigued by the title which could be an entire thesis and has been the subject of more philosophical and academic minded books. This audiobook felt like Feminism Lite with a good deal of self-help tidbits; much like an extended Cosmo article. The book does a fairly good job explaining the concept of intersectionality but many of the ideas presented in the book are not particularly new or hard to access through numerous blogs. The author is very young herself and may be attractive to young readers.

This is the political pep-talk I wish I could have read as I entered adulthood. 'Women Don't Owe You Pretty' is a thorough and friendly feminist exposition that breaks down all the ways that we can regain autonomy over our bodies, minds and lives. Florence Given's writing is compelling and empowering. She is particularly adept at helping her reader to see not only how others' actions may have impacted them, but how her reader may have (perhaps inadvertently) harmed others. I'll be totally honest - when I first saw the cover for this book in a shop window last year, I thought it would be a pithy guide to body positivity. 'Women Don't Owe You Pretty' is a great deal more than this and I really would recommend it. I think the audiobook is particularly powerful - its lessons literally reverberate in your ears!

If you would like to overcome a lifetime of internalized misogyny and societal constraints then this is a great read.
Specific phrases really stuck out and allowed me to really rethink my conditioning. To paraphrase, “you deserve the whole cake, not crumbs”, “your energy is a limited resource... treat it like a bank account... income vs. outcome”, “conform to being nice... or you’re a bitch”, “You date someomes emotional maturity, not their jawline”.
Given has provided us with a quotable, well-researched novel. I didn’t even know I needed this but I needed it. I highly recommend this to the men and women in my life.

Pretty basic introduction to current feminist concepts, ideas, and causes. Nothing especially novel or overwhelmingly good or bad (other than a very cringey author conversation with her earlier self). The thing about this book is that if you're inclined to pick it up, there. probably nothing new here for you. If there are useful concepts in this book for you, you're probably not going to be inclined to pick it up. The narration was engaging and well done.