A TOTAL EYE-OPENER

This book was very thought provoking and eye-opening. While I am not the biggest moviebuff, Bogutskaya did a great job of picking characters with a cultural appeal that most people are likely to be familiar with. The book was well-written and the arguments were easy to follow and get into. Bogutskaya is great at making points and underlining them twice. It definitely made me more interested in movies and how women are portrayed in them.

This book was okay. I so wanted to do a deep dive into this but I’m not sure if it was just the arch copy but I found the lay out of it hard to follow at some points. I did overall like the book would just change some of the ways it was set up.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me access to this ARC!

I really enjoyed Unlikeable Female Characters because it was incredibly thorough in its research and easily digestible to the reader. I think the aspect that stood out the most for me is how we are sometimes unaware of the stereotypes and media depictions of women (because we normalize them) and this book calls them out for what they are. The historial background provided in each chapter made the information even more poignant and the message that still stands is that there is much more to do, even though there’s been progress, we’re still not there yet! If you are interested in learning about pop culture and the space that women have held in film and television, this book is for you!

A well written observation on the evolution of the "Unlikable Female" in cinema and tv.
This was a fun look at the archetypes and tropes of how (fictional) women are "allowed" to behave, be seen, and be treated by society and the expected consequences of her actions. Bogutskaya gives plenty of examples of these unlikable female characters as well as interesting behind the scene factoids about them, the actresses, and how the roll or film was received. However, these same fun facts became a bit too redundant for me at times (mainly due to the crossover of several archetypes).
If you love film and "bitchy" woman, this is a enjoyable read overall.

As someone who's always preferred her characters unlikable, because those are usually the most interesting and complex, I found this book fascinating. Anna Bogutskaya has done an excellent job compiling her list of character tropes and then explaining and populating them with examples that appeal across generations - and across generations of film and television. I found this particularly helpful, as I don't watch a lot of popular current television or movies, and had to look up a handful of her references, although I'm delighted to report that now I am going to be looking for a number of them to watch as a result. Her writing style is conversational and engaging and offers a great mix of theory and anecdotal examples. This was a very interesting compilation.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC of this non-fiction book exploring the development of female characters in movies and television. I found this book really interesting, the author raises a lot of important issues and questions, and I think this book will be very educational and eye-opening for a lot of people.

Unlikeable Female Characters focus on women in popular culture who are often labeled as unlikeable and categorized into different archetypes. I expected more in-depth analysis after reading the introduction but found that the chapters were mostly explorations of characters that fit within each archetype. Despite this, the review is still thought-provoking and provides valuable insights into the subject matter. Additionally, the book offers a helpful watchlist at the end.

When I saw the title I had to pick up this book. I have a joke among friends that I find the most hated woman in a fandom and immediately claim her as a favorite.

I liked how this book was structured, each chapter focusing on a different flavor of unlikeable woman by stereotypes from the bitch to the slut, etc etc.

It was interesting to see the lines where these characters become nuanced and palatable to being too much and veering into unlikeability. One point that stood out was about “the bitch” being enjoyable as a character because through her we see our ambitious fantasies come to life.

The titles analyzed are not too niche, making the topic accessible. I will say this work feels like an entry point to this topic and by the end the chapters were getting repetitive with structure. There were too many examples and in depth descriptions I could’ve used a bit more analysis.

But it was solid, I enjoyed it in the way that I love to hear people talk about media they enjoy and spend hours already consuming video essays on the topic. Would recommend for my fellow film and tv lovers out there who have had to fight for their favorite women on tv!

As anyone who’s been following me for more than five seconds knows, I love an unlikable female character. So, when someone wrote a whole book about them, how could I not read it??

Bogutskaya tracks the different types of unlikeable female characters - from the bitch to the psycho, from the shrew to the trainwreck - from the silent film era through to the prestige TV of today. Unfortunately, as a fan of these types of characters and pop culture history as a whole, there wasn’t any new information for me and a lot of her points about the way media and society view women became redundant.

Still, it was a fun celebration of the women we may have been meant to hate, yet can’t help but love.

"A fresh feminist appraisal of the pop culture canon."
This felt like a undergrad thesis. The prompt was interesting enough, and had my support from the beginning. It lost me around 25% of the way through. l don't know, I'm leaving this book unsure of how to feel. The points were good, the message was clear but I got kind of lost in the woods while looking at the trees. Lost in the trees looking for the woods? Whatever that expression is.

I feel like I should preface this by saying I had such high hopes for this. I live for unlikeable female characters, they're my absolute bread and butter. I spent basically my entire academic career talking about unlikeable women! I still spend a lot of my time talking about them! That being said: this was derivative and didn't present anything new. The conversation has existed for as long as I can remember, and I was really hoping this would bring something new to the table. This was a bit of a rehashing of previous conversations, just organized differently.

Bogutskaya's text would be really great if you're newly interested in the topic, though! It's a solid round-up of the existing conversation and organizes it in a way that's super digestible.

Unlikeable Female Characters; The Women Pop Culture Wants You to Hate by Anna Bogutskaya was fun and extremely upsetting because of how true it all was. This book belongs on every library shelf. I felt so lucky to get a physical copy for myself! I have shared on my goodreads, bookstagram, and booktok!

Thank your for the opportunity to read and review this book .

I found this to be an interesting way to look at how women are represented in media . It felt a little rushed but over all an interesting and thought provoking read .

In this book by Anna Bogutskaya we find out about unlikeable female characters in movies such as hedy from Single White Female and Alex from Fatal Attraction but the author also covers those we love to hate from TV like Olivia Pope from Scandal and many more. She also talks about the different reasons we come to dislike certain female characters in some or just because they don’t act according to what people think is normal or they just have a very independent spirit different eras cause different reasons for us to dislike these characters I thought she did a great job covering some I even forgot about like Eartha Kitt playing Catwoman she also talks about the people who’s online persona bled to real life such as the female lead in men in Black who Tommy Lee Jones refuse to act with in the next MIB movie. This book is full of interesting stories about female characters we love to hate and I highly recommend it. I liked this book way more than I thought I would and I really thought this was a great idea for a book and greatly executed and it’s one I highly recommend. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Let me start off by saying, I live for unlikeable female characters. I thought this book was well written however, it felt extremely derivative and honestly a thesis that isn't new. It was basically Bitch by the late Elizabeth Wurtzel. So if you haven't read that and you like media critique and pop-feminism, give this a go.

Thank you to the publisher for the arc.

Was this book written for me? It’s as though the author has seen my previously watched list. Anna Bogutskaya’s “Unlikeable Female Characters” breaks down the negative tropes pop culture places on women tv/movie characters. She breaks down why viewers root for the unlikeable male character and places this double standard into a magnifying glass throughout the book. Back in the 30s/40s the production code wouldn’t allow an unlikeable female to succeed; she had to be punished for her actions. Once the code ended, the unlikeable female evolved into having to have a “reason” for their behavior. It’s only recently that these characters can just be unlikeable. Society is starting to triumph watching these characters. The author makes a great point that we’re not drawn to these characters because we see ourselves in them but instead we can live out the fantasy of them.

This book is smart, fast paced and the introduction is incredible! I found myself nodding throughout and realizing I’m not alone in gravitating towards enjoying these villainous women characters; maybe that’s why I enjoy Real Housewives so much! As a fan of classic movies, I was thrilled to see the author include a history of the code era and the constraints placed on female characters.

Some chapters were more focused on one movie or show than others; I found those chapters to be longer and more repetitive. I was disappointed not to see a discussion of the female characters from The Handmaids Tale especially in the “Anger” chapter. There were also a few factual errors. It has not been “almost 20 years” since Gone Girl was published…it’s only been 10 years. I think some of the chapters/stereotypes are one and the same, because of this, some of the chapters seem repetitive. I also felt the focus was lost in the last chapter where the author describes the “weirdo” but never introduces characters that are considered unlikeable. Despite those criticisms, I loved that she pulled examples from a multitude of decades and didn’t pigeonhole herself with what’s current in pop culture. The recommended watch list at the end is also a great addition. Overall, if you don’t find something new to watch, the book may help you realize why you like a particularly unlikeable character and at the very least open up the conversation about the double standards surrounding unlikeable men and female characters.

Thank you to Sourcebooks for this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was written as though the author speaks for all women, which I found alienating rather than comforting. Whenever I couldn't relate to a sentiment the text posited as universal, I couldn't help but wonder if I, according to this book, was doing this whole womanhood thing incorrectly. This book, paradoxically, seemed to achieve the opposite of what it set out to do: to construct a supposedly one size fits all mold for women and ostracize those who do not fit.
I felt further alienated reading about "feminine uncanny," a caricatured version of girly aesthetics that was mentioned multiple times in the book without much dissection or added commentary. I couldn't help but wonder, as a woman who enjoys stereotypically feminine things, "must we be cartoon versions of ourselves to be noteworthy?" It is, safe to say, an uncomfortable thought to have, and don't think this is the line of questioning the author intended to invoke.
The problem with sweeping generalizations continues in some of the examples used in this book. One that particularly rubbed me the wrong way was the argument that Lena Dunham was disliked because she wrote unlikable female characters, with no mention in the text whatsoever of the actually horrible things Dunham has done. Additionally, the author acted as though Joker was a universally lauded exploration of male anger, completely ignoring the discourse on its damaging and inaccurate portrayal of mental illness. Such writing comes off as reductionist at best and disingenuous at worst.
It's a shame there were so many off-putting elements to this book because it does make several interesting and valid points. I particularly enjoyed the discussion of Gone Girl. Many of the arguments I would have otherwise agreed with were undermined by the type of generalization I mentioned above. The book was engaging enough, but I think I would have been more entertained if I went and read some of the articles and essays cited in it instead.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for providing me with a digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

For pop culture enthusiasts, film buffs, and feminists in the age of media.

I am not one for non-fiction. I read 50-70 books a year and usually less than ten are non-fiction. This is my first analysis of pop culture, and I hung on every word as much as I would my favourite thriller. I absolutely loved it.

This analysis has given me countless unlikeable characters to look up to, and to see in a new light.

There is even a watch-list included to further analyze our favourite unlikeable women. I’ve already found some new favourites.

Unlikeable Female Characters explores erotic thrillers, female rage, revenge, train wrecks and all of the things we are told to hate about ourselves.

My favourite part of the read was discovering what archetype of unlikeable female I am. Tag yourself, I’m a shrew.

Thank you Netgalley for sending and allowing me to read this brilliant e-arc. The writing style is amazing and the topics talked about are wonderful. This is nothing else like what I've read before, the author did a great job.

A review of women in pop culture who are often deemed unlikeable and the various archetypes they fall in. I was expecting more analysis after the intro, but the archetype chapters were more explorations of characters that fit into those archetypes. Despite that, I thought it was a great review of this topic. Plus there is a good watchlist at the end!

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.