The format of this was genius - OF COURSE a film girlie's memoir should be structured around the films that have defined her life and informed the way she views herself and the world, of course!! I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in media, representation and identity politics.

It’s a memoir! It’s a reflective, in-depth study of women’s roles in movie & culture! It’s BOTH!
Going into this book I was expecting a academic-ish collection of essays exploring female characters in movies. What I got was a personal story of growing up as a girl and woman in the 20th & 21st century told through the movies of the time.
I would have been happy with an academic essay book, but this was SO MUCH MORE. The personal stories and growth Hanna Flint experienced, reflected in the movies she was watching at the time made every cinematic example that much more meaningful. As Hanna and I are about the same age I can remember nearly all the movies she cites and the culture women lived in at the time.
I really loved this book and definitely recommend it for any movie lover, any millennial, any feminist - actually anyone. You all need to read this one.

Book review: Strong Female Characters by Hanna Flint

What an absolutely delightful, insightful book this was! When I read the synopsis, I was intrigued but not quite sure how a book that’s partly her biography and partly an analysis of various films would pan out - but it’s a winning combination, aided by the author’s poignant narration. I wanted listen to Flint’s voice and her smart, witty observations forever.

Flint is a film critic and feminist of mixed-race heritage, who has struggled but also succeeded in a highly competitive industry. She cleverly interweaves her personal story with thoughts on women’s representation on screen, and how watching these films and TV shows/series have shaped and influenced her own view on race, sexuality, body image and the role of female characters.

She does so with the right amount of humor, warmth and heart but doesn’t shy away from harsh criticism either. Flint’s musings made me reassess my own perspective on films that I grew up watching: for instance, she starts off with a chapter about Disney princesses, and how she finally felt represented on screen when Princess Jasmine from Aladdin was introduced to the world - but in hindsight, she wonders (and I do, too, now): why was Jasmine, in stark contrast to other Disney princesses, so sexualized?

In other chapters, Flint takes a look at how sexual assault is represented on screen, including examples from Game of Thrones and the now more critically regarded classic Gone with the Wind. She remembers her first adolescent on screen crushes - including Freddie Prinze Jr. in She’s All That - and realizes that there was hardly any other choice than falling for the cute white boys because those of a different skin color were almost never cast in leading roles.

Most of all, this book is a call to action: a challenge for us to rethink our approach to how we watch movies, but also for the film industry to find better ways to bring strong characters to screen - characters that are better representatives of the diverse and multicultural world we live in.

Thank you @netgalley and @dreamscape_media for sending me a free copy of this audiobook.

First off, I will start by saying this is not my typical type of non-fiction book. Generally, I enjoy memoirs, and although Hanna Flint brought some of her background and experiences into the book there was a lot more political and theoretical discussion about how cinema impacts our view of strong female characters.

That being said, I did enjoy the majority of the book, and was able to listen to it a a good pace. It kept my attention despite being less about a story and more about the portrayal of women in movies and cinema in different times. I appreciated majority of the point Hanna included, and I was certainly left with some "food for thought" but overall I felt like there was "something" lacking in the delivery of the information. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the way women are portrayed and any disparities in the movie industry...or anyone that believes disparities do not exist.

This was enjoyable and thought-provoking. I liked both Hanna's personal anecdotes and film critiques, though I sometimes found it lacking cohesion. I don't feel I was able to keep some of the essays straight in the audiobook format, but Hanna is an engaging narrator, so this was fun to listen to regardless.

This a brilliant intersectional reflection and discussion of how media has helped and hurt marginalized people. through the topics of body hair, colonization, expectations of parenthood, feminity, masturbation, mena representation, misogyny, patriarchy, periods (gender inclusive), porn, puberty, queerness, racism, romance, sex, and sexism. I wasn't aware of Hanna Flint before reading this but was quite impressed with this book. Having a fellow MENA feminist be this honest and critical of media has put a lot of things into perspective for me. The audiobook was great and I loved hearing it narrated by the author.

As a woman who both works in the film industry and grew up with TV and films defining my understanding of the female experience, I was really intrigued by this one. I think Hanna makes a lot of incisive observations and in particular her reflections on the role of pop culture in how people see Arabs were incredibly important. That said, I felt like there wasn't much cohesion throughout. I was often being whiplashed between Hanna the person and Hanna the critic, and I never felt like I could settle within one POV.

Three stars for this one, as I did genuinely enjoy some sections but overall I felt like it was a little bit scattered as a narrative. Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape for the ALC.

I am honestly shook. wow. i mean wow.

I’ve made it a 2023 goal to read at least 1 nonfiction book a month to widen my reading library and because of that i stumbled into this phenomenal book.

Honesty - everyone should read this. EVERYONE. NOT JUST FEMALES. 👏🏻

from page 1 i was immediately captivated. Throughout every single page you’re given movies that are recent or very popular throwbacks that support the idea that women should be perfect. and by perfect i mean - no period, no “negative aspects” to them, all the way to the idea of woman masterbation is unacceptable. WHY do we allow even movies to just put women down, look lower onto them and bring us all down to a lower level for simply being the way that we were created as women.

I feel like a lot of things that the author talked about were things i subconsciously knew - knew that i even felt the same way but wouldn’t admit to it because wouldn’t that make me imperfect or wrong? WELP NO. Hanna Flint says it alll, what needs to be said and what needs to be understood.

This is a phenomenal read. Definitely check it out if you’re wanting to expand upon your nonfiction catalog.

Thanks to NetGally, publisher, and author Hanna Flint for an advanced version of this beautiful audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly, there is so much to unpack and discuss with this book I’m unsure where to start. Author Hanna Flint has created a beautiful narrative taking from her own life experiences and naming things we have seen in depicted and behind the scenes in cinema for decades.

The rawness and vulnerability shown by this author is incredible, this book tackles many topics and hard conversations, such as; intimate partner violence, mental health disorders, disordered eating, sexual assault, racism, and misogyny.

Hanna writes in a way that connects past and current films and media depiction in a way that is digestible, thought provoking, interesting, and relatable.

A fascinating blend of cinematic discourse and personal reflection, Flint addresses many vulnerable topics that speak to the experiences of women and marginalized communities. Filled with humor and insight, I highly recommend this read, especially if you have an interest in media.

Thank you Netgalley for providing a digital ARC.

Ah, gosh. I'm living for this audiobook. I'd classify myself as very feministically liberal and I'm pleased to read about stories of women's empowerment and the come-up that comes along with those paths. Strong Female Character hits shelves on April 25, 2023, and I can't wait for what comes of publication day.