I don’t think I was the intended audience for this. I tried my best to keep an open mind, but the entire argument left me cold. It didn’t feel like it was taking a fair and in-depth look at the real world. That said, it was a funny premise and a way of making the very important arguments of feminism through a different lens.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher ECW Press for an advance copy of a collection of essays taking a new look at a classic movie that seems to be about far more than dinosaurs going on a rampage.

Unlike many I was never a huge fan of Jurassic Park. I am exactly a fan of Spielberg, unless Indiana appears in the title, so when I saw it I was impressed by the special effects, unimpressed by the story. In all honesty I wasn't that much a fan of the book, and in fact while I can remember the first book, the Lost World Sequel escapes me. And the film sequels, I can remember the actors, but nothing about the plots. The remakes, I won't even go into, not for me is the kindest thing I can say. I can see though why many loved it, my brother who is six years younger considers it one of his favorite films. I haven't seen the film in its entirety since it came to home video. I have stopped to watch snippets on television, hanging on till the next commercial. That might have to change, as this book has given me a new interest in the film. Clever Girl: Jurassic Park by Hannah McGregor looks at the movie that to paraphrase another movie tagline made one believe a dinosaur could run, hold grudges, and chase kids, from a very different point of view.

The book starts with a portrait of the author as a young dinosaur fan, discussing the love and interest that McGregor had in dinosaurs, and seeing the movie for the first time. The book is broken into essays with each on reflecting on a different part of McGregor's life and the view of the dinosaurs in the movie as females, created my mad male scientists, to be docile in many ways, and yet violent enough to give jumps scares to the people coming to see them. However not violent enough, nor able to escape from the constant monitoring the part has on these creatures. Dinosaurs as trapped in the male gaze. In a way a making of traditional wives, who eat, make babies and look good for the people who come, along, without a thought of breaking free. Until they do. McGregor mixes past life experiences, modern feminist thought, movie magic and quite a bit of humor to support her premise.

As a film person I love reading books about movies even if I am not a fan. This was not the kind of book that I expected, but I think for that reason I enjoyed even more than I expected. There were plenty of facts about the film, with a few explanations about why the film made some mistakes. Mistakes that were more for dramatic purposes. While I enjoyed the film discussion, and the feminist writing, what I enjoyed most was the parts where McGregor discussed the life McGregor had, growing up, coming to terms with things, and finding acceptance. The writing is really well done. McGregor can craft a sentence that might seem odd or strange in the beginning, but by the end makes one a believer. This is not a big book and it moves well, never bogging down, and never seeming like a lecture. And a book that really changed my mind on a movie, one that I only thought about when I saw ads for the remake.

This is the first book I have read by Hannah McGregor, and I enjoyed it quite a lot. A different way about learning about feminist and queer theory, and one that might open a lot of minds who didn't expect it.

As someone who loves Jurassic park and has since she was a kid, and someone who’s avidly a feminist this was everything I hoped it would be and more. It took me a little while to get into it but I had a great time and it ended up being a great, witty, fun quick read.

Clever girl indeed! Jurassic Park is one of my all time favourite reads / watches so this was a must read for me. So interesting, funny, and thought provoking; loved it!

<i>ARC Provided by NetGalley<i>

This book has an interesting angle - a metaphor or connection to the female dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and female rage and queerness. The author makes interesting connections and in reality it is more of a launching pad for musings on what it is to be female and queer stuck in systems that try to control and contain the rage. Interesting essay overall.

Thank you to Netgalley and ECW Press for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

I have always believed that Jurassic Park is an incredibly rich text, and this book proves that without a doubt. There are so many interesting angles to take when examining this movie, and I delighted in every one of them. I didn't know I could love Jurassic Park more than I already do, but this book took me there.

Clever Girl by Hannah McGregor is longform essay arguing that the classic film, Jurassic Park, can in fact be thought of as a queer, feminist story.

I picked up this book because I love Jurassic Park, feminism, and arguments that seem so outlandish they might actually be on to something. McGregor argues this film about dinosaurs reflects a lot of cultural view rooted in Western patriarchy and white supremacy. She discusses monstrous women, queer identity, nature and grief in a very engaging manner. Reading this book felt like having a conversation with your really smart friend who has just finished a degree in literature and philosophy (in the best way).

Although I think McGregor made some interesting links between the themes explored in Jurassic Park to ongoing arguments in the real world, she anthropomorphised the dinosaurs too much. Labelling them as queer, femme, voracious icons is inherently human thing to do. What you want these animals to represent versus what they actually represent is very different. Maybe the dinosaurs imply something thematic within films, but in a scientific/ecological/historical context, dinosaurs don’t ‘represent’ anything. She also made some sweeping statements about the study and practise of ‘Western ecology’, when what she meant was American/Canadian ecology. Western European ecology is very different and her lack of recognition of this flawed some of her fundamental arguments.

Ultimately, this was a unique essay. I learnt a lot, have many take away arguments and counter arguments, and I also really want to rewatch Jurassic Park.

Thank you to Netgalley and EWC Press for the ARC.

Clever Girl is the feminist analysis of the hit 1993 movie Jurassic Park that you didn't know you needed. Starting from the premise that this classic dinosaur film can actually tell us a lot about how our culture views women, monstrosity, and nature, this brief read is full of incisive insights and presented in a wryly humorous, pop culturally informed style. This book certainly made me rethink one of my favorite films and has primed me to evaluate media more critically as a result, all while keeping me interested and entertained.

For those who like trips down nostalgia lane mixed with philosophical analysis. A fun time to be had by all.

Any reason to re-watch Jurassic Park is always welcome, so I was glad to read Clever Girl by Hannah McGregor. This is a very smart, humourous feminist interpretation of the movie, which is well-written, and something I greatly appreciated.

I have read several of the Pop Classics books from ECW, and this is the first one that I've not loved. Most of my issue with this book comes with the way it's loosely connected to the premise that it states - that "Jurassic Park", the movie, is a story of feminism and queerness. I think that would have made a great book, that's the book I thought I was picking up to read. And there were parts of the book that did deal with that. However, I felt like the connections made to Jurassic Park were tenuous, unless it was one of the more explicit connections from Laura Dern's character's dialogue.

I felt like "Clever Girl" jumped all over the place and I had a really hard time staying focused on the book due to this. There was a lot of interesting stuff in here, but it just didn't connect to the thesis set out at the beginning. Had I gone in to the book expecting more of the author's personal reflections on queerness and feminism, connected to various pop culture totems, I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more. There were parts I highlighted and that made me laugh. But as a book connecting Jurassic Park and the ideas of feminism and queerness, I felt it was lacking.

I've read another of these little Ecw Press essays that examine pockets of culturally significant moments, movies or people and found the content to be really interesting - so I jumped at the chance to read their newest release which looks at Jurassic Park. Hannah Mcgregor does a surprisingly good job at engaging the none Jurassic Park viewer (ie me) into this examination on femininity, queerness and the broader idea of the female monster trope. I also got a good sense of the movies ideas and how it linked into societies thinking of the time.

I do like these little snippets of ideas and essays, as they give a flavour of subjects that can then be researched at greater depth by the reader if they wish. They also show a real passion for the subject from the writer.

Jurassic Park is my all time fav movie so getting to review a book that weaves the movie in with queer and feminist commentary was right up my alley. McGregor’s writing is sharp and witty and their ideas left me feeling like a clever girl. Her mixed use of personal and academic interwove beautifully through this book and meant that few, if any, of the ideas she was presenting should be our with the understanding of someone new to these ideas and thought processes.

I would recommend this book if you love essay collections, Jurassic Park and sharp queer/feminist commentary!

A brilliant addition to the already great Pop Classics Series. One of my all time favourite films that has been cleverly analysed and look at through a feminist eye. Absolutely brilliant and has been ordered in for my stores for release day.

I'm a huge fan of the Jurassic Park franchise and I also love to read feminist/queer books so I had to request this book right away. I will never see the movies the same again, but in a good way.

I thought it would have a bit more on the dinosaurs, but I liked the way that the author added a bit of her life. I also really liked how women and the dinosaurs were a lot alike.

If you enjoy dinosaurs and political/feminist books then I think you will love this book.

Part film criticism, part memoir, McGregor provides an analysis of the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park as they relate to feminism, capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy. Her film analysis is insightful and thought provoking and the chunks of memoir that make their way into the text provide valuable context for the critique.

Thank you to Netgalley and ECW Press for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I genuinely enjoyed reading this - McGregor clearly knows her stuff about dinosaurs (and many other topics) and is very engaging when using Jurassic Park as a jumping off point. I found their writing most interesting when they weren't directly trying to weave a connection between feminist thinking and female velociraptors, as fun as I wanted that argument to be. The first section of the book, on gender and Jurassic Park, often felt like a reach, whereas the sections on colonialism, ecology and apocalypse were much more absorbing and incisive in their commentary. I was particularly engrossed in the section on apocalyptic thinking; McGregor made me think about dinosaurs and how people picture them as part of the planet's history in a much deeper way. This did also make me want to read more books in this series, for thoughtful takes on other films and their historical/cultural/scientific contexts.

monstrous queer femme world take over WHEN?! taking this as call to action. loved loved loved.

i will be following hannah mcgregor to the ends of the earth

dinosaur eats man. woman inherits the earth.

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hannah McGregor, Clever Girl, Jurassic Park, ECW Press, October 2024.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

Clever Girl, Jurassic Park is written in a style that I often find unappealing. However, I must acknowledge that I was so captivated by the perceptive commentary, the substantial research that underlies the challenging style and Hannah McGregor’s strong personality that emerges through the pages, that I thoroughly enjoyed my reading. McGregor combines her own experiences with the narratives that emerge from the Jurassic Park franchise. She concentrates on the first, Jurassic Park, with some comments (frequently negative) about the others that follow. With her perceptive feminist approach, this book makes an excellent contribution to academic feminist film ideas, as well as a thoughtful read for those who are not in academe.

McGregor dives straight into the film’s use of female dinosaurs as spectacles, accepting that films are about the cinematic gaze and that such a gaze is gendered as explained by Laura Mulvay, the feminist film theorist. However, she soon diverts into the use of remains (in the case of dinosaurs) and non-normative bodies (in the case of circus acts) as a part of popular culture. Such diversions are an important part of this book, taking as they do, an example arising from McGregor’s study of Jurassic Park and developing discussions that rove widely, although making strong points about both the film, audiences and discriminatory practice in popular culture. An early discursive discussion relates to the technology associated with devising the dinosaurs to amaze and maintain the audience gaze. Most importantly, however, is McGregor’s unpacking of the woman as monster as depicted through the Velociraptors who eat humans and do not reproduce.

Clever Girl, Jurassic Park is an exciting read, replete with discussions that amuse, anger and inform. There is a bibliography, and the acknowledgements include Hannah McGregor’s explanation for the inspiration for her book, and her generous and joyful recognition of her community.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

I have never read any of McGregor's other works or listened to their podcast or anything, so this was the first exposure i've had to them. I requested this book because the synopsis sounded interesting (i love dinosaurs and jurassic park was my favorite movie when i was younger!), though I wish i knew it was more of a collection of essays than a traditional book.

I enjoyed it, but because I didn't know it was a collection of essays, I was a little disappointed by the writing style and tone. I am not a huge reader of feminist/queer literature so I do not think this was the book for me but i did enjoy her take and am inspired to rewatch Jurassic Park!