Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
For as long as I’ve been part of the size acceptance movement (oh, excuse me, it’s “body positive” now!), I’ve read surprisingly few books about it or by its leaders. I consider Lindy West one of those leaders. Just by being “loud,” happy, feminist, and unapologetically fat, she is a role model.
While parts of this book are about gut-wrenchingly sad times in her life, this is overall a very upbeat book. Lindy is funny even when she’s talking about terrible things. I caught a couple of minor “oopsies” as far as the narration goes, but that just made her more real as a person to me.
Another thing that I encountered in this book as a first: she’s been subjected to even more online harassment, stalking, and threats than I have, which is rare. She became a target by being a fat journalist, and then really gathered the ire of the neckbeards living in their parents’ basements by standing up against rape jokes. I hate that she’s experiencing it, but it felt good to commiserate with her, so to speak.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
