This book manages to pull off both whimsy and creepy which is to be applauded. The vibes are where this books shines as the characters and plot are both more passable than anything. I appreciate the representation in this book but some of it did feel a little thrown together for the sake of it. Since this book isn't long at all, this is a wonderful read as a breather between more in depth books. Read this for the vibes and you'll get what you're looking for.

I love the tension that Gay grapples with between being a feminist and being imperfect; rejecting purity tests and cancel culture is a necessity if feminism is to continue to move forward. As Gay says in the book, no feminist movement will be perfect because they're all made up of humans. She also develops some of the early popular thinking about intersectionality outside of textbooks and classrooms here and while it's not as developed as an intersectional text from 2026, it is valuable to observe some of the seeds planted in 2014.

Gay comments on quite a bit of media in this book which makes it feel extremely dated now 12 years later (a think piece about The Help in 2026 feels nowhere near as revolutionary as it did in 2014). Nonetheless, I really enjoyed reading examples of a feminist reading of popular media; learning from examples gives us something to model our own thinking after and whether I agreed with all of Gay's takes or not, she grappled with media in an honest and charitable way that I admire. That being said, after she started talking about movies, she lost me a bit, but I'm also not very interested in movies, so that may be a personal issue.

Additionally, there are some words and conversation frameworks that come straight from 2014 and may be less than inspiring for some readers. Some of her takes about fatness and some of the words she left in without comment (ableist and homophobic slurs) are things that may not have raised a brow in 2014 but definitely shouldn't be taken into 2026. I found these things disappointing but ultimately could move past them because this is all so very 2014. The nuance that we've developed outside of academic circles has only come with all of the work that took place in the last 12 years and thus something from 12 years ago cannot have benefited from it, but not every reader will find it as forgivable so it is something to be aware of going in.

In many ways, I loved this book. Being imperfect and being held to such high standards of perfection only leads to burnout which makes longevity for activism and organizing near impossible. We must not morally surveil one another and we must allow for our fellow feminists to be imperfect. In other ways, this was not my favorite. Because the media and era of conversation, this does feel extremely dated and while it may have blown my mind in 2014, it doesn't now. For those who are students of more developed intersectional feminism, this may read like a big nothingburger. But the buns for the nothingburger are Gay's comments about being a "bad feminist" and I found that part delicious. I would be very interested in reading a 2026 update of Gay's thinking to see if the seeds planted here have grown into something that would ring more true to me and others now.