Gave up after 3 chapters. Couldn't stand the writing very patronising and trying to be cool. Like the subject matter but would prefer a more serious book.

I couldn't even finish this because of the utterly poor writing. Not everything needs a bad joke to try and be relevant. This could have been done well. Unfortunately it wasn't.

I really wanted to like this book, really, really, but I struggled with the narration. The first was too gushy and I just couldn't cope with all the superlatives. It's a shame because the content was interesting.

I definitely enjoyed this book the more I read on. I'm just really not a fan of this writing style and find it cringey and forced. That being said this was a really nice book to pick up everytime I had 5 or 10 minutes to spare. I enjoyed learning about incredible women most of whom I had never heard of before including, some I definitely should have since they directly paved the road for women to participate in activities I enjoy such as Bobbi Gibb. If anything I would have preferred a bit more information and less women however it does provide a good list of women to find out more about myself.

I didn’t read this. To be honest, I barely gave it much of a try because it was so horrendously written and quite tone deaf. For a book about ‘gender rebels’, it mis-genders trans people. I’d love to have found out some more about the people the author focused on, but I couldn’t stand the ‘quirky’ style of writing. Luckily I got it free as part of the Amazon first-reads scheme. I always plan to finish books I start, even the bad ones but this one I just can’t manage so I’ve had to set up a ‘DNF’ shelf in goodreads just for this.

TL;DR I hated this book!

This book is everything I would normally love, and at least it is a list of fascinating people to research further. The book itself however? Extremely disappointing and so frustrating to listen to. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author herself, Maya Jama, Suranne Jones and Gemma Cairney, and the narrators do a decent job with what is very poor material.
The author sounds like someone trying to use modern slang without actually understanding it, and insists on giving the people "cool" nicknames which in my opinion frequently came across as disrespectful. A lot of the time there was barely any information about the actual person, which was extremely disappointing.
In the end I gave up half-way through as I found myself getting too frustrated with the content.

*I received a free copy through Netgalley, but the review is my own opinion*

I enjoyed this audiobook thoroughly. It’s a snapshot of 50 women who, for some period of time in their lives, lived as men. The narration was fun and the pace was good. However, audio-wise, the ALC from NetGalley was missing several chapters - I think 9 in all? - and the book would just randomly stop playing. That’s a problem that needs fixing!

My biggest gripe was that while I enjoy the occasional authorial interjection, it often pulled me out of the story of the women being lifted up. I am wary of a lot of contemporary commentary here; five years from now it’s going to sound outdated, and I think that does a disservice to the immense amount of work and love that went into this book. Also puns tend to annoy me so that part wasn’t up my alley.

I wish we had more meat to a lot of these stories. Not much is known about these women beyond snippets, and that is a damned shame.

This was my second "Amazon First Reads" books and, like the previous one, I didn't get on with it.

Despite the lengthy bibliography at the end, I found these pen portraits of women who, in one way other, had to impersonate men to get on in the world, shallow. Added to that was the writing style which just wasn't for me; this would have suited a blog or short column but not a book. Regrettably, therefore, I've given it one star.