I first heard of Deborah Biancotti two years ago at a Conflux Convention. I encountered her in a crime panel when I decided to break up my steady diet of epic fantasy, doctor who and steampunk panels with some discussion of the police procedural. Her books sounded like a deliciously wicked blend of speculative fiction and gritty police drama along the lines of the stuff Robson Green did in shows like Touching Evil and Wire in the Blood. Besides, Deborah was so entertaining at the Ditmar Awards that I decided to follow up on her work. As usual, my backlog of books ran away from me and it took me an entire year to read Bad Power, a collection of five linked short stories which combine gritty police procedural with supernatural abilities in an Australian setting.

From the blurb:

Hate superheroes?
Yeah. They probably hate you, too.

From Crawford Award nominee Deborah Biancotti
comes this sinister short story suite, a pocketbook
police procedural, set in a world where the victories are
only relative, and the defeats are absolute. Bad Power
celebrates the worst kind of powers both supernatural
and otherwise, in the interlinked tales of five people —
and how far they’ll go.

I loved this read. First of all there is the language. Such unusual, disturbing and beautiful use of language. The only other writer I know of who operates in the same language space is Margo Lanagan, whose novel Sea Hearts is one of the best I’ve ever read in the genre. Back to Biancotti. I felt like I could visualize everything that happened in all five stories. At the same time, there was a cynical realness to dialogue that grounded me in the moment.

The collection is also clever and fairly unique because of the way that each story ties explicitly into the next. Setting and characters carry over, revealing gradually more and more about the world of Bad Power. This also means that interesting characters bound up in noir ambiguity, darkness and light and confusion and pain can make continual comebacks. My favourite stories were those that featured Detective Palmer, she who slowly begins to realise that there are people in this world with powers, some of them used for good, some for bad and all leading back to the mysterious Grey Institute. In particular, Palming The Lady and Cross That Bridge stand out. It probably goes without saying that Detective Palmer is a wonderfully feminist character.

Bad Power is exceptionally well written, but it is also exceptionally smart, investigating the common crime themes of corruption, power play and desire through the lens of humans who discover their super powers and begin to use them for ill as much as for good. Powers might vary, Biancotti seems to say, but human foibles do not, with even the police force having their moments of greed and doubt and insecurities. You’d think that this would make for a rather depressing read, and it does to an extent, but Biancotti is humanist and small acts of kindness and decency protect against a modern world which smothers us in deception and lies and deceit.

This book was so good I teetered on the verge of giving it five stars. The only reason I haven’t is because the story ends in medias res with quite a few elements unresolved. I presume this is because Deborah is working on the novels or a follow up collection set in the same universe. If she isn’t there is no justice in this world and I will chuck a temper tantrum. This is the most I’ve enjoyed a short story collection since Gaiman’s Fragile Things.

Bad Power: 4.5/5 inky stars

You can purchase Bad Power from Twelfth Planet Press here. Other books by Deborah Biancotti are A Book of Endings and The Dead Shall Outnumber The Living from the Ishtar anthology.

River Song

Ah Professor Song. What an unexpected delight you proved to be. When I first saw River alongside Ten in the Moffat two parter Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, she made little to no impression, joining the ranks of people in s4 who became ‘the companions who never were.’ So little did she register on my character radar, I was left asking River Who? when she was announced as appearing in Time of Angels. From the opening few minutes of Time of Angels, the character felt fresh and revitalized: from her coy use of hallucinogenic lipstick, the peroxide blonde curls which she fluffed coolly to the confident way she knew that The Doctor beguiled would pick her up from space.So much did I grow to love River in series 5, I wrote an essay on her for my gender politics class in first year university.

River is such a refreshingly feminist character, I could write a book about it. Now nobody but the most die hard of Whovians have time for that, so I have made a list instead. Below the list are criticisms that people have of River and my responses.

Reasons Why River is a Feminist Character 101:

1. Alex Kingston is allowed to play an older, sexy, desirable woman, sometimes in a near lead part, alongside the youngest Doctor ever. For those who are thinking ‘so what?’ have you watched TV lately? When’s the last time you saw a sexy, older woman be allowed to be a sexy, older woman without the TV story harshing on her? Be honest now.

2. Following on from the last point, in a show about Doctor Who ie The Doctor ie white, male Brit actor, River is often smarter, wiser, more compassionate even, then The Doctor (well, she is a Pond). She spends a lot of her screen time making fun of The Doctor and solving problems he can’t solve. Lest we all forget the enormously entertaining time she told The Doctor to use his screwdriver to build a cabinet whilst she shot down The Silence. Some fans didn’t like this at all. To them I say, keep your sexist opinion to yourself. That kind of attitude says a lot about you and not a lot about Moffat.

3. River Song doesn’t care about rules or gender norms. River does things like date aliens with multiple heads to keep things interesting. River does things like shoot The Doctor’s fez because we all know it isn’t really cool. River does things like break out of prison all of the time in the most brazen way possible because why not? River does things like threaten to destroy the universe to save the person she loves because deep down you can’t keep a bad girl down. Remember Point No. 1? Alex was over 50 for all 13 episodes she appeared in. Just saying.

4. River Song is smart. She’s a professor of archaeology after all, and all of the best companions have a healthy respect for history (Evelyn Smythe). She runs rings around us ordinary folk. It must be a 51st century thing.

I could go on further but I feel like that covers the basics. Now, from what I read within fandom, most people didn’t have a problem with River as a sexist character initially. People disliked her because they weren’t fans of Alex or because they didn’t like River being depicted as The Doctor’s equal (oh the irony) or because they didn’t like the romance angle. This all changed with the dire yet utterly mad Let’s Kill Hitler and The Wedding of River Song in Series 6 which revealed that River was Amy’s child, stolen by The Silence to destroy The Doctor. River is redeemed by The Doctor in Let’s Kill Hitler after her attempted murder fails. She then refuses to follow through on fate in The Wedding of River Song, nearly destroying the universe in the process. People didn’t like this seemingly sudden linear approach to Doctor Who’s Time Traveler’s Wife take which seemed to indicate that River’s birth, childhood and adulthood had all been molded and shaped by The Doctor, in an echo of Amy.

I again repeat what I said in my first essay. That is one aspect of the story but it is not all of River. We do not see her life outside of the show which revolves around The Doctor as the main character. This is because the show is not the River show. It is The Doctor show. We do know that River has adventures separate to her life with The Doctor. Hence her relationships with unmet aliens and humans, her archaeological adventures (why was there no spin off?), her refusal to travel full time with The Doctor because the fun is in the not knowing when they’d next meet. It was interesting that River refused. Hardly the actions of someone whose entire identity revolved around The Doctor.

Besides, I feel people miss the point of River’s character arc in Series 6. Moffat’s Doctors aren’t about Gods and destiny ala RTD and Ten. Moffat’s Doctors are about being catalysts for change, about bringing out the best in humans so that they bring out the best part in The Doctor. River is stolen away as a baby and brainwashed to kill The Doctor. When she is outwitted The Doctor gives her a choice to choose a different way. He knows it. Because his first is her last. That doesn’t make River predictable. It gives her agency. Agency to claim any identity she wants as long as that identity is not one based on hate and anger. That isn’t about gender politics. It’s about humanism. And so we end up with series 5, 6.1, and 7.1 River who is bad ass and wild and sexy and and smart and blows shit up for fun. We end with post library River in The Name of the Doctor who gets her Doctor closure and… chooses to let go and accept her fate, fading away. River, you strong woman, I salute you.

Clara Oswald

After The nuanced Pond’s, Clara felt stale before she even got started. Though she had strong starts as Dalek Oswin in Asylum of the Daleks and as governess Clara in The Snowmen,, throughout series 7 she remained more of a plot device than a character. People choose to read this as Moffat’s propensity for sexism. I read it as Moffat’s propensity to write complex and detailed plots using characters like stiff set pieces to move plots forward. A story telling failing? Absolutely! Sexist? Harder to determine, not living inside Moffat’s head and understanding his intent.

From the Series 7 finale on, something strange and kind of magical happened. Clara became important. Really important. Not just pretty sidekick companion important to the plot because of reasons. Actually, meaningfully and powerfully important within the entire Who canon. First, it turns out she tells The Doctor to take that faulty TARDIS, second, she discovers his secret and sees all of him in a way no other companions have, thirdly, she makes The Doctor see a way to go back and prevent himself from committing genocide to end the Time War, fourthly, she is one of the only companions to see The Doctor’s childhood, even offering him words of comfort about fear and creatures under your bed, fifth, she BECOMES the freaking Doctor in the excellent Flatline, sixth, she manages to prolong near certain cyber death in Death in Heaven by pretending to be The Doctor, earning Jenna Coleman the privilege of being the first ever companion to have her name come before the actor playing The Doctor in the opening credits, seventh, she spends all of series 8 telling and showing The Doctor that she won’t be bossed around by him, spending many episodes solving alien problems herself before The Doctor gets near them. So unexpectedly important has Clara become in The Doctor’s life, a friend of mine has re-titled the show and her, Clara Who?

That doesn’t excuse the woeful Series 7. Or the limp injection of the Danny/Clara story line into series 8, and the poor writing that created these messes. By the same token, it doesn’t make Clara a sexist character. It makes her a partially poorly written one. In Series 8 she becomes more though: control freak, passionate lover, angry avenger, teacher, problem solver and most importantly, a close friend. It helps that Jenna is an excellent actress. I’m not entirely sold on Clara as a character, but I do think we should acknowledge the audacity of Moffat making her the unexpected linchpin of the show. Hardly a sexist move.

Missy

I admit, I am not objective when it comes to Missy. I was in love from the second she manically spun around her creepy version of Heaven in Deep Breath.

People have made lots of dumb claims about Missy on the internet. How dare Moffat change a Time Lord’s gender some say. Fuck off, sexist twits, I say. This post sends up some choice examples of the idiocy and is entertaining to boot. Others complain that Moffat is a sexist pig because as soon as he started writing a female Master she flirted with The Doctor. I admit, I feel vaguely sorry for these people. Have they read fanfic.net? Livejournal? Tumblr? Oh bless, have they ever seen a single canon Master story? People have been slashing this pairing for years, and um yes folks, that means shipping Doctor/Master same sex (oh the horror!). Still others (I believe MarySue was one of them), complained that a female Master merely served to mock fans who want a female Doctor and have no hope of getting one. This is so unfounded I can’t even. Unless you are determined to hate on Moffat in the face of all evidence to the contrary, it is evident that he is trying to push the possibility of a female Doctor on to many fans radars. Not everyone has thought about it as much as the rest of us have. Some people are dead against it. Change needs to be introduced slowly. Hence Gaiman’s The Doctor’s Wife, which revealed Time Lords can switch gender, the Missy gender change reveal, and the conversation at the end of Death in Heaven where Clara suggests to The Doctor that he could return home to be a Queen rather than a King and he agrees with her. If The Doctor is cast as a female next regeneration, I will be mocking half of the internet. I told you so.

Michelle Gomez is great as Missy and I am glad that she is playing a more Delgado style Master. I like that she is chillingly evil and like a deranged Mary Poppins at the same time. I like that her reason for her plan was the most interesting plan a Master has had in years. I like that she manipulates humanity and The Doctor with lies and deception the same as every other Master before her. Her gender has changed, but if anything, she felt the most masterish for a long time. Poor Moffat. He casts the best person for the role (and across the internet and fandom it’s pretty widely acknowledged that Michelle was the best person for the role) and writes the character in a way that doesn’t depend on gender stereotypes (If you can’t see that The Master/Doctor nose kiss was about power, I give up) and people still accuse Moffat of Missy sexism. The poor man can never win.

In Summary:

Look, it’s no secret that I dig Moffat Who. I think that his stories are richer and subtler and more nuanced than RTD’s. I think that he dares to be audacious and break audience expectations. I think that he dares to push boundaries. I think that he dares to make unpopular decisions for the sake of stories with wide appeal. It’s also no secret that I think my faves, including Moffat, can be problematic. The second half of series 6 and series 7 is best never mentioned again, OK?

However, I don’t think my fave is problematic because he writes sexist characters. I think he writes roles for women which push TV boundaries. I think he sometimes manages to write feminist characters, and actually, the score is that he writes them on Who more often than not.

I passionately believe that Moffat is problematic because his ambitions don’t always fit the television medium and his crack makes it from the page to the screen without a filter. I passionately believe that Moffat can be unintentionally problematic about his characters because he writes complex plots and forgets how to characterize.

I also passionately believe that Moffat is not sexist. I passionately believe that Moffat Who is one of the most unexpectedly feminist shows on TV, and that the internet heat is mostly a lot of ill informed and poorly contextualized hot air. And this essay has ended without even mentioning the lesbian relationship between a lizard alien and a human woman…

I am feminist and I really, really, really love Moffat Doctor Who. I’m done (re)explaining why.

Sometime around when I first started getting involved with the Australian spec fic scene, I told myself I needed to get my head above my comfortable reading parapet and venture to new parts of the imagination. This blog was a part of doing this. I only half kept my promise. I never read or reviewed horror. That was because I’m a scaredy cat when it comes to descriptions of violence, bodily fluids and guts being slung about and also because I am an idiot. Good horror of course goes beyond such things.

Last year at the Aurealis, I chatted with Jason Nahrung (an Australian horror writer) and told him about my horror reading conundrum. He told me, ‘Read Perfections. It is psychological horror and reads like literary fiction and even if you hate the horror, you’ll like the beautiful language.’ When Kirstyn’s novel was re-published as a physical print I took him up on his promise. I was not disappointed.

From the blurb:

Two sisters. One wish. Unimaginable consequences.

Their lives swiftly unravelling, the two sisters find themselves drawn into a tangle of lies, manipulations and the most terrible of family secrets.

Jason was right. I loved the language, but I also found myself enjoying more than that. From the big things like a story set firmly in Australia (I used to think the spec fic scene was awash with only European and American settings, which is true to an extent, but since writing myself I have found a lot of brilliant Australian writers with the seeds for their stories planted in parts of Australia. Kirstyn is another to add to the list), an outcast goth sister who I could relate to, hard truths about feminism, gender politics, sexuality and careers which didn’t make me want to murder the author and creepy plot twists that I didn’t see coming to the small things like an Emilie Autumn shout out (seriously guys, Opheliac is one of the greatest songs ever) and pockets of prose that sing like good poetry. This story has the added bonus of being accessible to both genre and non-genre readers, being planted firmly in the real world with relationship trauma and family ties and fractures explored, even as magic plays a part in the horror that unfolds.

I really enjoyed this novel of dark desires and bitter spells and hope that I can find my kindle after a spell State-side so that I can download Madigan’s Mine and the Aurealis winning short story collection, Caution: Contains Small Parts also by McDermott.

You can purchase Perfections through the Twelfth Planet Press website here. You can also find Kirstyn’s work on e-reader.

Perfections: 4.5/5 inky stars

First of all I don’t think I’m going to get anywhere without some basic frameworks to go off. Some quick QandA to get started;

Is InkAshlings feminist?

Yes, I identify strongly with being feminist; I believe in equality between all genders and I believe in smashing the patriarchy. Take a look at this blog and it should become apparent pretty fast. Maybe I don’t need to say this but you never know who will come calling.

What is feminism?
Leaving aside the issue of faux feminists, I do know that the definition itself is contested. To save on confusion I’m going with the most broadly known and popular via wikipedia.

Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women.

What is sexism?

Let’s have a basic sexism definition from dictionary.com (slightly more nuanced than wikipedia’s).

1.
attitudes or behavior based on traditional stereotypes of sexual roles.
2.
discrimination or devaluation based on a person’s sex, as in restricted job opportunities; especially, such discrimination directed against women.

What experience do you have in fandom and have you actually read feminist criticisms of Moffat within fandom?

I have been ‘active’ online since 2007. I’ve been involved in forums, on twitter and tumblr, obviously wordpress, dreamwidth and livejournal. I have read STFU Moffat and other tumblr users comments on Moffat Who. I have read blog posts. I have listened to my friends. I have engaged with the debate on livejournal comms. I hear your points of view. I really do. Some of them I don’t take seriously because they are arguments that start from a warped understanding of feminism. Some are arguments that I can understand but still don’t agree with because of a wider show context which I either believe you have missed or I interpret differently to you. Some I do agree with. Sometimes my faves write problematic things. Sometimes Doctor Who is problematic. It doesn’t change the fact that Moffat Who remains imaginative and humanist and boundary pushing for me.

So, how are Amy, Rory and River feminist characters?

You will notice I have deliberately left Clara out. Clara is problematic. I will discuss her last. You will also notice that I counted Rory as a feminist. That’s because I believe that the way the show has written Rory is as a male feminist. For the sake of ease of analysis, I will take each Pond in turn.

Amy

“There is such a place as fairyland – but only children can find the way to it. And they do not know that it is fairyland until they have grown so old that they forget the way. One bitter day, when they seek it and cannot find it, they realize what they have lost; and that is the tragedy of life. On that day the gates of Eden are shut behind them and the age of gold is over. Henceforth they must dwell in the common light of common day. Only a few, who remain children at heart, can ever find that fair, lost path again; and blessed are they above mortals. They, and only they, can bring us tidings from that dear country where we once sojourned and from which we must evermore be exiles. The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and story-tellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland.” The Story Girl, Lucy M Montgomery

A quick digression: I have never disliked a companion on New Who. Rose had a rubbish story line that revolved around her needing the doctor (more on this later) but Billie Piper is pretty great (if you say otherwise so help you…) and Donna as played by Catherine Tate could come across as annoyingly shrill but she also called Ten out on his silliness and was a marvelous friend to him. But my favourite New Who companions are ones who show agency, who make real and meaningful choices separate from The Doctor. Martha might have spent her time mired in scripts that left her endlessly pining for Ten, but I can’t have been the only one cheering her choice to leave the TARDIS in s3. I found it to be empowering and believable.

Enter Amy Pond. Feisty and sexy TM, yes, but also flawed and hurting and terrified of commitments. Amy cannot be boiled down to a sexist stereotype. Amy, the girl who waited for a raggedy man and then… grew up. This post does not seek to deal with every criticism of Amy Pond. I want to hit publish before midnight, but I will try and cover the main ones. First off, to those who cry sexist at Amy wearing short skirts and colourful, bright attire, I am sorry but go away. Equality between genders encompasses the right to wear clothing of choice in safety without being called names. Amy wearing a particular outfit in and of itself is not sexist. Amy wearing short clothes to be a subject of the male gaze is. Some believe Amy was only ever eye candy. I find this to be reductionism of the most blatant kind and I will not engage on this.

Second criticism, Amy only existed for The Doctor; in series 5 she grew up expecting him to turn up again after he appeared to her as a kid and she role played stories based off that experience. She is only freed of The Doctor when she marries Rory and fulfills hetero-normative expectations. This is true but only to a point because Moffat is doing two things; first he is operating within a mythos of Peter Pan fairy story that isn’t about gender at all. It’s actually about childhood and adulthood and growing up. The Amy Pond ‘girl who waited’ story could have worked in the same way if Rory and her role had been reversed. This is an incredibly common fantasy trope and is much more about believing in fairies than it is about gender roles. Or to quote Dumbledore, we’re in the territory of, ‘of course it’s in your head, Harry, but why on earth should that make it any less real?’ This theme is obvious and it permeates Moffat’s run in RTD era Who and throughout Eleven’s run because Eleven is the alien who can’t interfere in people or planet’s unless he hears a child crying.

Secondly, Moffat subverts the traditional secondary female character falling for main male hero narrative (used by RTD with Rose/Ten) by having Amy make a choice. Amy chooses Rory because Amy discovers she loves Rory and not The Doctor. The (problematic) kissing at the end of Flesh and Stone and the (also problematic) way that Amy attempts to kiss The Doctor at the end of The Big Bang are not about male gaze. It is character development. Any child offered at a young, impressionable and imaginative age the chance to travel the stars with a mad man with a box would have difficulties adjusting to ordinary life (it’s one of the reasons why novelist Amy in The Bells of St John makes so much sense) and any child who grows up without stable authority figures would be afraid of commitment. Amy is strong willed and adventurous and flirtatious but she is also flawed and mean and petty and scared. That makes her well rounded in my eyes. A quick note on the wedding; a woman choosing to get married to someone she loves it not sexist. In the case of The Pond’s it is also an extension of the fairy story subversion. Fairy stories end when the princess gets the rich prince at her wedding. Moffat shows what happens after the wedding when messy human emotions kick in.

Then we hit Series 6 and the criticism became that Amy was Moffat’s River incubator. What’s more Amy can’t have children ever again because of The Doctor. I agree that Series 6 was problematic. It didn’t feel believable that Amy and Rory bounced back so fast after A Good Man Goes to War. I don’t think Amy is only an incubator. It baffles me that again people try to reduce a nuanced character to this. Yes, she spends half of s6 being pregnant, but she also spends her time (as she did in s5 much to many peoples discomfort, which says more about them than Moffat) pointing out The Doctor’s flaws and foibles, putting his feet back to earth and solving problems he can’t solve. In Series 7, the Amy/Rory divorce is shoe horned in but again I don’t think it’s sexist. It makes sense within the fairy story growing up framework that Moffat has going. Amy can’t settle to ordinary life and she fails to communicate with Rory and he with her. This isn’t sexist. This is an honest look at human relationships. When both are helped by The Doctor to communicate, they repair the relationship and become closer than ever. They also make the sensible, if unpopular decision to stop being full time TARDIS occupants. Why? Because Amy has finally grown up. She doesn’t need The Doctor’s mythos any more because real life has supplied its own mythos; that of love. Her life no longer revolves around The Doctor. It revolves around living with Rory whom she loves as well as having a range of creative jobs covering a kissogram, perfume creator, model and then writer.

Amy starts off as a character with little or no agency because she is a child who sees things upside down. Her adventures with The Doctor help her see her path more clearly and she chooses that path. She is written in a way that gives her equal standing with the two important men in her life (The Doctor and Rory) and she makes independent decisions about where she has headed and is heading. She moves from a character with no agency to a character with agency. Ten’s companions tell themselves (and The Lonely God allows them to believe it) that they aren’t anything without The Doctor (Rose needs a human Doctor to feel fulfilled and Donna has her memory erased, her character development set back to zero and is granted her own empty white wedding complete with a Doctor gifted lottery ticket) – the exception to this being Martha who refuses to be defined by The Doctor as a secondary Rose and therefore chooses to walk out – but Amy is allowed a level of growing self worth and agency that is unusual on a show that for so long has been about the male hero. As, Moffat reminded us at the end of Angels Take Manhatten, ironically, s5-7.5 was always ‘the story of Amy Pond.’

Rory Pond

A brief section on Rory. I love Rory. I love him fierce. Here is a man who waited 2000 years for the woman he loved. Here is a man who is comfortable in his traditionally feminine role as nurse. Here is a man who is comfortable being known as Rory Pond even if the patriarchal institution of marriage dictates otherwise on paper. Here is a man who recognizes that his wife needs more than the ordinary to be fulfilled so he keeps travelling through time and space even though the adventures really, really scare him. Here is the man who helps to defend those he loves but is still nurturing and caring and is OK with that.

Married to Amy Pond, how could Rory be anything but a male feminist?

I don’t find the Pond’s sexist. The Pond’s are my favorite story on New Who. Heck, they are one of my favorite love stories ever. I say that as an identifying feminist. And I’m done repeating it.

Post 2 will discuss River and Clara. This post turned mammoth. I have had four years to think this out. Comments are screened same as usual

I am excited today to have Doris on the blog with a spot of advice, to show you just what all the fuss is about and just who Doris is. Don’t be afraid, she doesn’t bite and it has been proven beyond scientific fact she has no teeth, but her wit is sharp and she does tend to rip into you if you stray away from being true to yourself.

With Valentine’s Day behind us and the lonely hearts club back to drinking wine from a box or perhaps, hitting the clubs again, there are still a lot of gals trying to figure out a way to keep their dignity intact and still find a man who excites them and will make them happy throughout their lives…or at least have a serious and stable relationship with! Maybe even those whose glitterific relationship has lost some of it’s shine needs a bit of a boost!

Are you game? We also will be having a live interview with the Cabin Goddess, Kriss (she is also one of the head Fairies here), and a central Facebook event page where you can post questions for Doris throughout the tour, get updates and links during the tour and ask more info on the novella! Everyone in the know has been itching to see this book get everywhere and in have people join them in reading it and laughing just as hard as they did! You won’t even need cream afterwards.. perhaps a glass of wine and a new boyfriend, but not any cream!

Can Doris describe the perfect guy (or should that be penis)?

Doris: The perfect guy? Bahahahaha. Ahem, sorry. My idea of a close-to-perfect guy and penis (we have to at least aim for something that exists) is one who respects the woman and wants to make her vagina happy too. A man who is honest, loving, tries to do his best — even if he doesn’t always succeed. He also has to be able to say “Yes, you’re right. I was wrong.” If he can’t say this, he isn’t honest and will never learn. And the penis has to be disease-free and not aggressive — I don’t do diseases or violence (as you probably already know).

Book Review
Close Call by Eloise March
RRP: 99c Ebook, $8 physical print
Publication Date: 2013

Wow- where to start with this short, but very entertaining, read? I admit that it was the gorgeous cover that first drew me in. It’s one of those rare covers that actually looks like the cover artist has read the novel and designed accordingly. The author’s goodreads blurb is also pretty accurate. Think cross between Bridget Jones Diary and The Vagina Monologues and you end up with Close Call – a story that dares to ask what would happen if our private parts could talk. Not only does it dare to put our privates at centre stage, author Eloise March goes a brave step further in giving female, rather than male genitalia, the floor. Yes, this is a short, very feminist, novella about a 22 year old named Jemma who just can’t seem to find her Mr Right. Luckily, her vagina, Doris, is able to help (albeit with sometimes disastrous results).

As well as being feminist in giving women and their sexual desires voice in a world that often doesn’t, varied sexuality is also explored in this piece (vagina’s liking vagina’s is discussed). However, I do wonder if homosexuality will come up in later novella’s in the series. I feel like I’d like to see this for the sake of fairness. But that’s not the central concern. This novella celebrates what it means to be ‘woman’ with humour and relatable situations galore. I especially enjoyed the ditzy blonde cousin whose Vagina is called Va Gina and who is just as idiotic and snobby as her ‘owner.’

Close Call is a fun, short and ‘woman’ affirming read. I did laugh reading it on the train next to the conservative looking elderly couple!

The only drawback? This is a fast read and the next in the series isn’t out yet!

Close Call: 4/5 inky stars

And finally… an interview with Dionne Lister AKA Eloise March!

1. Where did the idea for a book about talking genitals start?

On Facebook. I was there one day (well, I’m there every day but we won’t discuss my addiction to social media) and one of those sidebar ads kept taunting me. It was a weight-loss ad, because I’m a woman, Facebook feels I need to be targeted by those things. The ad had a unique way of grabbing attention: it was a picture of an offensive piece of fruit that looked like, well, a person ‘chucking a brown eye’ or a woman spreading her legs. Then I (naturally) thought Imagine if someone put an picture of a vagina on the cover of their book – that would certainly get lots of attention, and then I took it one step further: what if the main character was a vagina?

2. When did you find out you were a feminist?

I’ve always been one, but the realisation hit me when I was at uni – only a couple of years ago. And even then I would never have contemplated writing a book with a talking vagina who wants the best for her woman.

3. What gender issues will you tackle in subsequent books?

There’s so many, and I’m sure I’ll think of more as time goes on, but rape, other violence, sexism in the workplace, and in later books (because there will be a few), the struggles women have juggling work and home and society’s opinions both on working mothers and mothers who don’t contribute enough (italics = sarcasm in case you’re not sure) because they stay home, therefore having it easier than everyone else – which is bloody ridiculous. We can’t win. Why? Because we’re women. I’m also going to explore sexuality – Jemma’s sister is gay – cancer and childbirth.

4. I like that you acknowledged that it’s OK for vaginas to like other vaginas. Will you delve into this more as the series progresses?

Yes. Sam, Jemma’s sister is gay, and I plan to explore the relationships she has and the way society looks at her when she and her partner are out and about.

5. What’s the main message you want men and women to get out of your series.

Well, for a start, I want equality for everyone – not just women, but this seems like a good place to start since we’re at the bottom of the rung, still, after all the efforts by all the people over the years. I want men and women to see through the perfect, sexualized images of women that are everywhere. I want women to feel empowered and make better decisions for themselves, and I want their friends and family to support those decisions. I don’t want women to be objectified, and that goes the same for men too. It seems like everything is grounded in how sexually attractive people are. When did our existence become so focused on sex and how sexually desirable a person is, their worth judged on this fact alone. Men and women: please respect yourselves, stop being so judgmental, embrace difference and support each other. Oops, I’m ranting, sorry *blushes*.

Thanks so much for hosting me on the last day of the tour, Maureen. It’s been lots of fun! And for all the seriousness today, the book really is a light-hearted, humorous read – how can genitals that talk to each other not be funny?

Want to try for a free giveaway? Enter the Rafflecoptor Giveaway Here

Viva la Vadgeventures!

Close Call: A Doris & Jemma Vadgeventure

Close Call is the first instalment of “A Doris & Jemma Vageventure” series.

Think Bridget Jones Diary and The Vagina Monologues.

Twenty-two-year-old Jemma can’t seem to get her life in order. Her track record with men stinks, she constantly worries about getting fat and ending up a spinster at thirty. And to top it off, she has to be a bridesmaid at her most-hated cousin’s wedding. She feels like her life is over, until Doris decides to help out. Who’s Doris? Doris is Jemma’s vagina and she thinks more of Jemma than her own brain does. Doris is on a mission to save Jemma from herself, but is the task too much for one vagina to handle?

TAGS: Fiction, Chick Lit, Humor, Women’s Lit, Romance

© 2013 Dionne Lister Cover by Sol Pandiella-McLeod

Now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and Sony.

Meet Eloise March aka Eloise March

Eloise March is a woman who laughs at her own jokes, swears way too much and breaks any new diet by lunchtime on the day she starts. She believes in women’s equality, and all equality for that matter, and hopes the things she writes touch people in a positive way, and make them think about how they can create a better society for themselves and others.

In her spare time, she enjoys living as her alter ego, Dionne Lister — a suspense and YA fantasy author who is way too embarrassed to talk about vaginas. She likes spending time as Dionne because Dionne has an awesome family, wonderful friends and a cat called Lily, oh, and she has great hair.

If you’re looking for Eloise, or any information about future books in the Doris & Jemma Vadgeventure series, you can visit Dionne’s website, where Eloise has been lucky enough to get her own page http://www.dionnelisterwriter.com. If you’re looking for a chat, you can find Ms. March on Twitter.

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Website

Follow the Tour

Monday – 3/3/2014:

• Random Reviews by Leanne Review
• The Sinner Author Review

Tuesday – 3/4/2014

• Literary Chanteuse – Ask Doris – Dating Advice
• Photography, Poetry and Indie Authors – Ask Doris & Review

Wednesday – 3/5/2014

• Lady Reader’s Bookstuff – Close Call Playlist
• Like a Bump on a Blog – Ask Doris & Review

Thursday – 3/6/2014

• Pinky’s Favorite Reads – Ask Doris & Review
• Ramen Noodle Book Reviews – Ask Doris & Review

Friday – 3/7/2014

• Our Wolves Den – Ask Doris – Why Doris?
• A Day in Doha – Review

Saturday – 3/8/2014

• Books & Chocolates – Review
• A Book Addict’s Delight – Ask Doris – Dating Advice

Monday – 3/10/2014

• J E Haldeman – Ask Doris – Dating Advice

Tuesday – 3/11/2014

• Jess Resides Here – Review
• Indie Authors You Want to Read – Ask Doris – Dating Advice

Wednesday – 3/12/2014

• Our New Generation for Reading – 3/12/2014

Thursday – 3/13/2014

• WS Momma Readers Nook – Ask Doris & Top 10 Favorite Books
• Bestsellerbound.com – Tell Us One Thing

Friday – 3/14/2014

• InkAshlings – Book Review, Interview and Ask Doris

Final Day of the Tour – Saturday March 14th

Interview with The Cabin Goddess

Follow along on FACEBOOK

]]> https://maureenflynnauthor.com/online-book-tour-close-call-by-eloise-march/feed/ 0 828 https://maureenflynnauthor.com/carla-a-feminist-manifesto-poem/ https://maureenflynnauthor.com/carla-a-feminist-manifesto-poem/#respond Mon, 13 Jan 2014 10:06:22 +0000 http://inkashlings.wordpress.com/?p=776 I wrote this poem a few years back and it is pretty rough (in more ways than one as it discusses sexual assault) but it also is a fair example of what my verse novella will be like in terms of the style of free verse. Enjoy and don’t forget to follow my poetry collection page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Hearts-Choir-Sings/490774427698379

Carla (A Feminist Manifesto)

In one ill defined moment
I was above and beyond myself.
I saw the shocked faces;
closed eyes, turned away
(as if acknowledgement were
dangerous, affirming validity)
thought I saw behind
a husband long gone into abyss
my greying, blue eyed kindess
an old and young Heavan
(though these days they’d call it
Freudian Slip-
the habit of sexual repression
and nothing more).

Ha! Repression and tirra lee
tirra lee by the sea.
Call me the mad woman
Sweep my cobwebs away
at the proclamation; “we never
saw nothing, that weird one
we never saw her cry.”

One crosses, bow headed, prays
“The Lord giveth, and the
Lord taketh away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord.”
Filthy mouthpiece, what rot!
Your God never cared
about me.
Or at least he turned his face
away
if only for one night of
palms pressed down, tasting teeth
my barricades battered, lifted
up by the roots.
Shoved onto my own bed
where the screaming never
stops.
Nor the hurrying, passing
footsteps (Oh so ashamed)
Nor the ache of the
thrust.

In this house of women
it’s not only periods that sync.
The addition of just one
man
gives shared nightly fears
that he picks and chooses.
Thus selected, let me lie
so that standing on a parapet, a precipice
holds no fear
but rather the promise of
timely escape.

]]> https://maureenflynnauthor.com/carla-a-feminist-manifesto-poem/feed/ 0 776 https://maureenflynnauthor.com/book-review-all-is-fair-by-emma-newman/ https://maureenflynnauthor.com/book-review-all-is-fair-by-emma-newman/#respond Sun, 03 Nov 2013 08:15:51 +0000 http://inkashlings.wordpress.com/?p=742 All is Fair, Emma Newman
Angry Robots Books, October, 2013
R.R.P.: £5.49 / US$6.99

So the story behind this review is a sorry one. My kindle broke just as I started reading which meant I had to wait around for a new one before I could keep reading. This was especially annoying because I was really into the story. Also, I am only now catching up to my reviewing backlog. Ah technology. But never mind. Better late than never. All Is Fair is the last book in The Split Worlds Trilogy, a trilogy that blends fae with feminism, environmentalism, gargoyles and some good old fashioned corset ripping. I couldn’t stop compulsively reading. What an unusual, often funny, and always pointed mix!



From the blurb:

In love and war nothing is safe.

William Iris struggles to keep the throne of Londinium whilst hated by his own court and beset by outsiders, while Cathy discovers the legacy of her former governess. But those who dare to speak out about Society are always silenced. Sometimes for good.

While trying to avoid further torments from the mercurial fae, Sam finds himself getting tangled in the affairs of the Elemental Court. But an unexpected offer from the powerful and enigmatic Lord Iron turns out to be far more than Sam bargained for.

Max and the gargoyle are getting closer to uncovering who is behind the murder of the Bath Chapter and the corruption in London and Max finds the gargoyle’s controversial ideas harder to ignore. Can he stay true to his sworn duty without being destroyed by his own master, whose insanity threatens to unravel them all?

This is a confusing read, with effectively three different stories running parallel to each other. I would recommend reading the previous two books to refresh your memory of what came before and how each character relates to the other. This is especially important because this is a series that pushes character development and growth to show how the fast paced events lead to a new outlook for Society. The blend of modern technology with the fae and with old English manners makes for an entertaining mix and essentially paves the way for gender equality and democracy to begin to shape Society. The ending wraps up loose ends in regards to Sam, Cathy, William and Max, but there is scope for further stories in this world.

A fun novel with complex characters and lots to say about love, relationships, gender equality, humanism and nesting worlds, I would recommend this series to anyone who enjoys mystery, romance, steampunk, historical fiction, fantasy and sci fi.

All Is Fair: 4/5 inky stars

This ebook was provided for review by the publisher.

]]> https://maureenflynnauthor.com/book-review-all-is-fair-by-emma-newman/feed/ 0 742 https://maureenflynnauthor.com/australiana-the-jade-widow-by-deborah-obrian-review/ https://maureenflynnauthor.com/australiana-the-jade-widow-by-deborah-obrian-review/#respond Mon, 16 Sep 2013 23:29:23 +0000 http://inkashlings.wordpress.com/?p=738 The Jade Widow, Deborah O’Brian, Random House Australia, September 2013.
RRP $32.95 Aus.

The Jade Widow picks up a decade after Mr Chen’s Emporium leaves off, continuing to follow the lives of Eliza Miller and Amy Chen in colonial Australia.



From Random House Australia:

A captivating historical novel of pioneering Australian women finding their way in a man’s world, from the author of the bestselling Mr Chen’s Emporium.

It is 1885, and Amy Chen is still in black, more than a decade after the death of her beloved husband Charles. But her widow’s weeds belie a determined young woman with a big ambition: Amy is going to build the grandest rural hotel in the colony of New South Wales, complete with its very own ‘ascending cabinet’.

Meanwhile, her best friend, Eliza Miller, has dreams of her own – to become one of Australia’s first female doctors. However when she returns to Millbrooke from her medical studies at the Sorbonne, she finds the job she thought was hers has been taken … by a man.

Over the course of two turbulent years both women will face difficult choices – love or duty? Career or marriage? Is it possible to have it all …?

I wasn’t sure what to make of this book to start with. The cover is gorgeous but screamed Meg Cabot and chick lit to me, which normally isn’t my thing. For maybe the first third of the book, I felt like that’s what the story was, especially given the strong element of romance in both women’s story. Having not read Mr Chen’s Emporium as well, it took me a little bit to follow who everyone in Amy and Eliza’s extended family was and their place in the story. I definitely got into Eliza’s story more than Amy due to her involvement in the early feminist movement and her sharp tongue. I also really loved Eliza’s blossoming romance with the young male Doctor who takes her job at the local surgery and the start of her dream to create a Woman’s Hospital. I couldn’t tell where Amy’s story was going at first but I really got into it when she started to build up her Hotel buisness in earnest and gets more than she bargained for in the attractive Irish Manager she hires. I love romance that feels natural and leaps off the page with sparkling energy and I think that both romance stories definitely achieved this.

I especially loved the way the story ended. As a historian, I hate it when writers preach about a historical time period or engage in cultural relativism. I also hate it when stories are anachronistic. Deborah manages to keep everything feeling authentic with behaviours, conversations and the political climate feeling accurate and natural. I especially loved the bravery of Deborah’s choices about an ending for the two ladies. Though this tale is set in 1885, over a century ago, the issue of feminism- women juggling careers and a family, issues of society and expected gender norm paradigms- are still relevant today. I liked that there were no easy answers or choices for either woman and I was left feeling strangely sobered by the time I had turned the final page.

The Jade Widow: 3/5 inky stars

This copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

]]> https://maureenflynnauthor.com/australiana-the-jade-widow-by-deborah-obrian-review/feed/ 0 738 https://maureenflynnauthor.com/book-review-sea-hearts-by-margo-lanagan/ https://maureenflynnauthor.com/book-review-sea-hearts-by-margo-lanagan/#respond Fri, 21 Sep 2012 01:31:31 +0000 http://inkashlings.wordpress.com/?p=455 Sea Hearts, Margo Lanagan, Allen and Unwin, 2012

RRP: $19.99 Australian.

I feel guilty. I finished this book back in July but my thesis work attacked me and gave me heart palpitations over how much I still had left to do on it. Hence, this blog has had blog posts scattered few and far between since July. To be honest, I should still be doing thesis work as I type, but this book is too good to give short shrift in the reviews department.

I’d heard a bit about Sea Hearts through the blogosphere grapevine, and of course, Margo was also at the Sydney Writer’s Festival this year discussing the dark limits (and horizons) of speculative fiction, including those explored in Sea Hearts. I bought a copy for the holiday break alongside Margo’s short story collection, Red Spikes, as a semester ending treat.

My relationship with Lanagan’s work is somewhat odd. I have long respected her ability to twist and innovate with her language and narrative structure. I love the way her prose rips your heart out with poetic and wild abandon. Yet I absolutely hated her novel, Tender Morsels, a retelling of Snow White and Rose Red. Her ‘colour’ based short story collections, Black Juice, White Time, Red Spikes and Yellowcake are both hit and miss. Sea Hearts could have gone either way for me.

Chatting to Richard Harland at Supanova this year, he told me he felt it was Margo’s best work since the Hugo winning short story, ‘Singing my Sister Down,’ found in Black Juice. Having finally read both, I can now wholeheartedly agree with him.



Sea Hearts, set in a world so close to ours it very well could be, (a particular trick of Lanagan’s) takes place on remote Rollrock Island, where the shunned and lonely sea witch, Miskealla, draws sea girls out of the seals that frequent the island beaches. In exchange for payment, any man on Rollrock can now purchase himself a sea bride, but what will this deed do for generations of families as deceit, lust, heartbreak and love tear the island apart?

The novel alternates between six islander perspectives, each multi faceted first person account piercing the part myth, part fairy story cautionary, part Greek hubris tale together, until a picture of what has happened is formed. Even as characters infuriate with their vanity and short sightedness, there is still sympathy to be had. Even as Miskaella’s petty scheme begins to take its toll, I still found it in my heart to feel sorry for the witch outsider. Even as men calleously copulated with sea creatures under their wives very noses, I still could see how they had made the decisions they had made, and even as the human women grow aged and bitter and hard, I could understand why they changed. Who could not in such circumstances? Who could not?

This is a novel that dishes out truthes about humanity hard. It is often an uncomfortable, searing read. Undertaking a history thesis, as I am, I have often wondered about Lanagan’s background. Learning this year that she had training in history, I can see this reflected in her work. There is an interest in truth making, mythology making, oral history as power and post modern relativism in Sea Hearts, as there often is in her short stories. The nature of love and relationships is uncompromisingly explored, with another reviewer pointing out that the Australian cover has connotations of the placid, docile, Asian mail order bride stereotype. Lanagan asks what it is that men, stripped back to their  basest instincts, truly want from a relationship with a woman. Are lust, domesticity and obediance their basest desires? Ending on a note of reconciliation and hope, Lanagan never answers this question, but leaves it up to the reader to decide. I found myself thinking of my relationship with my own boyfriend, and wondering just how much it would take for him to succumb to a ‘sea wife.’ Not a comfortable thought, but one that shows this novel’s power, complexity, and raging heart.

Beautiful and evocatively written, with the prose lyrical and inventive, Sea Hearts is Margo Lanagan’s best piece of writing. I am excited to see where she will go next.

Sea Hearts: 5/5 inky stars.

Stephen Ormsby recently interviewed Margo at his word press blog. Please follow the link to read more about Margo and the way she thinks about, and constructs stories.

http://stephenormsby.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/margo-lanagan-21-september/

Margo also has her own blog at Among Amid While: http://www.amongamidwhile.blogspot.com.au/

]]> https://maureenflynnauthor.com/book-review-sea-hearts-by-margo-lanagan/feed/ 0 455 https://maureenflynnauthor.com/fight-like-a-girl-cd-review/ https://maureenflynnauthor.com/fight-like-a-girl-cd-review/#respond Sun, 09 Sep 2012 07:54:55 +0000 http://inkashlings.wordpress.com/?p=445 Emilie Autumn’s new cd is an insane steampunk musical extravaganza that should appeal to show tune fans and EA’s 4 O’clock fans alike. More thematically coherent than her previous release, Opheliac, Fight Like a Girl tells the story of The Asylum for Wayward Girls with EA’s usual acerbic wit and dramatic sounds. Chilling, sad and witty, it should win new fans over to the Plague Rat cause.



Fight Like a Girl is probably the worst song on the 17 track cd, over relying on synth and signature growls to create a feminist call to arms. My voice is my weapon of choice… we fight for control, are lyrics that set the scene for the rest of the album.

Time for Tea uses a nursery rhyme to stand your hair on end, beginning in a relatively harmless way, but soon descending into a revenge story with an epic beat and great lyrics. Somewhere in the world it’s always time for tea… revenge is a dish that is best served now! and When I am good, I am very, very good, but when I am bad I am fucking gorgeous are such typical EA lyrics. I also loved the chorus of Hatchett CHECK! Electric Shock Machine CHECK! etc which reminds the listener that we are now deep in the asylum.

4’0clock Reprise is an instrumental version of the EA song 4’Olock. I like to imagine it is a transition instrumental into the past which will explain how Emily got so far enmeshed into madness and asylum, with Fight Like a Girl and Time for Tea thematic feminist choruses to set the mood for the rest of the album. Sometimes sounding like Phantom of the Opera, this shows a different, more orchestral side to EA.

What Will I Remember? is a lovely, sweet song that attests to the power of music for granting rebirth. I love how EA’s voice cracks with emotion as she sings this track, lending real power to the lyrics.

Take The Pill is a standout track for me. Though it refers to the Victorian asylum, its references to the overmedicalisation and over diagnosis of medical ills we see today gives it relevance in today’s society. I love the cold way EA sings this, so automated and heartless, with the doctors calm, rational and absolutely inhumane. Don’t you want to be sedated/don’t you want to ease this pain/if these pills are not effective we will electroshock your brain. Quite.

Girls, Girls, Girls is a traditional cabaret/musical number with EA performing all of the different parts. I prefer the live version with The Bloody Crumpets singing these parts but this song is still all kinds of brilliant with its comments on medicine, gender, sexuality and morality. I think that EA’s skills as a lyricist come out in this song in particular, though the entire album sports great lyrics. A portrait of insanity, approached with pure humanity. The irony is beautiful.

I Don’t Understand is one of the few songs on this album that doesn’t work for me. I feel that this album works best when EA works with the concept of gender, madness and the medical community, rather than when she tries to tell the specific story of her book. This song refers to a scene directly from her book, is sing speaking, and really adds nothing to the album.

We Want Them Young sees a return of the doctor’s to the cd with an interesting and different intro for an EA compilation, focussing on tribal sounding drums and impersonal, cold tones. look to your daughters, look to your wives, sends shivers down my spine with its cold impartiality and brutality. The inmates cry of I should be home by now/someone will come for me is also absolutely heartbreaking

If I Burn is signature Emilie with her warbling vocals and growls. If I rise up in smoke around your eyes you’ll know it’s me is very creepy as the inmates start planning revenge. I especially loved the ending where Emilie sings powerfully, It’s not over till it’s over, and it’s never over, with one of the album’s major themes the ability to fight back and to fight on, regardless of the odds.

Scavenger is another skin crawling song about those who serve the medical community with their hunts for the poor to perform experiments upon. Not strictly historically accurate, but in a steampunk universe who cares? I loved the way this song also relates itself to the capitalist status quo with lyrics like This isn’t personal/we’ve all got mouths to feed/supply and demand. The call and response between the scavenger and the inmates with supply and demand and someone will come for me, are repeated in this song to great effect.

Gaslight is an inmate song filled with pain and depair at the realisation that no one is coming to the inmate’s rescue, and that what’s more, society knows what is happening and doesn’t care because medicine is power. Emilie’s cracking and broken voice adds so much to this song. Even my Mum, who doesn’t listen to EA, found this song touching by the time it got to and nobody’s coming, coming to take me home.

The Key is a straight out narration/poem set to music and again is an album weak point because EA tries to tell the story of her book directly.

Hell is Empty and Gaslight Reprise are instrumentals as the inmates take control of the asylum.

Goodnight Sweet Ladies is a bit of a throwback to Enchant era Emilie, with  beautiful overlaid voices delivering a musical eulogy to those who died or were battered for the sake of the asylum and an escape to freedom. You lie but sleeping, someday we will meet again, made me all teary and the clever mix of original lyrics and The Art of Suicide and 4’Oclock were a pleasant surprise. The first time I listened to this album, Goodnight Sweet Ladies was a standout.

Start Another Story  seems to be the logical conclusion to What will I Remember? focussing on picking oneself up off the floor despite difficult times with the call of Just remember a day gone by, is never really gone, if your tale goes on.

One Foot In Front of the Other ends the album on another stand out track. Its marching beat and staccato sing song style rests on the premise of hope for the future. The inmates are changed and bruised by their encounters with the asylum but their revolution has been successful and now what identity and name will they make for themselves? My favourite lines are If I’ve no one to fight/how do I know who I am?/One foot in front of the other foot with Emilie acknowledging that winning the battle is only half the win. There are no easy answers, but if you don’t give up, you haven’t lost.

Steampunk clangs, grinds, growls and cranking permeate the album’s sound. Emilie’s voice has never seemed so versatile, her lyrics never more powerful. A friend of mine described Fight Like a Girl as one where it’s first two songs seem so outrageous you think EA is exaggerating the need for feminist and medical revolution. The genius lies in the fact that by CD’s end, you agree with every damn word the woman sings. If you take this cd to be a blow by blow musical to her book, I think you will be disappointed but if you take this album to be a very clever concept album of madness, power and gender in the Georgian and Victorian era, with clear parallels to now, it is sheer genius. More accomplished than her other two studio albums, this is my favourite EA album yet.

Fight Like a Girl: 5/5 inky stars

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