Reviews and Comments

I read this book pretty quickly, which is testimony that it kept me engaged. I learned a lot about the history of the far right and appreciated the ways she captured some intimate details about individuals involved in these cultures.

Maybe this is ironic since so much of this essay was about her positioning herself in the narrative, but something irked me about her personal anecdotes. I think this has to do with the fact that I am not drawn to corporate social media famous outspoken influencers, admittedly, which it seems like she is. Something turned me off about how she was live tweeting about her escapades at certain events she went to. I'm not totally sure why, though. Ultimately, I probably just want a book on this topic that is a little bit more historical and in-depth analysis of these cultures. The personal narrative I enjoyed the most was probably in her introduction and her afterward section.

That said, if you enjoy reading about stuff like this and are as fascinated by 'the culture wars' as I am, I would definitely recommend it!

This book wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was more of a 'self help' style book but instead its more cultural commentary with a lot of connections to psychological studies. It felt a bit half and half as to if a certain chapter landed with me or not. I started to get a bit bored with her writing style and chapter structure of "share personal experience, connect it to pop culture, reference term and psychological study, end on a witty note back to her personal experience" I don't know if I needed each chapter to have a psychological study to back it up as it just all felt very monotonous and expected.

Nonetheless, the fact that this was a book that I was drawn to finishing and reading for long periods of time (which, as a person with ADHD, is a rarity), I think, says something generally positive about the book.

My favorite chapter is probably the last one.