Author: Erika Owen
Genre: Nonfiction
Format: eBook/ ARC
Pages: 270
Lawbreaking Ladies is a fun and easy read about 50 women criminals you might not have heard about, and considering my love for True Crime I honestly only knew about a handful of women in this book. It is a well-researched book that leaves you wanting more, and one I thoroughly enjoyed reading.
My favorite thing about Lawbreaking Ladies is how Erika Owen tells each story. It isn't stodgy or dry, instead, you can feel how excited Owen was to write about each woman. Own's throws in a bit of humor, some tongue-in-cheek comments, that keep the writing from getting either boring or dry. I also really liked that Owen didn't try to justify what these ladies did to earn them such an infamous past. They simply presented the facts as they were and left us to decided how to feel about it.
I also really liked that each chapter on each woman was not only kept short, but each woman was divided into sections by what kind of criminal each woman was. This made it easier to keep track of who was who, and I wasn't at a loss when the subject matter changed. I also really liked that each chapter had its own little glossary of words that were important to know with each new section. I don't mind Googling things as I read, but it was a nice bit of information to have at my fingertips going into each section.
Despite each chapter being so small I never felt that any of the mini-biographies were rushed. It's easy to tell that Owen did a ton of research on each of these women, and did her best to piece together their lives as best she could. It was also nice that she didn't shy away from the legends surrounding these women, but was quick to let us know there was no proof of certain things happening.
The artwork for this book was also a nice addition, especially the portraits. Those were a nice break from reading as well as an excellent visual of some of the women in each chapter.
I really only had a couple of issues with this book, and both might be fixed by the time this book comes out next year. The first was Deadwood is mentioned several times before the reader is given a brief history of the town. Not a big deal for me personally since I know where and what that town was, but if the description is going to be there I felt it should have been done the first time the town was mention. The second was there was a couple of small date typos that jumped a couple of characters a hundred years into the future. I'm sure this will be fixed by the time Lawbreaking Ladies hits selves this coming February.
This is a book that I will want a physical copy of once it's released to not only see the final product but because it's definitely one I'd read again.
Lawbreaking Ladies: 50 Remarkable Stories of Criminal Women Throughout History is set to be released on February 23, 2021!
HAPPY READING!!
No comments:
Post a Comment