REVIEW: How To Be A Heroine by Samantha Ellis

[ghostpixie]

Part memoir and part literary analysis, Samantha Ellis’s How To Be A Heroine was an interesting read, even though I haven’t read even nearly all the books Ellis references throughout her pages.

Samantha Ellis is an Iraqi-Jewish playwright from the UK, with an avid love of reading and writing alike. These two loves combined make How To Be A Heroine worth it to read, even if, like me, you’re sadly behind on your literary heroine reading.

Each chapter of Ellis’s book focuses on one heroine mainly, while discussing others all throughout, as well. Some of these heroines include Esther Greenwood, The Little Mermaid, and Scarlett O’Hara. Interspersed throughout the analysis from Ellis are chunks of her self-history, of growing up in an Iraqi-Jewish family, of attending university, of having serious seizures, and other such “tidbits”.

My favorite chapter of How To Be A Heroine was that which discussed Sylvia Plath’s Esther Greenwood. The Bell Jar has long been one of my favorite books, but I never once thought about it from an analytical point of view. I only ever read it from the point of view of a depressed teenage girl, and now to have another viewpoint, I can’t wait to re-read Plath’s novel.

I suggest reading How To Be A Heroine if you like reading books about books. It took me a while to get through it, but only because I was distracted by other goings-on in my day-to-day life. Ellis’s book was very enjoyable nonetheless, and I’d love to read more of her work.

Rating: 3/4