Rachel's Reviews > #GIRLBOSS

Full disclosure: I kind of view audiobooks as cheating, and this was my first audio book. When Goodreads emailed me saying I could have a free audible version of #Girlboss because I had marked it as "to read" I jumped on it. I read Tina Fey's "Bossypants," and still regret not having gotten the audible version so that I could HEAR Tina Fey reading me her book.

This book was not read by Sophia Amoruso, and I cannot imagine what it would take to flawlessly read a book, chapter by chapter, and intone what the author wants to intone into every word and anecdote. That said, while I appreciate the effort, this particular reader mispronounced "ennui," making me question the very fabric of the English language and whether or not I knew how to speak it. I mean, was I wrong all this time and no one corrected me? Where else had I heard it? Could I somehow make someone say it for me? Then she mispronounced Roald Dahl and I realized, no, no. I have a handle on this. SHE doesn't.

All of that is to say, please take my review with the grain of salt that is my resistance to audio books.

The content of the book is a little bit like listening to Britney Spear's "Work B*tch* on loop for the 4 or 5 hours that it takes to listen to this book. At times inspiring, often irritating (sidenote: why does Britney adopt a British accent for just 1/4th of the song?), and, in the end, too much.



Honestly, I felt like she told her story in the first two chapters and hooked you, but then filled in stupid details (OMG you once wore Abercrombie and believe in magic?) without real content for the next 10 chapters. She quotes a lot of really pithy, overused cliches like Steve Jobs and Leonardo DiVinchi and seems to mock everyone who does things differently than she does. "When I was in high school, I always submitted a real resume for retail jobs..." which is great, because it's obviously worked for her. But it's also just not the only way to do things (when I was in high school and worked retail and some toolbag came in with a printed resume, we laughed at them and thought maybe they weren't prepared for the real world of retail service, and made them fill in our paper application.) For example, after explaining how Nasty Gal grew out of her own feelings of ennui and anarchy, the author preaches positivity as, "your thoughts become your actions." So...#hypocrisy?

Often contradictory (do as I say, not as I do) and often condescending (although, again, maybe that was just the audio version coming across that way to me) I felt all my initial inspiration wane and grow into irritation. It was with great difficulty (and a long plane ride) that I finished this book. My recommendation? Read the first three chapters, watch the Britney video twice, and call it a day.