What's a Girl Gotta Do?, Holly Bourne

Pages: 421

Publisher: Usborne

Release Date: 1^st August 2016

Edition: UK proof, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: Soulmates, The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting, Am I Normal Yet?, How Hard Can Love Be?

Lottie is starting a supersonic feminist experiment. For one month she’s going to call out every instance of sexism she sees. But when her project hits the headlines, the trolls come out to play – and they are VICIOUS. Lottie’s not a quitter, but best friends Evie and Amber are worried. What if Lottie’s heading for burnout…or worse?

Holly Bourne continues to storm the UKYA world with What’s a Girl Gotta Do?.

The final book in the Spinster Club trilogy is a tour de force of feminism. It feels fiercer and more angry than the previous two books in the trilogy from the very first page. What’s a Girl Gotta Do? tackles sexual harassment and overt sexism without forgiveness and it made me want to pump my fist in solidarity with Lottie. But it also made me angry too. There’s sexism everywhere in our world and there were things that Lottie rallied against that are so sexist, but so normal that I've never questioned them before. It was shocking.

Lottie goes on a huge journey throughout this novel, perhaps the most of the three girls. The attention that her plight gained her weighed heavier and heavier on her until it just became too much. The relentlessness of the attacks on her was upsetting and horrifying, and yet not at all surprising. What was (sort of) surprising was the emphasis on how her project could damage her prospects at Cambridge and the traditions of a male-led world of Oxbridge. What’s a Girl Gotta Do? is definitely the most powerful of the trilogy, though my favourite is still How Hard Can Love Be? as I was a little peeved about the cliffhanger ending and having to wait for the novella in October to find out what happened with Lottie.

I laughed, I wanted to scream, and I wanted to cry in frustration and anger at the things that Lottie faces and the girls encounter and discuss. This really is a feminist trailblazing series.

Thanks to Usborne for the review copy.

Sophie