Featured Image: Text: ‘The Hormone Diaries The Bloody Truth About Our Periods’ in handwriting font on a navy blue banner.
I love writing book reviews on this blog, but you might have noticed that I don’t write that many. This isn’t because I don’t read a lot or because I don’t have thoughts that I’d want to share on the books that I do read. I seem to have made life hard for myself in the style of reviews that I write. I’ve found that my usual structure of context as to why I’m reading the book, a short synopsis and then a fully fleshed out review detailing all of my thoughts on the book actually takes a lot of energy and brain power to produce, so I tend to only review books that I’ve been gifted by publishers.
I’ve decided I want to change that and give some love (and constructive criticism) to all of the books that I read, so when I’m not able to do a full review for whatever reason, I’m going to try and post a mini review. These won’t usually include context or the synopsis and will only have key points I want to shout about, like reviews that you might see on Amazon or Goodreads.
First up is The Hormone Diaries by Hannah Witton. I adore Hannah’s work so I can’t think of a better place to start. Enjoy!
This is such an accessible, entertaining and informative book on periods, hormonal contraception and all of the challenges of being a menstruating human! The letters from fans are so effective and really bring the book to life! It’s incredible to see such an inclusive book on this topic, especially of trans people. I wish I could have read this book when I was in the first few years of my periods. It was so validating to hear that I wasn’t alone in certain experiences.
The only things I would have liked to have seen included were more on how being disabled (by something other than a reproductive system/hormone related illness) can specifically affect experiences of hormones and periods, and a bit on the experiences of intersex people. However, I realise you can’t always include everything and I’m only being so picky because I hold Hannah’s work in such high regard- The Hormone Diaries does much more to be actively inclusive than pretty much any other educational/ advice book I’ve ever read and is very very good overall. I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to learn more on the subject!
9/10
You can find out more about The Hormone Diaries here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-hormone-diaries/hannah-witton/9781526361462 and it’s out now!
