Jess Zimmerman (Basic Witches: How to Summon Success, Banish Drama, and Raise Hell with Your Coven with Jaya Saxena) brings a fresh perspective to 11 monstrous female figures in this expansive essay collection.
Harpies, Furies, Medusa, Lamia, the Sirens, the Chimera, Charybdis, the Sphinx: these creatures and others have for centuries held iconic status beyond their original roles in Greek mythology. From the start, Zimmerman makes it clear that what she presents is not a classicist's perspective on their meaning in literature. She offers instead a survey of how these figures have entered modern consciousness and how they relate to traits that are feared in women. Using Homeric versions of the legends, the retellings by Ovid and more, Zimmerman launches into explorations of ambition, hunger, sexuality and ugliness. Traits that cultural constraints would paint as monstrous can bring women suffering, but she also illustrates how, when wielded properly, they can be a source of power. In the right hands, the characteristics that make them monstrous might also make a hero. Intimate reflections on how these traits have influenced Zimmerman's own life offer a personal touch that balances the larger cultural considerations of insults used against women in politics, or how teenage sexuality is depicted in a music video.
Fans of Circe by Madeline Miller and Rage Becomes Her by Soraya Chemaly alike will be engrossed by this insightful collection. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library