Betty Bites Back Stories to Scare the Patriarchy

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of Betty Bites Back: Stories to Scare the Patriarchy in exchange for an honest review. Content Warnings: Rape Like the next person, I love me a good ol’ feminist book. Especially one that rests in the horror genre. Betty Bites Back: Stories to Scare the Patriarchy tells tales of werewolves, ghosts & everything in between; all with a feminist twist. We get insight on different issues women have to deal with: being told to smile more, random creepy messages from men online, the fear of being raped — you get the jist. I really enjoyed the direction Betty Bites Back took, however, a lot of the stories fell flat for me. In fact, a few of them I barely remember & if it wasn’t for taking notes, I’d be 100% screwed right now. The one story that really sticks out & is probably the shortest in the collection is called Smile by Emilee Martell. For being so short, it still lands with major impact & is easy to visually imagine. Following each story, the author addresses their inspiration for that particular story, along with their own favorite feminist reads. This is probably my favorite portion of the collection, because I love being able to see inside the minds of authors. I really wanted to enjoy this more — it wasn’t a horrible read, but it definitely wasn’t something that’s going to stick with me.