What's a Girl Gotta Do?

Lottie is very angry with the way she is treated just because she is female. After a disturbing sexual harassment incident on the way to college, she resolves to start a project, highlighting and standing up to every single incidence of sexism she comes across for a whole month.

Although she has support from her close friends, Evie and Amber, from the other members of FemSoc and eventually from Will who is tasked to film the project, she finds it much harder than she thinks. She finds the campaign exhausting and sometimes confusing as she tries to speak out against all sorts of sexist behaviour while struggling to cope with A level work, pressure from her parents, a looming Cambridge interview, a social media hate campaign and problems with friends. All this while she is falling in love too!

This is the third book in the Spinster Club trilogy which has, in turn, focused on the lives of Evie, Amber and now Lottie, though readers can certainly enjoy this book without having read the previous two. It is an entertaining read as, although she is very serious in her campaign, Lottie's exploits are often very funny and she demonstrates some extremely inventive ways of highlighting sexism. She is a totally believable character, showing incredible self-confidence alongside extreme vulnerability.

The author doesn't shy away from showing the contradictions and complexities of being a feminist as well as the pressures and pleasures of being a teenager today. The book is bound to prove popular with girls from 14+ who will no doubt be able to relate to the many of the issues raised whilst enjoying an engaging read. As with the other Spinster Club books the language is honest and, at times explicit.

421 pages / Reviewed by Karen Poolton, college librarian.

Suggested Reading Age 14+