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Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution Paperback – 30 Jul 2015

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Laurie Penny (Author)
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Laurie Penny (Author)
3.4 out of 5 stars 246 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks (30 July 2015)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1408857693
  • ISBN-13: 978-1408857694
  • Product Dimensions: 13 x 1.9 x 20 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (246 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 65,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

Laurie Penny is such an insightful, provocative and bold commentator. She is always relevant without slavishly following a supposedly 'topical' agenda set by others. Most importantly, she never compromises her compassion and humanity in the myopic pursuit of an idea. It's such qualities that make Unspeakable Things essential for anybody who truly believes in equality and freedom (Irvine Welsh)

Full of the rhythm and repetition on oratory and persuasive and unsettling in its view of western society as a damaging dystopia causing untold harm to all but those at the very top. It is angry and challenging, but also full of compassion - including for men, many of whom have also been disenfranchised by systems they did not choose . Unspeakable Things is an impressive, inspiring and, I suspect, important manifesto (Melissa Harrison, Financial Times)

Penny thrills in being provocative and dramatic . She writes well about the social pressures they are under to behave with macho "masculinity" at all times (Daisy Wyatt, Independent)

Powerfully argued . Penny has a great turn of phrase (Evening Standard)

As Penny demonstrates, in a great, defining chapter on the internet, we are dealing with a new world order . This book is funny and cheeky . and refreshingly generous (Observer)

A raw, bright, urgent voice . Like Caitlin Moran, another compulsive and essentially self-taught writer, she went to places others didn't and brought back things they had missed . Dazzling . Penny writes ... with intimacy and insight that smack of real knowledge (Guardian)

Laurie Penny can certainly coin a phrase . she writes well, inclusively and cogently with passion ... Let's hear it for "young, lady writers" behaving badly (Herald)

Unflinching ... In Unspeakable Things, Laurie Penny reclaims the word insolent, turning it into a compliment and a call to arms (TLS)

The spiky subversiveness of Laurie's journalism is best summed up by her sub-title, 'sex, lies, and revolution'. This is feminism with no apologies given, no compromises surrendered and a sharp-edged radicalism all the better for both. (Mark Perryman Philosophical Football 2014-10-01)

Book Description

Britain's youngest and smartest activist and columnist gets to grips with the sexual counter-revolution and all it entails for women and for men

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 starsColumns were better
By Paul on 14 Feb. 2015
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I have to agree with others who liked her columns but not the book. It does read like a collection of columns, and where that is the case, they worked better in that format.
I'm surprised to read another comment saying it started well but got weaker. If anything I think it started very badly and got stronger. Unfortunately, the stronger material here has all been published elsewhere. For example, the "manic pixie dreamgirl" section is all right, but available elsewhere as a column. The part on online behaviour was an ebook. Penny is pushing her luck with that, I think.
The rest is not as well edited, and often quite poorly written. Her examples often fly in the face of common sense or reality, even when her general point is defensible. The book also makes unnecessarily frequent returns to personal anecdote which can make it feel like the book is going round in circles. To be sure, some of the personal stuff is valuable, but too much of it is not. This isn't helped by a lack of clarity on the book's direction. The author seems caught between two stools of narrative and wanting to show an objective overview.
We're told it's not a to-do list, which is OK, but it stops so short of specifics it's difficult to see it as much more than a laundry list of complaints, all of them familiar if you have read her columns. Penny says she wants the book to inspire, and although I can't see it myself, others have. This, at least, is a silver lining.
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5.0 out of 5 starsAbsolutely brilliant.
By Constant Reader on 29 April 2016
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I am a 60-year-old second-wave feminist who has been somewhat puzzled by the some of the positions taken by the younger, third-wave generation...until reading this book. Laurie Penny writes with razor-sharp intelligence, passion, and (which all too rare these days) a willingness to engage with points of view other than her own. If today's generation can produce a writer and thinker this good, then feminism is in safe hands. A truly excellent read.
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4.0 out of 5 starsWorth reading thoughtfully
By John Corrigan on 20 July 2014
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
A good book outlining the harm that sexism and bigotry does to women and society as a whole. It's clear, lucid, often very funny, and illustrated with the author's personal experiences and those of friends, which are unsettling at times.

Lewis's Law applies to this book, sadly: there are a lot of 1-star reviews written by sexist trolls and these justify why it was written.
3 Comments 175 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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3.0 out of 5 starsStarted off well but....
By K. Collins on 21 July 2014
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
This book seemed to start off well but went downhill towards the end. I thought the first two or three chapters were well written and thought provoking. She discusses her time in hospital with anorexia and talks about self harm and how both males and females are affected deeply by our patriarchal society.

She then discusses porn and and cybersexism but as I got to this part of the book I began to get bored and felt I couldn't relate to any of it. She discusses her experience of harrassment online which is her personal experience and thats fair enough but it isn't a typical experience for the vast majority of women online. Most women don't have thousands of followers on Twitter. Most women don't receive death threats and bomb scares from hundreds of trolls. Of course this kind of thing happens to high profile feminists online because men are threatened by this kind of thing but we knew that anyway. Nothing new is being learned by any of this. It's just the experience of high profile middle class feminist writers on Twitter.

Laurie then goes further into detail about her online life and discusses the misogyny among geeks online etc and again I just felt this was her experience but still nothing new to learn or say about misogyny apart from men are misogynists in an online environment just the same as they always have been everywhere else. Well so what?

I have seen other people review this book as the future of feminism and things like that but as a woman I see nothing to relate to here. Nothing new is being said. I normally enjoy feminist literature but by the end of this book I just felt a bit sad inside. I really wanted to love this but I didn't find it that inspiring I'm afraid.
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2.0 out of 5 starsA disappointment for those of us hoping for big things from Laurie Penny...
By JustTheFacts on 21 July 2014
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
First of all: Unlike the armies of opposing trolls giving this book either one or five stars I don't have any strong feelings about Laurie Penny -I find her columns interesting and would say I agree with her about 60% of the time, but that's it. My motivation to write a review doesn't go beyond the fact that so many of the responses on Amazon seem to be from people with an agenda, rather than an informed opinion on the book. You have to read it before you can review it!

That said I was a little disappointed. I was surprised how much of the book I'd already read online -it's not presented as a collection of columns, but a great deal of it has been published before in one format or another. As a result the book didn't really seem to hang together -there wasn't one powerful argument running through it, and there wasn't any hint of what direction to go in to get to a solution for the many competing and sometimes contradictory problems that were raised.

In short it seemed a lot like a smart and gifted writer writing very fast and sticking together some big articles in order to fulfil a book contract.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Not read yet

Published 13 days ago by Mrs. P. Markham
1.0 out of 5 starsThe deluded ramblings of a spoiled, pampered, self-branded ...

The deluded ramblings of a spoiled, pampered, self-branded victim. If you think this is deep or substantive in any way, please seek a lobotomy.

Published 3 months ago by P. Garrett
1.0 out of 5 starssnotty, social justice warrior, hate speech.

I find Miss Penny to be nothing more than a spoiled social justice warrior who accuses people who criticize religion as being "racists". Not sure how that works... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Jack Masi
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Great book, have recommended and bought to many friends, wish it was around then I was a teen...

Published 4 months ago by Sandra Mardin
1.0 out of 5 starsOne Star

No thought out arguments. Ironically I found this book to be very sexist toward men.

Published 4 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Great read, well written, she speaks an uncomfortable truth women live with everyday.

Published 7 months ago by Liz Brosnan
5.0 out of 5 starsBrilliant

Absolutely brilliant. One of the most interesting voices of our generation.

Published 9 months ago by Lou K
5.0 out of 5 starsBrilliant

As usual Laurie Penny provokes and surprises us. These are important issues that need an airing.

Published 9 months ago by Bookclubber
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

A book full of love and compassion and anger and motivation. Excellent read. Superb.

Published 10 months ago by Cogito Ergo Sometimes
2.0 out of 5 starsMoribund

A moribund analysis though a slight improvement on her previous work.

Published 11 months ago by Dave1948

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