In this non-fiction book, author Gail Carriger defines the heroine’s journey in opposition to the hero’s journey, and gives examples from myths to contemporary TV series. Combining humour and research, she explains what it is, how to spot it, how to write it, and what it says about us as readers and as a society.

I really enjoyed this book for the way it offers a counterpoint to stories of lonesome heroes defeating obstacles and fighting big bad guys to retrieve precious boons. This type of story feels increasingly boring to me, and so I loved how Carriger explored the defining traits of those stories who focus on community, connection, asking for and offering help. She makes a very clear point about how “heroine” has nothing to do with the character’s gender or sexuality. Instead, she uses hero / heroine to define how the main character is gendered by the narrative.

This book gave me food for thought. One major thing I had trouble with is that it makes extensive use of Harry Potter as an example. Being published in 2020, this book was most probably written in 2019 and so I won’t hold it against the author because I feel like 2020 was really the year when we couldn’t ignore anymore how problematic the HP author is. Also, the point of The Heroine’s Journey is showing how those types of narrative can create such strong emotional connection with readers, and there is no denying how much HP meant for so many of us when we grew up. I still wish another work had been chosen as an example, because The Heroine’s Journey is a very valuable book on writing but I’ll recommend it with this caveat.