Book Review: Women of Myth by Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy

Women of Myth: From Deer Woman and Mami Wata to Amaterasu and Athena, Your Guide to the Amazing and Diverse Women from World Mythology by Jenny Williamson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Over the millennia and around the world, religions and literary epics and superstition had numerous female characters that have influenced numerous cultures and societies. Women of Myth: From Deer Woman and Mami Wata to Amaterasu and Athena, Your Guide to the Amazing and Diverse Women from World Mythology by Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy with illustrations by Sara Richard covers 50 goddesses, heroines, and monsters from around the world.

Over the course of 248 pages, Williamson and McMenemy cover their selected subjects in encyclopedic format giving pronunciation guides, appearance, and any symbols connected with the subject before giving an overview of the individual and their story with a sidebar to end the entry. As the very long subtitle states the authors cover women from around the world as 28 of them come from non-European, North African, or Middle Eastern cultures that sometimes dominate books like these with only token characters from China or India and a generic entry to cover all Native American tribes & cultures. The main reason I got this book was the 30 illustrations done by Sara Richard, an artist whose work I’ve followed for a very long time and frankly her work here is once again top notch. Now for some people who are triggered by gender terminology, avoid this book because Williamson and McMenemy don’t shy away from stating the evidence of genderbending or intersex for some individuals which when I checked other sources—besides those they provided in the reference section at the back of the book—turned out the authors did their research to give that possibility of that interpretation.

Women of Myth looks at 50 individuals that had significant impact upon their cultures either as deities to be prayed to, heroines to look up to, or monsters to look out for. Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy did a great job introducing readers to these individuals with the added effect of the amazing art of Sara Richard giving a visual interpretation of them as well.

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