Strong Female Character
Nero Book Awards Winner
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4.5 • 155 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
NERO BOOK AWARDS WINNER 2023
WINNER, NON FICTION BOOK 2023, BOOKS ARE MY BAG AWARDS
SHORTLIST, BOOKSHOP.ORG INDIE CHAMPIONS
SHORTLIST, AMAZON NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
SHORTLIST, GOODREADS CHOICE BOOK OF THE YEAR
Audible Books of the Year 2023
The Times Books of the Year 2023
Apple Best Audiobooks of 2023
BOOKSHOP.ORG Book of the Month January 2024
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
'I tore through this hilarious, smart, sad, revealing book' - Bob Odenkirk
'Funny, sharp and has incredible clarity' - Jon Ronson
'An absolute riot. I'm literally going to read it again once I've finished, and I'm a miserable bastard...it's a belter' - FRANKIE BOYLE
'Strong Female Character is a testament to the importance of self-knowledge.' - Rachael Healy, The Guardian
A summary of my book:
1. I'm diagnosed with autism 20 years after telling a doctor I had it.
2. My terrible Catholic childhood: I hate my parents etc.
3. My friendship with an elderly man who runs the corner shop and is definitely not trying to groom me. I get groomed.
4. Homelessness.
5. Stripping.
6. More stripping but with more nervous breakdowns.
7. I hate everyone at uni and live with a psycho etc.
8. REDACTED as too spicy.
9. After everyone tells me I don't look autistic, I try to cure my autism and get addicted to Xanax.
10. REDACTED as too embarrassing.
'Fern's book, like everything she does, is awesome. Incredibly funny, and so unapologetically frank that I feel genuinely sorry for her lawyers.' - PHIL WANG
'Of course it's funny - it's Fern Brady - but this book is also deeply moving and eye-opening'
- ADAM KAY
'It made me laugh out loud and broke my heart and made me weep...I hope absolutely everyone reads this, and it makes them kinder and more curious about the way we all live' - DAISY BUCHANAN
'Glorious. Frank but nuanced, a memoir that doesn't sacrifice voice or self-awareness. And it has brilliant things to say about being autistic and being funny' - ELLE MCNICOLL
'A set text for all of us in 2023' - DEBORAH FRANCES-WHITE
'Fern is a brilliant, beautiful writer with a unique voice and even more unique story. Astute, honest and very, very funny.' - LOU SANDERS
'So funny and brilliant' - HOLLY SMALE
'Witty, dry, and gimlet-eyed, Strong Female Character is a necessary corrective. Brady offers a compelling, messy, highly resonant portrait of what masked Autism feels like.' - Devon Price, author of Unmasking Autism
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
After a lifetime of feeling excruciatingly out of place and misunderstood, an adult diagnosis of autism enabled Fern Brady to look at herself for the first time with clarity but also, crucially, with compassion. This, as she says herself, is a book she felt she had to write—for herself and for others, especially girls, whose autism will present quite differently to male stereotypes. The words pour out onto the page with, if not relief, then a sense of liberation. There is no denying that it is often a very difficult read, as the unyielding, even cruel environment against which she struggled as a child shifts to chaotic early adulthood, and later into terrible violence inflicted on her by a partner. While Brady is full of empathy for her mother in particular, it’s hard not to be angry at the countless failures that could have made for an incalculably worse outcome—and indeed, for other women, have. But that is part of the point that Brady is making, and lifts this beyond misery memoir into passionate polemic.
Customer Reviews
Insightful
Great individual insight into woman with autism. It touches upon many stereotypes we give to woman and highlights the cracks within society. Helpful and makes you reflect as teacher who has taught girls with autism but did not know the signs.
Cant recommend this book enough
Didn’t know what to expect but got more than I could ever have imagined. This book is truly a must read.
Brilliant
Absolutely brilliant- I couldn’t put it down. Honest, hilarious and heartbreaking.