I would consider my first read of December a success. I am not normally one to read collections of short stories, but I found this one to be enlightening and empowering. Roar is a collection of short stories about being a woman in today’s world. 

 

What I found to be most interesting about this novel is that each short story tends to take a common saying about being a woman today and uses the literal meaning to show how women can overcome stereotypes and be their own person in today’s society. Common phrases that are either said by women or said to women such as “I wish the ground would swallow me up” or “You should smile more” are used to demonstrate how women can overcome everyday problems. 

 

This book is also interesting in the fact that each woman in each story is unnamed and can therefore easily be any one of us. It is easy to imagine yourself in the situations that these women experience, and some of them may have even happened to you. This book allowed me to embrace my femininity, while still not overtly bashing the male gender, which I loved. It would be easy to label this book as feminist and write it off as a man hating collection of stories, but that would be missing the point. This book is more egalitarian than feminist and does not make the point of one gender being superior to another, but highlights the struggles that women have to face everyday, simply because of their gender, while also not asking for any sympathy. This is an empowering novel through and through, and I am extremely glad I read it. 

 

I will say that some of these stories were less metaphorical and clever than others, which is what prevented me from giving this book 5/5 stars. Some stories hit the nail on the head more obviously and lost some of the intelligence that made other stories great. 

 

Another element that I appreciated about this novel was that it did not simply tell stories about women who were born as such, it explores topics of sexuality and gender identity as well without hitting you in the face about it. So, for anyone who identifies as a woman, there is a story in this book to make you feel heard and welcomed. 

Overall, I really did enjoy this novel and am glad that I read it. I do standby the synopsis on the back of this book that reads “A story for every woman. A story for every moment.” 4/5 stars to Roar by Cecelia Ahern.