If there’s one thing I love, it’s a book other people would describe as WEIRD. I love a subversive story, an unusual plot, and if it’s written by a woman about societal beauty standards? Even better.
I picked up The Blondes by Emily Schultz second hand, and I’m so glad I grabbed it. I read it in two days, and I couldn’t stop telling people about the story.
It’s about Hazel Hayes, a postgrad candidate navigating an awkward affair with her professor that gets even more problematic when women – notably blondes – start having violent public outbursts.
Hazel, whose research looks at the depictions of women in advertising, gets caught in the midst of one of these events, and before she knows it, a full-blown pandemic is underway. Women with blonde hair, whether it’s natural or not, are regarded with intense suspicion. It’s not long before women are being tracked down, imprisoned, and forced to shave their heads and submit to humiliating tests to see if they carry the mysterious virus.
This book is like a cool glass of water on a humid day– it’s just so refreshing. It has a great plot that moves along quickly, and the genuine creepiness of the story is undercut with hilariously black observations about how society treats “dangerous” women. It makes you think about how insane western beauty standards really are.
The Blondes, is savage, funny, and thought-provoking.
I’m betting there’s a movie adaptation for this one coming, and I’ll be first in line at the cinemas.
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