Oh how I wanted to love this book.

The first section of the book was great, a detailed look at the female body and reproductive system and menstruation. It felt like all the information I needed (and didn’t get) when I was 13, and although it’s almost 20 years too late, it was great to learn more about my own body (even though it’s surprising that at 32 I didn’t know them already).

However, after the first part of the book, I very quickly lost interest and found myself rolling my eyes a lot. I did start making notes of the things that made me inwardly groan, but I soon realised I was writing a lot.

The author divides the menstrual cycle into four seasons, and when she started saying things like “your spring is where you can get a sense of the spaces where you can grow. Can you feel the potential within you in the spaces between your joints, the spaces between your thoughts?”, I knew this may not be the book for me. Like once a month I’m supposed to think about the potential in the spaces between my joints – what the heck does that even mean?!

And when talking about period pain, which is something that affects me, she said “Don’t take painkillers as it blocks your experience and stops you accessing a liminal space”. I mean, come on, really? I don’t think period cramps are taking me to a liminal space, and to suggest that taking painkillers is a bad thing is just urgh.

So your mileage may vary, but this book just unfortunately wasn’t for me. I did stick it out to the end, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. I also had it in audio format rather than a physical book, which meant it felt quite repetitive towards the end when she was listing common conditions and treatments for them which I’d probably have been able to more easily skim-read in book format.