Author Heather B. Moore takes an unconventional approach in the format of this look back at women from American history. Rather than straight-up fiction or straight-up non-fiction, she alternates the scenes between the two genres. The deliberate choice was intended to draw the reader in with the narrative and then provide some factual substance. Some readers will enjoy this approach and others may not, but it does widen the potential audience to include historical fiction lovers and non-fiction enthusiasts.

Some of the women featured are household names, but many are not (even though they should be). The order of presentation follows their birth dates and some of the women overlap on the American timeline. What was particularly striking was how many of the issues the women fought for were the same or complimentary. It is humbling that women fought for a long time for the vote, a better society, and equal rights and opportunities for all–and we are the beneficiaries of this today through no merits of our own.

This was a worthwhile read on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and a timely reminder that America and its values were built on the efforts of some tenacious, beautiful, and strong women.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 2 mild obscenities.

Violence/Gore: Death by disease; reference to some of the events of the Revolutionary War; reports of deaths due to illness, age, war; report of amputation; someone observes the beating of a an enslaved person, some description; enslaved people are hit; brief description of a master beating an enslaved person with heated bars leaving severe scarring; death of a child at birth; child has scars all over back from whippings; death by tuberculosis; report of a slave uprising and people being killed; report of hanging; lead weight thrown and hits enslaved person in the head resulting in severe injury; report of death by seizure after failed suicide attempt; death of child by illness; report of racially motivated lynching; government employees destroy printing press and severely beat citizen staff members; Texas Rangers killed minorities to suppress their vote; WWII concentration camps, some description; individual sees signs of fighting; individual slaps another; railcars are found full of dead women, children, and other prisoners outside a concentration camp; some description of events observed in Korean war including signs of refugees, burned out planes with bullet holes; individuals are shot at; structures are destroyed by explosives.

Sex/Nudity: Characters kiss; child is born out of wedlock; report(s) of master(s) impregnating enslaved women; wife discovers a husband was unfaithful; reference to mistress.

Mature Subject Matter:

Discrimination against women, racial discrimination, racism, mental health issues, temperance movement, suffrage movement, slavery, family separation, wars, suicide (report), death, concentration camps.

Alcohol/Drug Use:

Reference to temperance movement, report someone was recovering from alcoholism, report that individuals were addicts, smoking.