Hanna’s book is raw, honest, poetic, insightful, and often funny. Her political evolution is particularly gratifying…An impressively perspicacious memoir from one of feminism’s most influential artists.” — Kirkus Reviews
“A fantastic journey into an unconventional life, pulsing with raw energy and vulnerability that I witnessed firsthand. It’s honest, funny, witty, and smart. And most of all, it's important to the herstory of Kathleen’s place in blazing new trails.” — Joan Jett
“Until I started reading this book, the idea of Kathleen Hanna seemed more real to me than the person. But with every word, Kathleen exposes the fleshy humanness of being a cult icon on a mission. While Rebel Girl is as defiant as the song that inspired its title, there’s a counterweight of humility and openness that adds new perspective to the songs and stories of Kathleen’s life. This book is something special.” — Hayley Williams
“A no-holds-barred account…Hanna’s visceral prose captivates, and she’s refreshingly candid about the riot grrrl movement’s failures…It’s a raw and revealing portrait of a vital figure in the feminist punk scene.” — Publishers Weekly
“Hanna holds nothing back in a debut that traces her chaotic childhood through to founding the riot grrrl punk feminist movement and her time in such bands as Viva Knievel and Le Tigre. Visceral prose is undergirded by clear-eyed insight into the flaws of early punk feminist activism—including its overwhelming whiteness—making this a memoir with depth and edge to spare.” — One of Publishers Weekly’s Top 15 Summer Reads
“Hanna delivers a searing memoir in which the pioneering punk icon recalls her journey through music and activism…She makes the case for hope and resilience in the face of hardship—illustrated by…the lasting positive impact of her work.” — W Magazine, “The Best, Most Talked-About Books of 2024 (So Far)”
“A timely refresher on resilience, the power of protest art and the tender humanity that we must not lose. . . Like a comic book hero, Hanna has seemed to gather superhuman strength with every blow she receives. . . all while churning out ever more powerful and furious music. Rebel Girl unapologetically reveals the vulnerability behind that image. . . [Hanna] reflects on her own failures and culpability, acknowledging them in a way that is refreshing and constructive. . . . Hanna intentionally busts open her feminist idol identity, liberating herself from our perceptions and serving some hard-won wisdom.” — BookPage (starred review)
“Gripping.” — NYLON, selected for “The It Girl’s Summer Reading List”
2024-02-14
The lead singer of feminist punk band Bikini Kill chronicles her life and career.
Before Hanna became a beloved musician and co-founder of the Riot grrrl movement, she was a child trying to survive domestic violence. Her father was a labor union leader whose “untreated alcoholism” led to her parents’ divorce. Hanna left home for Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where she majored in photography. There, she met Tobi Vail and Kathi Wilcox, and they formed Bikini Kill. In the years that followed, the band toured the country, coining famous phrases like “Girls to the Front,” which doubled as a call for girls to join bands and a way for punk girls to feel safer in the face of harassment from male audience members. The author’s troubled past and the realities she observed at organizations like SafePlace, a domestic violence shelter, highly influenced her lyrics, many of them focused on experiences with gender-based violence and sexual assault. After leaving Bikini Kill, surviving Lyme disease, getting married to Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys, adopting a child, and founding the band Le Tigre, Hanna reflects on everything she has learned in her long career. She is particularly circumspect about the Riot grrrl movement and her views on race, both of which she says have evolved considerably, as well as her history surviving violence. “Male violence didn’t create me,” she writes, “it just made it harder to make my art—but I did it anyway.” Hanna’s book is raw, honest, poetic, insightful, and often funny. Her political evolution is particularly gratifying, especially for readers who grew up with Hanna’s self-admittedly imperfect activism. At times, the text is more of a stream-of-consciousness rendering of chronological events than a structured narrative, a style that is mostly charming but occasionally confusing.
An impressively perspicacious memoir from one of feminism’s most influential artists.
