Kathleen Hanna's band Bikini Kill embodied the punk scene of the 90s, and today her personal yet feminist lyrics on anthems like "Rebel Girl" and "Double Dare Ya" are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from? In Rebel Girl, Hanna's raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumul-tuous childhood to her formative college years and her first shows. As Hanna makes clear, being in a punk "girl band" in those years was not a simple or safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightning rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination.
An unblinking, purple bruise of a memoir ... It’s stoic and empathetic in equal measure, particularly in its accounting of Hanna’s girlhood ... Can sometimes feel like an unceasing parade of indignities and outrages.
Unfolds in raw, ragged segments. She has always explored difficult subjects, but without the music’s cathartic power and her commanding stage presence, the book can be dark ... Her story, along with Bikini Kill’s upcoming tour, couldn’t feel more necessary.
Packed with harrowing stories and illuminating revelations ... Utilizing a voice that’s often bitingly funny but never insincere, Hanna proves a captivating narrator.
