Dancyger has carefully organized this collection, providing a platform for both established and newer writers to speak on their experiences of anger and pushing them to express that anger ... Every single essay in this collection touches on an important topic or idea that illuminates the ways in which women express anger and are prevented from expressing it ... delivers essay after essay of bold and powerful writing.
... an extraordinary collection of talent; each essay is distinct from the next (although some themes overlap), and each takes a slightly different approach to the art of creative nonfiction — whether the essays are braided, factual, or lyric. It's also an extremely well-timed book ... [Dancyger's] experience and sharp eye make this anthology a thorough exploration of its topic ... If nothing else, this anthology instructs the reader that American women are just now at the starting line of exploring and understanding their anger. It's a force that has barely been tapped. Burn It Down both diagnoses and analyzes the state of anger among American women, even if the book demonstrates that we have a long way to go to understand it fully.
This panoply of voices demonstrates that anger isn’t the rightful domain of a particular location, a race, or an economic status. The diversity of subjectivities serves two main functions: readers can find at least one essay in which they identify strongly with the author, and it creates a sense of sisterhood that could hypothetically transcend the typical boundaries that keep women from combining their considerable forces to enact change ... Lilly Dancyger notes, 'It’s okay, get angry,' and that is exactly what the authors do, in a confessional, intimate way. Though the urgent tone and relatively short length of each essay may tempt the reader to rush through, these stories are worthy of unhurried contemplation and definitely benefit from a little breathing room ... Reading these essays arouses all of the emotional states that they contain: anguish, anxiety, disorientation, and indignation ... Burn It Down is an impressive collection of essays; nevertheless, women who want to see large-scale social change must beware the ease of stopping at mere personal disclosure, no matter how assuaging the feeling of release.
The essays in Burn It Down illustrate how patriarchal society benefits from women stifling their anger, even if suppression feels like our best chance at survival. To that end, the angry authors in this anthology are inspirational. In fact, why are all of us women not furious all the time? Burn It Down asserts that there is no panacea for women’s anger, save for widespread political and social change ... Whether you are coming into your own anger, or anger is your daily fuel, there is something for everyone to draw from in this anthology. It is time to light a match.
[A] compelling anthology ... Several features distinguish this collection including the range of experience covered, a uniformly sophisticated attention to language that manages to convey painful truths in cogent creative prose, an unwillingness to settle for pat answers and easy solutions and, finally, the fact that virtually any woman reading this book will find herself or someone she knows if not literally at least metaphorically in its pages ... One clear strength of Burn It Down, then, is its wide-ranging subject matter and ease of reader association ... powerful ... As this urgent anthology reminds us, the time to burn down the systemic edifice of violence, misogyny and the host of other toxic constructs that seek to dominate women’s lives is long overdue.
...incredible personal reflections within each essay...reflect Dancyger’s goal of showing anger as and for itself, rather than suggesting it is a means to an end, a political catalyst, or an emotion that—to be valid—must be linked to a larger purpose ... Dancyger wants her readers to understand that anger is justified and/or not in need of justification because of the patriarchal structures that have shaped women’s lives, voices, and sense of self ... These powerful essays strike a balance between memoir and theory and will be useful in courses on feminist theory as they provide highly individualized accounts of women’s experiences.
Editor Dancyger collects essays from 22 female writers contemplating (and unleashing) anger, continuing the #MeToo ethos of emotional transparency and righteous indignation, to bracing and powerful effect. The writers are a diverse group and cover a wide range of experiences ... As Dancyger notes in her introduction, women’s anger has long been trivialized and discredited, but this collection allows that anger the space to flourish. It is a cathartic and often inspiring reading experience.
Catapult contributing editor Dancyger creates a cathartic space for both well- and lesser-known writers to express the various ways in which their anger has manifested in their lives ... Powerful and provocative, this collection is an instructive read for anyone seeking to understand the many faces—and pains—of womanhood in 21st-century America. An incisive collection of writing about how women’s anger 'doesn’t have to be useful to deserve a voice.'
