BRAVE audiobook

I saw Rose McGowan on an episode of The View recently. I found her edgy, forthcoming, and, well, brave. Hollywood and pop culture are not interests of mine at the moment, but seeing her on The View had me intrigued. When I saw the audiobook available, and that she read it, I figured why not? Same with this book. Rose is rough around the edges. She does not mince words. All the same, she says and said things that not many others will. She confronted the hard stuff. She put her heart out there for all to see. Sometimes you think a Hollywood actress has an easy life, but whatever “ease” Rose McGowan found, she earned the hard way. Starting her life raised in a cult in Italy with an alcoholic and abusive father and an emotionally absent mother, Rose had good reason to be a little tempestuous. Rose talked about each of her Hollywood relationships, the movies and TV shows she’s done, as well as her life growing up, the incident with “the monster,” and other experiences she had in Hollywood as a female actor and director. She also shared her hope and ideas for future endeavors. I found Brave to be engaging (though, at times, it was difficult due to the content), honest, and entertaining. She may not always be well-liked. She may be hard to “hear” at times because she’s brusque; however, Rose’s message about Hollywood and how it shapes women is an important one. 🎧 Review of the audio read by Rose McGowan. I think hearing her read her own words added to the authenticity and poignancy.

“Whatever is different about you is what makes you amazing. Others will try to homogenize you for their own comfort level, because God forbid discomfort. Fuck that. Do not bend yourself to make others feel taller.” ― Rose McGowan, BraveRose McGowan offers a revealing self-portrait which focuses on the trauma of sexual assault and the experience of being a female actress in Hollywood. This was Honest, Fearless, Powerful and filled with that which makes you fall in love with the author through her struggles, root for her and most of all, want to turn the pages until you're done.

Here lies a BRAVE female opening up an intelligent discussion and also a complete up yours to every male who ever took a piece of Rose McGowan. She lays it all on the line and leaves nothing in the tank. She exposes the dirty and mysogynist mentality that dominates the Hollywood industry since inception and lays it all bare. She takes our collective voices and shouts for us, in this book she gives all women a shove to speak up and do it LOUDLY. I’ve gotta respect the girl. She’s got real guts and isn’t afraid of the repercussions. I loved this book, yes I even loved all the anger, rage and hate that spewed forth so freely. There’s no sugar coating or mincing words it’s all blunt and in your face, for far too long woman have had no voice so it’s great to see someone delivering the message loud and clear. Times up! Let us all unite to raise each other and praise the voices leading the charge. Good on you Rose McGowan keep doing you and allowing woman to be heard everywhere. Like Rose we can all be brave. Read this book get inspired and reach out and support our sisterhood. It’s time to change things up once and for all.

Well, this is one of the most difficult books I have ever reviewed. Memoirs and biographies are always difficult but Brave is filled with so many emotions that it becomes even harder to review. First of all, I want to make it clear that I feel that I am no person to judge Rose for what she wrote down about her life. She was born in a cult in Italy and had one hell of a ride for life to her next destination; Hollywood. Except, Hollywood was not so different from her experiences in the cult. She experienced abuse by various people in different ways, and this obviously had an extreme impact on her. In Brave, Rose speaks about this in an incredibly powerful way. You can feel her anger and her sadness come to life on these pages. Whilst reading there were so many things going through my mind. Things I would think if I heard this kind of experiences from people close to me or people I barely know... How would other people react? I think it is safe to say that many would be quick to judge (perhaps even me) because that mechanism is deeply embedded in our system. But, from reading this book I got one strong lesson. Namely, try not to judge. When you are judging someone, whether it is their experience with sexual abuse or something entirely different, you make a small invasion of their lives. Just listen to their stories, and try to stand up when you recognize wrongdoings. Now, back to the book. If I would have to say something about the writing style in this book, I could tell you that there are better-written books out there. Books that are written a lot better. Yet, this is not the thing that weighs most heavy for me with memoirs. Somehow it actually worked out for me when combined with its content. I read a review where it was argued that this book should not have been written because Rose McGowan is mentally ill and needed help rather than this book out in the wide world. That I think is not true. In the case she would be mentally ill, she still would have to right to tell her story, and I think that is actually something that can be of help in your healing process. The world should know what the impact of (sexual) abuse is/ can be. Given that not every person has the same experiences I value this book as an honest account of Rose her experience. Not yours, not mine, not the abuser’s, just hers. I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars, because Rose, Brave you are.

Girl, I know. I think the majority of us do know exactly how this goes down. If things have changed or people are aware and trying to make change that is great. However, my responses to this subject have been along the lines ofstop talking about it nothing even happenedand my favorite since I'm in Florida and it's typically 100 degrees: wear big sweaters I hope you have a better outcome Rose, I'm behind you 100%

Incredible, unforgettable, and life altering. Wow, this book was truly amazing. I am at a loss of words currently when it comes to describing just how profound I found this. Rose McGowan, I want to applaud you for your bravery and this masterful piece of writing. Just wow. This piece of nonfiction writing is raw, gritty and emotionally intense. There is no sugar coating, Rose says it like it is. The tone is angry, frustrated and intense, and so it should be and needs to be.In a nutshell, this is Rose's life story as a woman. On a larger scale, this is the story of womankind and the issues that come with gender ideals and stereotypes. It is also about the power and importance of not just finding our voices, but in our using of them. As a woman, I resonated with her words and ideas so strongly. This novel shook the earth I stood upon, and really made me look at the world surrounding me as well as myself as an individual. As I was reading the numerous and incredibly traumatic instances of sexual harassment and abuse Rose has endured throughout her life, I felt saddened and caught myself thinking how blessed I am to have not endured such experiences. Then I stopped and caught myself when I thought this. This isn't something I should feel 'blessed' to have not experienced, as it shouldn't be a very real reality I could experience as a woman. I shouldn't be blessed to have not experienced sexual harassment or abuse, because it isn't something I should have to worry about. And yet it is.I'm afraid of the dark. Want to know why? Because from a young age I was warned of the dangers that could lurch in the dark for me as a girl. Rape was a very real reality I was protected against by my parents who didn't allow me to go out by myself. They couldn't control the actions of others, so they controlled my environment as best they could. My brother was allowed to go outside unattended however, but I wasn't. Now I realise why, because I was a girl and he was a boy. The fact that I have to be concerned for my safety whenever I leave my house unattended say a lot about the gender issues that still prevail today in our society. This isn't to say all men are dangerous of course, but that the ones that are and the way that society is structured makes for a frightening reality.This is just one of the many ideas and issues Rose evokes in her novel about gender problems that still exist and have for quite sometime. Although there are some topics she raises that I am not altogether in agreement with, I can see the importance and validity in her raising them in her conversational style of writing. This novel is a sequence of her life's journey and they all flow and blend together to add to an overall argument which is incredibly powerful and necessary to discuss in our modern age. I strongly encourage not just all women, but too all men to read this. You do not have to completely agree with all of Rose's sentiments to take away something from this novel. Her ideas are incredibly insightful and will challenge the way you think and how you see society. A wonderfully power novel that has changed me. I could go on and on about all the ideas, but will let you explore them for yourself. A five thumbs up!

Rose McGowan doesn't hold back in this brutally honest and fascinating look into her life and the Hollywood cult machine. What made this book so special was how relatable it was. The setting may be different, but this is a universal story that unfortunately ALL women can relate to.As you can imagine the content is not always easy to read but Rose's bravery and determination to speak up and try to change things is always present and incredibly contagious. This is no mere memoir, this is a call to action. I read this book in one sitting and by the end felt an energy in me that I hope never leaves. Her honesty and courage to fight back is inspiring and I'm so happy she's shared her story and continues to fight.RoseArmy? Enlist Me!

I read this book because I love learning about cults. I had no idea who this lady was and why she was famous. I was pleasantly surprised by the book."Rose McGowan was born in one cult and came of age in another, more visible cult: Hollywood.In a strange world where she was continually on display, stardom soon became a personal nightmare of constant exposure and sexualization. Rose escaped into the world of her mind, something she had done as a child, and into high-profile relationships. Every detail of her personal life became public, and the realities of an inherently sexist industry emerged with every script, role, public appearance, and magazine cover. The Hollywood machine packaged her as a sexualized bombshell, hijacking her image and identity and marketing them for profit.Hollywood expected Rose to be silent and cooperative and to stay the path. Instead, she rebelled and asserted her true identity and voice. She reemerged unscripted, courageous, victorious, angry, smart, fierce, unapologetic, controversial and..."

Rose is a true inspiration.I hope her story and words can reach everyone and bring about a change that desperately needs to happen. A phenomenal book.

When I shaved my head, it was a battle cry, but more than that it gave me an answer to the question I so hated.Did I break up with someone?Yes, I broke up with the world.You can, too.My name is Rose McGowan and I am BRAVE.I have to admit that I didn't know Rose McGowan's work – I've never seen Charmed, or Scream, or the Rodriguez/Tarantino Grindhouse movies. I've certainly heard McGowan's name tied to the recent takedown of the Weinstein machine, but not being a consumer of Hollywood “news”, I never clicked on any links for more information; the gist of a bad man finally getting his desserts was enough to satisfy me. All this to say that I don't know if my ignorance makes me a more or less ideal reader for McGowan's memoir: I had zero preconceived ideas about her (every time she confronted gossip or criticism that she endured over the years, I had had no exposure to the original “controversies”, so had no entrenched opinion of her), so while this wasn't especially revelatory for me, I also didn't go into this book with either a fangirl or a hater bias; I could take everything McGowan writes at face value, and what I found was a bit horrifying and a bit inspiring. Rose McGowan has lived a crazy life, and in Brave, she sketches out that life and ends with a manifesto for making the world a better place. It would be hard to ask for more of someone. My life, as you will read, has taken me from one dangerous cult to another, one of the biggest cults of all: Hollywood. I say biggest because short of a nuclear bomb, Hollywood has the furthest reach. Rose McGowan was born into the Children of God cult, in a stone barn in the Tuscany region of Italy. Despite being noncompliant from the very start, McGowan believes that early attempts to earn the love and attention of a Messianic father set her on a lifelong path of trying to please the men in her life; always bartering her independence for paternalistic caretaking. When the cult started advocating sex between adults and children (something McGowan witnessed but was never a party to), her father escaped with his children (if not her mother) and made his way to the States. McGowan spend the next few years bouncing between her father, and eventually, her mother (who had a string of abusive boyfriends herself), and then all too young, McGowan hit the streets. After more years of instability, then living for years with a spoiled prince of Hollywood royalty who encouraged her anorexia, as soon as McGowan ran off to be on her own once more, she was literally picked up off the streets and offered the lead in an independent film (The Doom Generation). This is when she became ensnared by the “cult of Hollywood”, and the twenty years that followed certainly sound as abusive and isolating as anything McGowan experienced with the Children of God: the attack by Weinstein (followed by an industry coverup and her official blackballing); her relationship with Marilyn Manson that dominating gossip blogs and went down in flames; her time with Charmed and its exhausting filming schedule (and constant abuse by practically all male directors and screenwriters); her relationship with director Robert Rodriguez that ushered in a return to the movies – and the ending to that particular story is a nasty bit of betrayal that should turn anyone off of Rodriguez and his skeezy pal Quentin Tarantino. Through it all, McGowan realised that she was being used by the male dominated industry to sell a warped version of femininity out to the world (the effect of which could only be to make women feel badly about themselves), and despite knowing that she wasn't honouring her own spirit, her lifelong need to be a man-pleaser and her fears of ending up on the streets again made her feel trapped. Until she decided to get BRAVE. I wanted to go back to before when I was a whole person. I wanted to go back to being a strong badass, but I was now in a million pieces. I couldn't stop crying. I couldn't stop the screaming nightmares. I couldn't stop Hollywood. I just wanted out and away. My body kept having its own flashbacks. The book does end with a manifesto – a call for people to start living more authentic lives and to demand that Hollywood start allowing stories to be told from a point-of-view other than that of the white cis male (so interesting that Charmed – what McGowan calls the longest running female led series in history – was written and directed nearly exclusively by men; even when women get to talk, it's in the words that men think they should be saying.) And she's not wrong about any of this.On the less positive side of the ledger, despite the fact that I liked McGowan's voice in general, I don't know if this book was terribly well written. The following is representative of a recurring cliche-clunkiness to which the prose can descend: Hollywood operates like the Mafia when it comes to protecting its own. Especially if your “own” is a rich white male. Yes, I said it. But here’s the thing, it’s true. I didn’t make it so, it just is. In other news, the sky is blue. McGowan tells us several times that she was a perfect blow-up doll of idealised beauty, and that when men in the industry would meet her for the first time, they'd be shocked to discover that she is also intelligent and articulate – which, by inference, means that the average beauty queen actress actually is a bubbleheaded ninny. This backhandedness comes in again when McGowan states that the “naked” dress she wore to an awards show with Marilyn Manson was meant as an eff you to Hollywood; she was reclaiming her own sexuality and daring anyone to judge her for it. She then goes on to say that anyone who copied that look in later years was missing the point – other actresses, the bubbleheaded ninnies, were falling into the Hollywood trap and giving their misogynistic overlords exactly what they wanted on a platter. As someone without an agenda who saw that dress for the first time when I googled Rose McGowan while reading this book, her intent wasn't obvious to me; and yet McGowan dared people to judge her motives while feeling free to judge those of other actresses. And one more minor complaint: it seems that every time McGowan chose to use the word “whom”, she'd end that sentence on a preposition, which seemed so jarring to me; a choice of proper over colloquial grammar immediately followed by the more casual (I didn't mark an example and can't find one after too much time flipping through my book, but I mean something like, “They couldn't decide whom it should be given to.” And it drove me craaazy. every. time.)After reading Brave, I can totally see why Rose McGowan would be a polarising figure: She's brusque, self-confident, angry and doesn't seem to care one bit if anyone likes her. And I'm okay with all of that – this is an incredible life story, and if McGowan is able to transform her pain into a fight for a better world, I wish her and the #RoseArmy nothing but success.

Rose McGowan is brave. She set the stage for a frank discussion about sexual harassment and gender equality. McGowan takes on Hollywood and exposes the phony, two-faced Hollywood elite. Good for her! I have not been to see a movie in 3 years because of the trash that is produced. I used to watch Project Runway until I discovered McGowan’s monster is behind the show so I am boycotting that as well. I hope McGowan’s movement and book sparks a serious discussion regarding how women are portrayed and how the stereotypes continue to perpetuate a society that objectifies women.