okay tbh I picked this up thinking that it was a book about fast fashion and sweatshops because of the name (the the actual physical cost of the labour of creating things) but this was actually a book about pregnancy (like that sort of labour😭😭) i think j got it mixed up with the documentary called "the true cost". anyway, despite walking in prepared for something completely different, for the first half of the book I was certain this was a 5 star read. it lost me a bit towards the end and it started to become a bit more ramble-y which happen when books are intially an essay and then get turned into a book (which I'm pretty sure was the case for this). while it may not be my no. 1 favourite of the year, this is such an important book and really opened my eyes to a lot of issues and clarified them astoundingly. this was also written by an Australian woman so what this woman went through and what she talked about will probably be experienced by lots of the women around me in the upcoming years. i really really urge people to pick this up, so so informative and engaging and aware, pls pls read!