Finally read this feminist classic. I can imagine how fresh, bold, and revolutionary this book must have sounded 50 years ago. Today the narration comes across as naive and caricatural. Molly, the MC/narrator, has the "batman superpower" of making everyone else in the room suddenly suffer from an intelligence drop: she always knows how to expose other people's vulnerabilites, she always gets away with her revenge pranks, she is always morally superior by refusing to use labels and boxes, always the best in class without even having to study. So smart, witty, funny, popular, sexy, athletic, etc, the girl everyone wants to be and be with. A childish fantasy.

I think there were a couple concepts that Brown did a great job of writing into the story: self-hatred stemming from sexual repression and how this manifests in sabotaging relationships (romantic or not), and Molly's evolution from a bright-eyed girl into a cynical woman.

It is pretty impressive to see how far we have come in just a few generations. Our vocabulary and ability to discuss feminism as a society has evolved. Reading through other reviews, I can see that today's readers can quickly recognize the problematic aspects of the book and expand on various aspects of feminism that the book never broaches. Onward ho.