Contained in these pages is wide-ranging, wholly-compelling, deeply-researched account of the heroines in folklore, myths, and storytelling. Tatar’s title plays on the famous 1980s tome The Hero With A Thousand Faces, but doesn’t seek to simply insert women into that paradigm. Instead, Tatar employs “1,001” with a nod to the Arabic interpretation, designating “a vast measure, the final digit of ‘one’ in that number goes beyond a thousand to suggest a swerve into something without limits… meant to capture they boundless possibilities as well as the bravura magnitude of heroic behavior.” 

Tatar’s work is powerful — if not a tad scattershot — drawing on a robust well of cultural examples from Greek mythology to DC comics. She outlines the ways that heroines are distinct entities apart from “female heroes,” positing that heroines rely on storytelling and words more than action and violence, and are motived by care, compassion, restoration, and justice. 

I kept copious notes as I went, sometimes capturing the particular brilliance of Tatar’s wordsmithery and other times highlighting an especially poignant argument. Of all the chapters, I found the ones on gossip and curiosity most elucidating. I had never really contended with the way that curiosity is simultaneously encouraged and censured, celebrating discovery (see: science) but chastising any challenges to the status quo (see: social dissatisfaction). 

I’m grateful to have read this with my book club, as our discussion deepened my understanding and added texture to an already complexly woven thesis.