LoveReading Says
For most autistics existing in a world not built for them, anxiety is the baseline and constant background hum that their daily life has to play over. Brady had always displayed autistic traits, had meltdowns, had difficulty understanding the thoughts and feelings of others but she'd never been diagnosed. Until now.
Brady tells us: "If you've ever been on a night out where you got blackout drunk and have laughed the next day as your friends tell you all the stupid stuff you said, that's what being autistic feels like for me: one long blackout night of drinking, except there's no socially sanctioned excuse for your gaffes and no one is laughing."
The vast majority of people's understanding of autism, are informed by people who are autism adjacent, rather than the autistics themselves. In Strong Female Character Brady opens the doors to it all. The inability to see shades of grey, the masking, every intensity of interest, every challenge with change, interoception, alexithymia, every shutdown, every meltdown.
Brady takes us on her long journey to diagnosis and her maladaptive coping mechanisms. And what a heartbreaking journey it is when you're unable to translate any social situation and you have no social intuition. From being kicked out of home, to working at strip clubs, University with zero funding, the self-medicating. By the time she was 25, she’d had somewhere in the region of 50 jobs struggling to find her way.
And then she found stand up. "Everything about my personality made me a problem at university or in most jobs seemed to be treated as some sort of magical power in stand-up."
It wasn’t until Brady was diagnosed and she found a new kind of therapy that involved teaching how to relearn her way of being autistic, which for too long involved her hiding her stress for everyone else’s benefit at the cost of her own health. She's still living with it but is finding her way through, and in this book she disregards the potential judgment and mockery of others to share vital information. "All I can do is keep talking about it and hope you'll then go and make things feel better for the next autistic or misfit girl you meet."
This is such a brave and honest book, we have a front row seat as Brady shares the bleakest parts of her life. What an eye-opening account of living with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.
It's razor sharp. It's an education. It gut-punched me. It made me terribly sad. It opened my eyes. But how it made me laugh out loud too. Again and again.
Deborah Maclaren
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Strong Female Character Synopsis
A summary of my book:
1. I'm diagnosed with autism 20 years after telling a doctor I had it.
2. My terrible Catholic childhood: I hate my parents etc.
3. My friendship with an elderly man who runs the corner shop and is definitely not trying to groom me. I get groomed.
4. Homelessness.
5. Stripping.
6. More stripping but with more nervous breakdowns.
7. I hate everyone at uni and live with a psycho etc.
8. REDACTED as too spicy.
9. After everyone tells me I don't look autistic, I try to cure my autism and get addicted to Xanax.
10. REDACTED as too embarrassing.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781914240478 |
| Publication date: |
15th February 2024 |
| Author: |
Fern Brady |
| Publisher: |
BRAZEN an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
287 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Biographies & Autobiographies
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Fern Brady Press Reviews
Of course it's funny - it's Fern Brady - but this book is also deeply moving and eye-opening -- ADAM KAY
It made me laugh out loud and broke my heart and made me weep...I hope absolutely everyone reads this, and it makes them kinder and more curious about the way we all live -- DAISY BUCHANAN
Glorious. Frank but nuanced, a memoir that doesn't sacrifice voice or self-awareness. And it has brilliant things to say about being autistic and being funny -- ELLE MCNICOLL
Fern is a brilliant, beautiful writer with a unique voice and even more unique story. Astute, honest and very, very funny. -- LOU SANDERS
So funny and brilliant -- HOLLY SMALE
An absolute riot. I'm literally going to read it again once I've finished, and I'm a miserable bastard...it's a belter -- FRANKIE BOYLE
Fern Brady's book is alive in your hands. Brave doesn't cover it and I'm not sure what will. Fizzing with intelligence, it will hit you in the heart, lungs and liver. You'll laugh, cry, be still and if you're not autistic - by god you'll learn. If you are autistic you'll be seen, heard, held, rocked and loved here. A set text for all of us in 2023 - DEBORAH FRANCES-WHITE
Strong Female Character is a testament to the importance of self-knowledge. Fern Brady is a natural and engaging writer, weaving bleak episodes with moments of pure comedy as she re-appraises crucial moments in her life through the lens of her autism diagnosis. Brutal honesty and a talent for storytelling combine to make an insightful memoir that's not only very funny, but will no doubt provide invaluable moments of recognition for many readers. - RACHAEL HEALY, The Guardian
Witty, dry, and gimlet-eyed, Strong Female Character is a necessary corrective. Brady offers a compelling, messy, highly resonant portrait of what masked Autism feels like - Devon Price, author of Unmasking Autism
This Bathgate girl has more jaw-dropping tales to share than your average comedian-cum-author could hope to harvest in a lifetime. Perhaps more of us ought to grapple with our own mortality if it births something so bold as Strong Female Character. - The List
Strong Female Character will reassure fellow autistic folk that they are not alone - Chortle
Shocking and incredibly moving - and it will make you laugh at subjects that you didn't think you possibly could - Scotland on Sunday
A brutal, funny and heartbreaking memoir. The pace is brisk and her deadpan humour makes the darkest material hilariously funny. -- Marianne Power - The Times
Brilliant! -- Sarah Atkinson, CEO Social Mobility Foundation - HR Magazine
This very personal account of bullying, stripping, homelessness and stand-up is shocking and incredibly moving - and will make you laugh at subjects that you didn't realise could be funny. -- Kirsty McLuckie - i Paper
[Brady] brings unsparing wit to a memoir that calls out the bulls--t in every culture she's experienced. -- Helen Brown - The Telegraph
Strong Female Character is a clear-eyed, deeply sane account of an at times tumultuous life; a life shaped by class and gender, but mostly, it's now clear to her, by her autism. - The Herald
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