Book Review: Bad Ass by Shannen Dougherty

I was immediately intrigued when I heard Shannen was writing a book.  I don't know what I was expecting, but I had adored her since I was a pre-teen.  I had the "Brenda hair" all through high school, I am still searching for a Dylan (oh wait, he treated her bad...hmmm....maybe I already dumped him).   I just knew she was one of my idol's growing up.

When I got this book I thought the cover was beautiful, but I always take off the jackets just because I hate for them to get worn while reading.  To my surprise the book itself was engraved with almost a feel of the writing on a bottle of Jack Daniels.  Is Jack Daniel's bad ass??


I get to around the third page taking in the very thick pages, the good binding, and then realize how LARGE the print was.  Close to that of children's books.  Ok, no biggie.  Move on.  One of the first comments made (and this is not word for word) is that she does not like tell all books because she doesn't believe in people trying to excuse their mistakes or explain them away.  Ok.  If she had stopped there I would have been fine.  Then she said (again paraphrased) she could name one tell all off the top of her head that did that. (For those who have not read sTori Telling by Tori Spelling, you may not understand the dig).  Tori, discussed briefly what happened while she was friends with Shannen and while Shannen was on the show.

I will tell you what I did not like about this book.  While I realize it was a pseudo self help book into making women feel empowered, I don't like being called bitch, bad ass, or anything like that.  (However, I get what she is trying to do).  I had a really hard time reading the book due to the amount of times the phrase bad ass was used on a single page.  On one page that had only a few sentences and a dialog box I counted as many as 5.  As I type the phrase now, I cringe. Overall, I believe I was just expecting more overall from Shannen.

What I liked about this books is that Shannen shows that she has changed, her values, her love for family, admits to being messed up when she was young, and gives a modern girls guide to living basically.  Particularly for single women.  She has some great family photos and personal photos that she shares.  She is also brutally honest.  That was compelling.

Now, for what I LOVED about this book! Like I mentioned, my copy was really well put together as far as binding, page thickness, and paper quality.  It will make a great addition to my coffee table book collection.  Part of the reason for that is because inside she has some great photographs.  Not just of herself but of random things that make you feel good.  Finally, I loved that she included several lists in this book.  As a fellow list maker, I LOVED this aspect of the book.  She even had some great lists for makeup items. :) 

On a scale of 1-10, I would give this book a 7.

I would recommend getting this book on Amazon or on a sale somewhere.  I would not pay $25 for it.

xoxo
Dani