Unfortunately I had to DNF this book. While it has an excellent premise, I found myself unable to get past a handful of pages before getting distracted. It seems wonderful, but not for me.

If I find a physical copy at a library or bookstore I’ll give it another try, but for an Ebook, I’ll be DNF-ing for now.

Very inspirational book, I've had "writers block" for a while now but this book has reawakened my creativity. The ideas are laid out nice and clear and easy to follow. I would recommend this book to anyone that writes or creates fictional female characters.

I have written many stories and manuscripts with female characters, but I am always worried that I'm missing something. I always blamed my Y chromosome for holding me back from getting the most out of these really cool stories.

But Douglas Burton has shown me the way, and he has written The Heroine's Labyrinth to encourage writers to take their female characters on a journey that is fundamentally different from the Hero's Journey, the template that most myths follow.

To make his case, Burton provides examples for each of the 18 elements of the Labyrinth, using modern movies -- his was the first book I've read that cited the Barbie movie -- and classic tales with female heroines. This really helped me to understand in a deep way these elements, and he provides follow-up questions at the end of each section to help readers internalize the lessons he is giving.

Unlike the Hero's Journey, the Heroine's Labyrinth, as the title suggests, often begins and ends close to home, with many of the conflicts incorporating societal constraints and gender norms. Along the way, they encounter disguised villains, the "Minotaurs", and Burton even provides an explanation of the animal friends that pop up in so many Disney movies like Cinderella and Snow White.

I highly recommend this book for writers, especially those males who -- like me -- have struggled with realistic female protagonists. Thanks to Net Galley for providing me with a free copy of the text in exchange for this honest review.

I really enjoyed this book with an alternative to the hero's journey. Anyone who is interested in archetypes and mythology will no doubt find this fascinating. I do wish there was a little less emphasis placed on the "mysteries" of menstruation. But I guess that is almost typical of a male author. Other than that minor hiccup, I really, really enjoyed this.

Great fantasy story world building and characters.
Couldn't put the put done.
Loved every minute of it.

I misunderstood the premise of this book and expected it to be an analysis of heroines in myths etc. That is entirely my fault for not reading the information properly. Having adjusted to that I found it a very interesting view of the roles heroines may have in literature and stories. As others have noted it is a worthwhile companion to the Hero’s story and would be of real value and interest to students and scholars in the field of literature, women’s studies etc.

5 stars
I thoroughly enjoyed the journey I went on while reading this writers' craft book! I wasn't quite sure what to expect since I'm not a writer by trade, but Burton took me on a wild ride of exploration and self-discovery regarding feminine power, creativity, fire and strength, all in the service of helping other authors of fiction find their voice and create truly dynamic, feminine-led stories.

The book is designed to provide a fluid framework for authors wanting to create an authentic exploration of the heroine's journey storyline. But perhaps the most crucial point here is to understand that the heroine's journey is usually much more inwardly focused than the typical hero's journey away from home. Most of us are familiar with Joseph Campbell and his work on the hero myth/fable/story as it pertains to human storytelling history. But less often explored is the heroine archetype and how it differs dramatically from the typical hero model in certain, distinctive ways, i.e. personal conflict or growth via internal versus external loci of control. Burton's book seeks to remedy that historical imbalance of information, and I would argue that he does it quite well.

I feel like Burton does a big service to his audience by framing the entire book as a tarot deck reading to lay out the 'labyrinth of the heroine', so that we ourselves must follow along as it organically twists and turns in order to understand how the given narrative may come to final fruition. We experience how the narrative structure can shift, flow and bend to the author's will via the use of powerful archetypes that are explained in further detail. It is incredibly evident how much research and effort went into structuring this book, with the author providing dozens of examples of the heroine's labyrinth themes in modern books, television and movies so that a modern audience can more easily relate to and immediately understand the thematic tropes being referenced. Burton also includes an overview of various storytelling genres at the end of the book in which he speaks to how the model of the heroine's labyrinth is particularly suited to provide for compelling storylines in each of the genres.

As I said before, I am not a professional writer but I've read LOTS of books across various literary genres and feel like I know what makes a story interesting enough to grab its audience's attention. But I definitely learned a few things about the basics of effective storytelling as it relates to the mythic labyrinthine journey of the heroine, and how and why those stories can be so utterly compelling.

Thank you to NetGalley, Douglas A. Burton, and Silent Music Press for this advance digital readers copy. All opinions are my own.

Heroine's have their own 'heroes journey' according to this book and it is nothing like the male version. Heroines fight social convention and their enemies are people they knew, people with hierachical social power and culture itself. The book is fascinating and I am planning to buy a copy when my digital editions version runs out. I mostly write female leads so its useful, beautifully presented and deeply fascinating. Well worth it if you are a writer and worth it if you want to see a world beneath Alice in Wonderland, Labyrinth, Buffy The Vampire Slayer etc...

Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey has left an indelible mark on popular culture, from Star Wars onwards. Campbell's work was deeply comparative, drawing on tales across centuries and continents. Despite how erudite it is, however, the Hero's Journey is not without its critics. In The Heroine's Labyrinth, Douglas Burton attempts to establish, seemingly, a female equivalent, to mixed results. Thanks to Silent Music Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have recently picked up a new creative writing project (as if I don't have enough to do) and then got stuck on a certain plot element relating to my heroine. I knew a certain thing had to happen for the plot to progress, but I did not want this thing to rob her of the agency I had established for her. Then I stumbled across The Heroine's Labyrinth on NetGalley and gave it a go. In my mind, The Heroine's Labyrinth was a writing guide which focused on crafting heroines. That is what Burton's book is. However, it is also an attempt to establish the "Heroine's Labyrinth" as a counterpart to the "Hero's Journey" since, or so he argues, Burton feels that the Hero's Journey does not really fit onto female characters. Below I will explain in more detail what the issues are that I have with this second endeavour. As a writing guide, however, I found The Heroine's Labyrinth very interesting. It gave me some useful impulses and avenues to explore, specifically with the idea of my own heroine in mind. The archetypal designs he sets up can definitely be useful, although the imagery used within the book (specifically that of tarot cards) feels a little over-the-top to me.

Burton lays out the Labyrinth as an image for the journey female characters go through. If I understood him correctly, he argues that the Hero's Journey doesn't really fit onto female characters as they are frequently restrained in their mobility, meaning they don't usually set out on grand adventures in foreign lands and rather experience their adventures within their own culture, sometimes within their own house. The labyrinth provides a metaphor for this internal journey, during which female characters confront the limitations placed upon them by their own culture and face a minotaur, who figures as someone who means to entrap them. I found the steps Burton outlined interesting, as said above, purely from a creative writing perspective. But, while I found it mostly intriguing, in the sense that I enjoyed how Burton presented his labyrinth, I did have some issues with it.

The first is, that it is slightly unclear whether he is proposing interesting writing strategies/suggestions, or indeed a whole new monomyth. He states at the beginning that he mostly wants to focus on modern texts, and this is usually films (I also feel that some of his novel quotes refer to the film adaptations instead), as many of Campbell's sources in The Hero of a Thousand Faces are old and unfamiliar to a general public. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this when crafting a writing guide. However, if you do want to make an argument for a "feminine monomyth", as Burton frequently calls his labyrinth, then you quite simply have to go deeper than cultural output of the last half century. Again, as a storytelling tool, useful and fine. As something intended to match Campbell, it is simply not deep enough. This might also come from my background in medieval literature, but the idea that you could want to say something about storytelling in general and not consider medieval material, which simply bursts with evocative and inventive takes on male and female characters, just does not pass the vibe check.

Secondly, I would have wished that he would have chosen at least one text or film which he analysed throughout the book, moment by moment, element by element. For each marker or element in his labyrinth he gives plenty of examples, often the same ones to show how one single story contains the whole journey. However, these examples do not always feel entirely fitting once I considered them within their context, i.e., the rest of the novel/film. He does mention in an afterword that he has analyses of specific films on his website, but, in my opinion, this should have been a key part of the book to show that his labyrinth stands up to scrutiny.

Thirdly, I have an issue with the word 'labyrinth'. Burton repeatedly comments about the "linear" nature of the Hero's Journey, which rankled me a little. The Hero's Journey is famously circular, in the way it is usually depicted and in the fact that the hero literally returns home. Although Burton makes it very clear (sometimes overly so) that he does not intend to take away from this monomyth, he seems to underestimate how flexible it truly is. The names of the stages, for example, are also not meant literally. In the Hero's Journey, for example, the hero descends into the "Belly of the Beast/the Whale", a moment of symbolic death from which the hero emerges with a new outlook, having faced his fears. (This is obviously inspired by the tale of Noah, whose sojourn in the whale is very much also symbolic.) Burton feels this stage does not apply to female characters, I guess, and then suggests something which feels almost exactly the same to me, in which a heroine is immobilized, faces a moment of crisis and darkness, and emerges more strongly.
The labyrinth, meanwhile, is presented by Burton as something non-linear, something flexible, that allows for multiple journeys. The thing is, labyrinths have only one correct route, which always leads to the centre. I appreciate that this journey to the centre, where his Masked Minotaur hides, was important for his structure. A maze, however, allows for multiple possible paths, some of which lead out, some of which lead to the centre. I think the idea of a maze, so similar and yet crucially different, could have worked better if he wanted to emphasise a certain flexibility in his model.

Finally, and I've saved this for last because it might just be personal, I rankled a little at this model coming from a male author. I know, men are absolutely allowed to write female characters and quite a few do so very well. However, in The Heroine's Labyrinth the tone at times feels as if Burton cannot believe that he, finally, has figured out how heroines and female characters function, that he has finally discovered one must always consider heroines as active in their own story, and not a perpetual victim. A lot of what he says feels intuitively correct to me, as a woman, and I don't know if I needed it explained to me. I also feel that the second half especially leans on ideas of "female nurturing" or the "female divine" a little too much without interrogating this. And this is again where I come up to the question of: is this a writing guide or a genuine claim to a new monomyth? Because if it is the former, almost all of the above complaints fall away. If it is the latter, however, then these concerns only become stronger. Burton's labyrinth is interesting and it definitely gave me some creative writing ideas, but it is in no way rigorous or sturdy enough to stand fully alongside Campbell's monomyth.

In short, I am torn on The Heroine's Labyrinth. I found it useful as a way to brainstorm my own creative writing and to come up with fresh ideas. As a creative writing guide I think it can definitely add something. That is what my rating is for. As an attempt to complement Campbell's work, however, The Heroine's Labyrinth didn't stand up to scrutiny for me. For that, it simply does not draw on enough material to say anything close to definitive about storytelling and leans to heavily on ideas of the "female divine" etc.

The Heroine’s Labyrinth by Douglas A. Burton
I read this courtesy Net Galley and Silent Music Press. There are other works detailing the heroine’s journey, but this one is unique in the form in which the journey is presented. The author uses techniques that draw from sources ranging from tarot to books to TV to movies, all the way to comic books, in which archetypal heroines must make their way through their trials and tribulations, and those journeys are examined in fresh ways—in the form of a labyrinth. This work looks at the anatomy of an archetype, even includes exercises for writers to better understand the archetypal concepts that could be useful.

#TheHeroinesLabyrinth #NetGalley #HeroinesJourney #Archetypes

DNF at 15%?
Honestly I love the concept of this story, however the pdf format being the only way to read the novel and feeling like the author was mansplaining half the time. Caused me the constant urge to put this read down. Take this review with a grain of salt; since I didn’t end up finishing the read any it may be for you.

My DNF rating is 2 stars

LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH. I RATED IT 5 STARS BECAUSE I LOVED EVERYTHING IN THIS STORY. IT'S DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS AND THAT'S WHAT I LIKED THE MOST.

It's a bit hard for me to review this book, because on one hand I can see that it could have its uses for people who work telling stories, especially if they are men wanting to write female characters that aren't dreadful; but, on the other hand I find the premise of the book rather weak and even a tad patronising.

"The Heroine's Labyrinth" is a work of literary criticism that examines how female protagonists follow a different archetypal structure than the typical hero's journey scenario as described by Joseph Campbell. At first I was quite skeptical at the binary approach to literature as, while a valid direction of discussing archetypes, seemed to categorize gender neatly into two boxes, based on the summary descriptions. I also was skeptical with the opening argument that this structure ALWAYS takes place and will always take place.

However, after reading the analysis and examples provided, I found the work to be refreshingly interesting in its content and showing a deep appreciation for the value that female.protagonists bring to a narrative and the archetypal "labyrinthian" journey they face. The author also noted the relationship and perspective that women have toward their own worlds, whether mythological, dystopian, historical or social. The overall impression given is one of appreciation for the complexity of the narrative structure. Women's motivations, their focus on the home and transforming culture and righting injustices are illustrated via tarot cards. While tarot cards may not initially seem like an academic topic of conversation (i.e. spiritualism) the way that they are used are to illustrate how the archetypal heroine's journey can be just as powerfully depicted and meaningful as the hero's journey, which is depicted in the typical hanged man, falling tower, etc. In fact, I'd love to purchase a set of these cards if only to use them as props for teaching about storytelling.

Each chapter includes deep literary criticism from Greek mythology and contemporary films such as the Hunger Games, Alien, Star Wars, and other works of literature and film that are well-known to many. At the end of each chapter, the key arguments are summarized in bullet points and discussion prompts are provided. I can imagine a fascinating college course on this topic using this book as a primary text.

The writing style and tone was accessible and fun to read (as an English degree holder and English teacher), even though I wasn't a fan of the intrusive narrator "dear reader" approach in places (This last part is because it makes the writing feel a bit Victorian). I feel it's suitable for advanced high school classes and for freshman or sophomore year courses. But I also think it's a fun read outside of an academic setting for anyone interested in heroines as protagonists or heroine-based storytelling. I am currently writing a YA novel and I was shocked as to how many aspects of the author's archetypal structure matched my unintentional.premise, plot points and set-up. I found that the heroine's labyrinth is interesting because women engage in self-reflection and introspection as part of the plot. Their interests are both internal and external. I would recommend this as a text for creative writing and popular fiction courses or those interesting in self-publishing.

3.5 stars.
The Heroine’s Labyrinth is a much-needed study of the female protagonists or heroic women in fiction.
If you are familiar with The Hero’s Journey, you might enjoy this book and utilise it as a complementary resource to it.
The fact that this book is endorsed by Vogler is inspiring.
This book is very well-organised, edited and written. Each part of the labyrinth and the related archetypes are explored, and these are complemented with Tarot card illustrations (beautiful, amazing, sometimes a little shiny and artificial looking) and exercises. 5/5
As an inspirational source, this book is wonderful, 5/5
Writing and research around writing are part of who I am. I also view most theories, and especially those around archetypes, the detection of codes and Tarot with a pinch of salt, and view them as tools for inspiration, a better understanding of stories and heroines and discussion starters.
I am glad this book exists.
I will surely read it again, refer to it, purchase it, request my institution to purchase a copy for the library, and recommend to students and creatives.

This book revolutionizes storytelling by exploring the unique narrative arc of heroic women, revealing 18 powerful archetypes like the Masked Minotaur and the Sacred Fire. The author challenges conventional story structure, offering fresh insights into character development, conflict, and heroism.

This brilliant book is indispensable and career-changing. It offers novelists, screenwriters, and memoirists an exciting alternative for narratives that don’t follow the traditional hero’s journey. I’m still trying to figure out how this structure would work for romance novels without a villain (for instance, maybe the Masked Minotaur could represent society in general rather than a single character). But it’s definitely changed how I view story structure.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.