Clever Girl: Jurassic Park

by Hannah McGregor

A smart and incisive exploration of everyone’s favorite dinosaur movie and the female dinosaurs who embody what it means to be angry, monstrous, and free


The Jurassic Park series is one of the most famous and profitable cinematic experiences of all time, with an entire generation of people who have never known life without these CGI dinosaurs. But while the movie spectacle broke film and merchandising records, pioneered special effects, and made Jeff Goldblum into an unlikely sex symbol, it has also been re-envisioned as a classic of queer feminist storytelling.


In Clever Girl, Hannah McGregor argues that the female-only dinosaurs of Jurassic Park are stand-ins for monstrous women, engineered by men to be intelligent, violent, and adaptive, and whose chaos resists the systems designed to control them. As they run wild through their prison, a profit-driven theme park, they destroy the men and structures who mistakenly believed in their own colonialist and capitalist power, showing the audience what it means to be angry, monstrous, and free. The velociraptors were not just jump scares for children, but also revelatory and predatory symbols of feminist rage. Clever girls, indeed.


About the Pop Classics Series


Short books that pack a big punch, Pop Classics offer intelligent, fun, and accessible arguments about why a particular pop phenomenon matters.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Essays, Pop Culture, Audiobook, Queer, Memoir

107 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2024

Reviews

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sharp and insightful critique of the movie Jurassic Park through a queer feminist lens. Obviously, JP is a fantasy—we have no way to clone dinosaurs. But the bigger fantasy is that people can control nature. You can see it in our economic system, which requires ever expanding growth on a planet of finite resources. Also in the reluctance to acknowledge the need to change course in order to slow climate change and the mistaken faith that humanity can somehow remedy the climate problem through technology.

I personally believe this cockeyed belief in human supremacy comes from having so many people living exclusively in cities now, whose only contact with animals is pets or the plastic-wrapped portions on sale in the grocery store. We have forgotten that we are part of nature/this world. One good natural disaster can remind us of our lowly place with the rest of the animals, in need of food, water, and shelter. It's hard to feel like masters of the universe under those conditions. The poorest members of our society could be the wisest: they know exactly how little control they have in life.

McGregor points out something that I had forgotten, that all the dinosaurs in the original movie are female, an attempt to prevent them from reproducing uncontrolled. The hubris of men who consider their input necessary? The state of the art technology isn't enough to keep these wild animals contained, as the Park creators have also underestimated the intelligence and persistence of these female creatures (just as women are currently underestimated in our society).

I had never considered the colonial overtones of the movie before. The island is taken over with no regard for its natural ecosystem and new organisms conjured from the lab and deep time are imposed on it. Problems in this “paradise“ are revealed with the sick triceratops, which has eaten a plant that its system can't cope with.

Well worth a read, as it is well written, entertaining, and bite-size. Just imagine your self as a T. rex and happily devour it!

[Maia · Rating 4 out of 5]

McGregor turns the film Jurassic Park over in their hands, like a piece of amber, to examine it from all sides and finds a story packed with possibilities of liberatory, queer, and feminist readings. From thoughts on the monstrous feminine, reproductive control, missing mothers, and found family, this text weaves together a rich tapestry of threads. I completely understand now why this film (which I half-watched once at a distracting party, but now want to revisit) has becomes such an enduring classic. The ending note advocates for the building of networks of mutual aid and care during and after apocalypse, something I need more and more desperately in this damaged world.

[Amanda Feldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I <3 lesbian velociraptors 🌈🫶✨

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I intentionally read this book slowly so I could savour every word.

The way that Hannah weaves her own personal experiences and identity, almost memoir like, was perfection. It was funny, it was personal, and at times quite raw. ‘I longed for permission to be enormous and devastating, not yet realising that our own enormity is something we must claim, often violently. Monsters, after all, do not ask permission’.

The dinosaurs in Jurassic Park are all female, they’re monstrous, they refuse to be caged, they resist capitalist control and instead create an intelligent, violent and chaotic spectacle for us to enjoy.

I have personally seen the original jurassic park film many many times, it’s a classic, and I thoroughly enjoyed this feminist and queer reading that Hannah has argued in Clever Girl.

I can’t wait to re-watch the movie, re-listen to the podcast episode, and then re-read this…and repeat that cycle forever.

[Ben A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hannah McGregor's Clever Girl was an interesting, well thought out and very well written examination of Jurassic Park that tickled my English Major heart. Despite the differences between myself and the author I found a lot of common ground between us and thoroughly enjoyed her writing.

Special Thanks to ECW Press and Netgalley for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.

[Dawn Cartwright · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me laugh, tear up, and feel SO damn smart for reading it.

I *wish* more of my reading elicited such response.

[Gaby]

Sorry to anyone who isn’t lucky enough to know and love Hannah McGregor, I can’t relate!!

[Sara]

I don't rare nonfiction, biographies and memoirs.

ARC received in exchange for an honest review.

I've read another of these little Ecw Press essays that examine pockets of culturally significant moments, movies or people and found the content to be really interesting - so I jumped at the chance to read their newest release which looks at Jurassic Park. Hannah Mcgregor does a surprisingly good job at engaging the none Jurassic Park viewer (ie me) into this examination on femininity, queerness and the broader idea of the female monster trope. I also got a good sense of the movies ideas and how it linked into societies thinking of the time.

I do like these little snippets of ideas and essays, as they give a flavour of subjects that can then be researched at greater depth by the reader if they wish. They also show a real passion for the subject from the writer.

[Matt Chequers · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Mike Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

I don't think I'm smart enough to fully grasp all of this, but it was entertaining as hell to read.

I love dissecting movies and reading about dinosaurs and queerness and fatness.

[dobbs the dog · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, wow, this was fantastic!

A quick read that looks at Jurassic Park through a queer/feminist lens. Kind of blew my mind.

Highly recommend!

[Lata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much as the author of this collection of essays, I was absolutely captivated by dinosaurs at a young age, and any chance I had, I’d go to the same museum as she did in Ottawa to view the dinosaur exhibits. Then go home to reread my books about dinosaurs, many times over.

So it’s funny that I was never really taken by “Jurassic Park”. I finally watched the film in its entirety many years after its release. I was annoyed as all heck that the pack of dinos who try to eat the kids were wrongly named, disliked nearly all the humans (except Dr. Sattler and Dr. Malcolm’s dire warnings, and his shirt), and fell in love with the T-Rex because she’s 100% awesome and terrifying.

Which brings me to the essays. Author Hannah McGregor draws parallels between monsters and dinosaurs in pop culture movies and many cultures’ terror of women’s reproductive abilities or the organs necessary for it.

From her childhood of being bullied at school, to losing her mother in her teens, her love of dinosaurs has been a constant, and with her rewatch of all the films, she draws attention to the unexpected imagery and messages supporting a feminist reading of the dinosaurs in the films.

Dr. Hammond buys an island and decides he’ll populate it with dinosaurs, who are returned to Earth through genetic manipulation, then who are controlled within fences, but also prevented from their ability to procreate by ensuring only female dinosaurs are brought to life. The hubris and typical patriarchal view that female bodies and very natures can and must be contained is present, writ very large (e.g. brachiosaurs, etc.), while there is scant understanding that once these powerful, learning animals exist, they can never really be isolated on the island (flying reptiles, people!!) And guess who mostly got eaten? The people trying to commoditized and control.

McGregor does not dissect each of the increasingly weak movies (the Pratt ones being particularly awful, or maybe it’s just his chauvinistic, execrable character?), instead focusing on the first of the series, and where the feminist messaging is particularly strong.

I tore through most of this novella-length book in a few hours, and really enjoyed McGregor’s impassioned, ferocious, and wryly humorous, voice and insight, which has given me a new perspective the movie “Jurassic Park”.

Thank you to Netgalley and to ECW Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel it would be disingenuous to share this review without first being frank about the parasocial relationship I have with the author. I’ve been listening to Hannah podcast since 2015, I’ve learned and grown a lot listening to Hannah and her various co-hosts and/or guests. Hannah’s ability to model and talk through her own growth as academic, a podcaster, an activist, a member of the queer community still learning about where she fits in that community, with grace and even a sense of humor, has taught me so much about how I can approach these various aspects of my life and more.

I’ve also read Hannah’s other written works, most notably “A Sentimental Education,” which much like this book is difficult to define as just one thing - part memoir, part scholarly thought experiment, part silly fun. Hannah has a real knack for taking something in popular culture and interrogating it through a scholarly theoretical lens in a way that is accessible for general audiences.

Much like her last book, this book is what I would call academic adjacent, the way she thinks through things, utilizes theory, references other works, etc. is all academic. But Hannah also brings in the personal, sharing things about her own life experiences which brought her to where she is today and inform her relationship to the world around her. And She uses her academic training and knowledge of theory to interrogate her relationship with popular culture and entertainment. I personally love this about Hannah’s writing because I too get great joy from dissecting popular culture in this way.

I was excited when I heard this book was forthcoming because I loved the episode of Hannah’s podcast Secret Feminist Agenda episode 3.1 from October 5th 2018 entitled “Jurassic Park!” Where Hannah first publicly discusses some of her thoughts about the film and how it shaped her relationship to feminism. This podcast was also in conversation with Lindy West’s 2013 Jezebel’s piece titled “I Re-Watched Jurassic Park for You Because, Really, Who Has the Time?” which I was also familiar with and a few other related pieces. So this book felt like a natural extension of these previous forays into the world of Jurassic Park.

Where this book grows and builds on the podcast is that here Jurassic Park is more of a jumping off point and framing device, rather than The point, it is a way to apply theoretical elements to a particular kind of - unapologetic, space taking, “monstrous,” community oriented feminism which Hannah is constantly modeling on her podcasts. She uses the film almost as a key to working through different theoretical frameworks as they apply to her own life and the way she interacts with the world. She uses it to look at the unconscious ways in which Jurassic Park the movie and media shaped her early life, and how those early encounters now inform the conscious ways in which she chooses to live her life and build community. Listening to Hannah think via her podcasts always gets me thinking – about myself, about the world and my place in it, about the community I cultivate, and about how I want to live my life. This book is no different and I’ll likely return to it over the years and just as with her podcasts find new layers and new meaning in it based on where I am in my own life at the time.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever Girl is a book of essays that manages to do two difficult things within the genre. First, McGregor succeeds at packing a large amount of rigorously studied academic concepts into a compact and digestible state, and second, they do so with a delicate balance between scholarly and conversational tone. Reading this book felt like revisiting some of the best literary theory discussions from graduate school where everyone is applying complex frameworks to a text with the occasional break for swearing or generally geeking out over the text itself. In this book, the text is the film Jurassic Park, and McGregor uses the brief 109 pages to analyze it using queer theory, gender theory, feminism, post-colonialism, and several other lenses. They are sharp and direct in their observations while saving space to celebrate the basic excitement of the film by layering anecdotes between heavier sections of interpretation. This style creates a smooth read for anyone interested in literary critique but may be difficult to follow if this is not your field of study. Regardless, this is an excellent book of insightful and heartfelt observations of a classic film.

Check out the Talk Booky to Me Podcast that I co-host with my girlfriend for more book discussions. This book will be covered in the November 15th, 2024 episode.

[Alise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick reflective piece that combines the author's love for Jurassic Park with their upcoming and identity exploration as a queer kid dealing with the loss of their mother. I thought it made some great points in how we interpret this film through various lenses. It offers some great texts as supplemental reading (both similar to this book based on Jurassic Park, and others). It's a pocket read so not too long and definitely worth reading if queer studies and Jurassic Park are two of your interests.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Maybe it isn’t the chaos we need to fear. It’s the violence of what we do to pretend we have everything under control.”

[Monica St. Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

read harder challenge 2025: read a book about a piece of media you love

[Samantha Fraenkel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever girl indeed! Jurassic Park is one of my all time favourite reads / watches so this was a must read for me. So interesting, funny, and thought provoking; loved it!

ARC Provided by NetGalley

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

|| CLEVER GIRL: JURASSIC PARK ||
#gifted @ecwpress
✍🏻
Clever Girl by Hannah McGregor is an interesting, smart, well written look at the classic film through a feminist lens. I found this quite engrossing. I have seen the film a few times, it was never a significant movie to me, but I know that it's one of the biggest movies of all time. I found McGregor's arguments for the female only dinosaurs as stand ins for monstrous women thought provoking. Honestly her whole take on the film, exploring the colonialism and capitalism, the feminist rage, it was all quite fascinating and something that I had never thought before but now will be thinking of whenever I watch these movies. A very interesting re-envisioning indeed!

For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong

[Logan Kedzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early on, the book uses the incorrect pronouns (and incorrect punctuation) for Specimen FMNH PR 2081, Chicago's own muderbird. Yes, I note that it is in a quote from another author, and prior to SUE's announcement. I raise not out of a sense of loyalty to my City's quppy theropod, as I know that to them, I am, at best, elevenses. But it would seem to alter the context of the citation, and while I like Clever Girl, I feel that it is a bit of an exemplar for what I find missing here.

The book is about monsters, more specifically the dinosaurs as found in the movie Jurassic Park, and still more specifically their connection to other presentations of the monstrous. There is a cinematic trope of the "feminine-monstrous," which appears in Jurassic Park in that all of the dinosaurs are created female. And while the fact comes up as plot-relevant in a different sort of way, the author points out the ideas and events of the movie thematically tie up with the representations of the feminine in culture and society. Including how the monstrous turns into a sort of icon, specifically for queer, fat, and traditionally marginalized people, including the author herself.

As a cyclops who lives in garden apartment, eating rats and the occasional party of adventurers drawn in by the mock-up of a distressed princess in the turret above, I am personally invested in the idea of monster as ally and icon that shows up here. I think that this is where the book acquits itself the best. The author presents a good reading of Jurassic Park in the application of the role of the feminine within it and repeated themes on variations of female destructive and system-rearranging power. It closes equally strongly in the look at Jurassic World which outright inverts the value system of the original (and makes a much worse movie in the process). The writing is funny and clear. But while the argument makes sense and is well-supported, the interpretation on the movie is somewhat superficial.

The film is substantially addressed as text, with limited analysis of the cinematic qualities, and it is only the film Jurassic Park. I understand that it is the specific inspiration, and again the book is not silent on the other properties, but I generally feel like the sequels and the novels have a lot to say about the thesis of the book, outright and in the changes between them. And in general, the middle section of the book is the weakest. The sections on First Nations come off as contradictory, and the evidence not as well-expressed. There is a colonialism-based critique of Jurassic Park, but the focal shift results in a glancing survey of it. And lastly, I feel like there is a more grievous critique on the book in the way that a lot of the book's premise relies upon affirming the reverse image of the patriarchal beliefs. There is a throwaway paragraph in the middle of the book that acknowledges this and looks to distance itself from it, but without an alternative understanding. It does not fall to the book to rewrite a new philosophical understanding, but I could easily see a more Right critique treating the book as an affirmation of its views.

But the writing style, its vivacity and humor, anchors the book. So while I think that there is a lot more that it could have been, the book argues its point well and is plain fun to read, which counts for a lot.

Thanks to the author, Hannah McGregor, for writing the book and to the publisher, ECW Press, for making the ARC available to me.

[Colin Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hannah McGregor begins her short but thought-provoking study of Jurassic Park by introducing the necessity of viewership and spectacle. She writes, "The film not only encourages us to gaze at dinosaurs but alters our very perception of what we're gazing at, mirroring how the scientists in Hammond's labs alter the dinosaurs they're cloning to make them more controllable. In this sense, the dinosaurs are constantly subject to the objectifying force of the human gaze. There's nothing they can do to stop us from looking. But there's also nothing we can do to stop them from looking back" (22). For McGregor, it is this twice or simultaneous viewing that defines the film. As much as we want the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park to exist as the objects of our gaze, they unmoor us from our privileged position. As Lacan argues, we cannot exist in a privileged position free from exposure. The object looks back, revealing how implicated we are in the spectacle itself. This dynamic suggests that Jurassic Park is more about "the failure of that display, the refusal of the dinosaurs to be reduced to stops on a tour" (23). Their refusal is what makes them sublime; they operate as figures of wonder and horror, fascination and despair. In short, the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park are monstrous, but their monstrocity has liberatory contours.

Yet, like any monstrocity, the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park serve to challenge instruments and institutions of power. McGregor writes, "The malleability of the dinosaurs, their chaotic capacity to escape the grasp of masculine science and Western rationality, is the crux of their monstrocity" (42). Words like "malleability" and "chaotic" are important because they speak to the adaptability of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park or, as Ian Malcolm might suggest, "life, uh, finds a way." This "way" is revelatory to figures like McGregor because what are, for example, queer people if not life finding a way? Therefore, people who are "fat, femme, queer, hungry, monstrous, full of rage, and determined to be free" are the very dinosaurs that antagonize white, cis, het, able-bodied, patriarchal thought (47). Broadly speaking, one might argue that to be a progressive is to be a dinosaur.

Another reason why the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park are monstrous and, therefore, liberatory is, according to McGregor, because they reject the Western establishment's attempts to domesticate them. McGregor writes, "What Hammond and his team want to do is drag the deep past into the present and, in so doing, pull that wildness, that otherness, into our system of understanding...he isn't actually trying to rewild dinosaurs but to unwild them, to make them knowable and manageable" (74). The dinosaur logic in Jurassic Park is one of defiance. The dinosaurs, all female, embody an emphatic "no!" in response to attempts to curtail their ferocity. Therefore, when watching a movie like Jurassic Park, we should cheer for the dinosaurs when they disrupt Hammond and his attempts to render them as nothing more than amusement-park attractions. In short, these dinosaurs are not figures of repulsion or rejection; they are figures of identification. We should see in their alienation our alienation.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher ECW Press for an advance copy of a collection of essays taking a new look at a classic movie that seems to be about far more than dinosaurs going on a rampage.

Unlike many I was never a huge fan of Jurassic Park. I am exactly a fan of Spielberg, unless Indiana appears in the title, so when I saw it I was impressed by the special effects, unimpressed by the story. In all honesty I wasn't that much a fan of the book, and in fact while I can remember the first book, the Lost World Sequel escapes me. And the film sequels, I can remember the actors, but nothing about the plots. The remakes, I won't even go into, not for me is the kindest thing I can say. I can see though why many loved it, my brother who is six years younger considers it one of his favorite films. I haven't seen the film in its entirety since it came to home video. I have stopped to watch snippets on television, hanging on till the next commercial. That might have to change, as this book has given me a new interest in the film. Clever Girl: Jurassic Park by Hannah McGregor looks at the movie that to paraphrase another movie tagline made one believe a dinosaur could run, hold grudges, and chase kids, from a very different point of view.

The book starts with a portrait of the author as a young dinosaur fan, discussing the love and interest that McGregor had in dinosaurs, and seeing the movie for the first time. The book is broken into essays with each on reflecting on a different part of McGregor's life and the view of the dinosaurs in the movie as females, created my mad male scientists, to be docile in many ways, and yet violent enough to give jumps scares to the people coming to see them. However not violent enough, nor able to escape from the constant monitoring the part has on these creatures. Dinosaurs as trapped in the male gaze. In a way a making of traditional wives, who eat, make babies and look good for the people who come, along, without a thought of breaking free. Until they do. McGregor mixes past life experiences, modern feminist thought, movie magic and quite a bit of humor to support her premise.

As a film person I love reading books about movies even if I am not a fan. This was not the kind of book that I expected, but I think for that reason I enjoyed even more than I expected. There were plenty of facts about the film, with a few explanations about why the film made some mistakes. Mistakes that were more for dramatic purposes. While I enjoyed the film discussion, and the feminist writing, what I enjoyed most was the parts where McGregor discussed the life McGregor had, growing up, coming to terms with things, and finding acceptance. The writing is really well done. McGregor can craft a sentence that might seem odd or strange in the beginning, but by the end makes one a believer. This is not a big book and it moves well, never bogging down, and never seeming like a lecture. And a book that really changed my mind on a movie, one that I only thought about when I saw ads for the remake.

This is the first book I have read by Hannah McGregor, and I enjoyed it quite a lot. A different way about learning about feminist and queer theory, and one that might open a lot of minds who didn't expect it.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

An engrossing close reading of Jurassic Park from a feminist lens, Clever Girl is, well, the perfect book if you love, you guessed it, feminist theory and the 1993 classic that is, despite the continuity error with the T-Rex paddock, the best movie of all time.

I was incredibly stoked to receive this book because not only is JP my favourite movie, but I also love close readings/deep dives into pop culture. I was so curious to see whether the author could shed some new light onto a movie I've watched and thought about and discussed a million times (of course, I've read the book, too, quite a few times, but the focus here is on the movie).

Obviously, I’m not just going to rehash what she talked about, but here are some overarching themes to pique your interest:

- The male gaze and how it still applies to the dinosaurs in the sense of a human-controlling-nature gaze, given we are getting cinematic pleasure from looking at them, AND how the dinosaurs in the movie attempt to break away from the ownership of the gaze thrust upon them (and how that is a metaphor for women refusing to be objects under the male gaze)
- How the uncontrolled breeding in the movie ties into women’s bodily autonomy and reproductive choices
- How monstrosity on-screen often is paired or compared with women’s bodies or (horror upon horror!) giving birth.
- A very fun interpretation of The Last Unicorn
- A discussion on the failure of restoration ecology
- Colonization, of course
- How Chaos, societally, is tied to the monster-feminine, in that chaos is seen as feminine and masculinity is seen as order, and how men attempt to control chaos, and how that ties to patriarchy, especially regarding the line “woman inherits the earth”
- Chronology and teleology and human hubris
- The ethics of care

There is other stuff, too, but that is what I highlighted in my ebook /can remember!

Now, I will say, despite all these themes, it does feel a bit short (like short enough to read in one sitting), and the arguments in it are rather episodic. While there was cohesion of theme, I did feel it could have been longer or been more of an over-arching concept with these chapters brought in as proof or examples. It was less one argument and more bitty contemplations about the same piece of media. Is this a problem? Not really!

I very much enjoyed it! The writer has a very engaging and entertaining style that draws you in, and I found myself laughing as much as going, "Hmm, good point."

If you're a fan of critical thought, deep dives, Jurassic Park, and my clever girls the velociraptors, you should check this out.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Hannah McGregor's podcast Witch, Please and their newest podcast Material Girls, so I was excited to see that she and Marcelle Kosman were coming to Chicago for a book event for Hannah's latest book Clever Girl: Jurassic Park. Even better, the event was at the bookstore that is only a five-minute walk from my new apartment. So I went last Friday, and it was absolutely fantastic. Listening to Hannah and Marcelle chat about this book was just like listening to a live episode of Material Girls, and the even attendees were all so smart and cool. Afterwards, Hannah did a book signing, and they were lovely. I had asked a question about the fundamental differences between Jurassic Park and Jurassic World as texts since my nephew's favorite movie is Jurassic World, and so she inscribed my book, "The best thing about dinosaurs is how much your nephew loves them but the second best thing is how they eat the patriarchy."

I am no expert in Jurassic Park. As a hardcore girlie girl in the 2000s, I was never interested in dinosaurs. When I wasn't playing with dolls, my hyper-fixations were the Titanic and ancient Egypt. I didn't even see Jurassic Park until 2021 during the pandemic when my friends and I watched it at a drive-in theater. I remember thinking it was fine and then never thinking about it again. However, I have now found myself the aunt to a nephew who is obsessed with dinosaurs. He can name all the types; I helped him open about 50 dinosaur toys on his birthday. Now that I have a dinosaur kid in my life, I find myself wanting to understand the fascination with dinosaurs more. Thankfully, Clever Girl was here to help me with that.

McGregor makes a compelling case for the reframing of Jurassic Park as a queer, feminist film. They argue that Jurassic Park is radical in how it celebrates the dinosaurs, who easily classify as monstrous women, for their monstrosity and ability to take up space. She also argues that the film is feminist in how it frames childcare as something that men should undertake and allows for a worldview in which women may indeed rule the world. I would have never thought this hard about Jurassic Park, but McGregor blends their knowledge of the films, their personal narrative, and scholarly texts to absolutely recontextualize Jurassic Park for audiences outside of the intended white, straight, male audience.

I highly recommend Clever Girl. Now, I feel like I have to rewatch Jurassic Park with my nephew and see if I can make him like it more than Jurassic World, which lacks all of the elements that can be read from the original. I guess dinosaurs are indeed feminist and cool!

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hannah McGregor, Clever Girl, Jurassic Park, ECW Press, October 2024.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

Clever Girl, Jurassic Park is written in a style that I often find unappealing. However, I must acknowledge that I was so captivated by the perceptive commentary, the substantial research that underlies the challenging style and Hannah McGregor’s strong personality that emerges through the pages, that I thoroughly enjoyed my reading. McGregor combines her own experiences with the narratives that emerge from the Jurassic Park franchise. She concentrates on the first, Jurassic Park, with some comments (frequently negative) about the others that follow. With her perceptive feminist approach, this book makes an excellent contribution to academic feminist film ideas, as well as a thoughtful read for those who are not in academe.

McGregor dives straight into the film’s use of female dinosaurs as spectacles, accepting that films are about the cinematic gaze and that such a gaze is gendered as explained by Laura Mulvay, the feminist film theorist. However, she soon diverts into the use of remains (in the case of dinosaurs) and non-normative bodies (in the case of circus acts) as a part of popular culture. Such diversions are an important part of this book, taking as they do, an example arising from McGregor’s study of Jurassic Park and developing discussions that rove widely, although making strong points about both the film, audiences and discriminatory practice in popular culture. An early discursive discussion relates to the technology associated with devising the dinosaurs to amaze and maintain the audience gaze. Most importantly, however, is McGregor’s unpacking of the woman as monster as depicted through the Velociraptors who eat humans and do not reproduce.

Clever Girl, Jurassic Park is an exciting read, replete with discussions that amuse, anger and inform. There is a bibliography, and the acknowledgements include Hannah McGregor’s explanation for the inspiration for her book, and her generous and joyful recognition of her community.

[Felicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite things to do is read a new perspective of media I have already consumed. Jurassic Park is a movie that has stuck with me since I was a kid and to read about it from a new lens was very interesting. Hannah McGregor analyzes this movie through a queer, plus-sized lens and finds that she relates to the chaos that the dinosaurs embody. Something that she said that I could really relate to though was, "Staring up at those fossils, I was transported to a world so different from my own that I swear I could feel myself disappear; something in my chest cracked open and let the infinite in." This is exactly what led to my fascination with dinosaurs. There is something about being in the presence of something so indescribable and so vast that it takes your breath away and makes you recognize how small you are. It gives you a chance to see that your problems are also small because there are bigger things than you.
More importantly than my connection to her connection, is her dive into how Jurassic Park was a queer story. The dinosaurs were supposedly all female so they wouldn't reproduce but because they spliced with frog DNA (somehow the scientists that did that DIDN'T KNOW WHAT FROG DNA WOULD DO?) they were able to change sex and reproduce making this a trans story. This and the fact that women are seen as monsters, McGregor begins her comparison.
I thought it was well thought out for the most part. There was a bit of repetition which threw me a little. Overall, a very enjoyable read.

Check out a podcast that I host with my boyfriend where we talk books and book related things:
https://open.spotify.com/show/6Xjyht7...

and our Instagram:

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[Hazel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intelligent, well-constructed essays that present interesting insights and interpretations with a feminist slant of Jurassic Park (mainly the first film, although the other films come up from time to time; the book is not really discussed). Obviously recommended for those who already know they enjoy reading pop culture analysis essays. But I would also recommend this as a nice way to tip your toe into the space if you're interested in the idea of pop culture analysis (especially through a feminist lens) but haven't done a lot of reading on it yet. This is a slim volume and the essays and language are accessible, not dense or overrun with terminology.

Here are a few quotes I particularly liked:
-On the dinosaurs: "Their ferocity is the ferocity of deep time: they aren't just dinosaurs, they're chthonic forces, ancient goddesses who have awakened furious and hungry. ...[These] dinosaurs come from the earth and from the past as well as from the lab. And they don't arrive alone: they bring their wilderness with them."
- On the term "nature": "Is it [nature] the opposite of civilization - that which humanity hasn’t intervened in - or is it the opposite of the unnatural, something that is innate or inherent in the world?”
- "Patriarchal cultures throughout history (the Mesopotamians, the Ancient Greeks, the early Christians) have associated chaos with femininity and order with masculinity."

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC for unbiased review.

[marf · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

Clever Girl by Hannah McGregor is longform essay arguing that the classic film, Jurassic Park, can in fact be thought of as a queer, feminist story.

McGregor argues this film about dinosaurs reflects a lot of cultural view rooted in Western patriarchy and white supremacy. She discusses monstrous women, queer identity, nature and grief in a very engaging manner. Reading this book felt like having a conversation with your really smart friend who has just finished a degree in literature and philosophy (in the best way).

Although I think McGregor made some interesting links between the themes explored in Jurassic Park to ongoing arguments in the real world, she anthropomorphised the dinosaurs too much. Labelling them as queer, femme, voracious icons is inherently human thing to do. What you want these animals to represent in the films versus what they actually 'represent' in a scientific/ecological context is very different. There were also some sweeping statements about the study and practise of ‘Western ecology’, when what she meant was American/Canadia ecology. Western European ecology is very different and her lack of recognition of this flawed some of her fundamental arguments.

Ultimately, this was a unique argument to read. I learnt a lot, have many take away arguments and counter arguments, and I also really want to rewatch Jurassic Park.

Thank you to Netgalley and EWC Press for the ARC.

[Lisa Feld · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve loved Hannah McGregor’s critical analysis of pop culture since the original run of Witch, Please, her deep dive into Harry Potter. Here, McGregor looks at the original film, the Creighton book it was based on, and the various sequels through the lenses of critical analysis, actual paleontology, and memoir to explore why this story of capitalism vs nature continues to capture our imaginations.

Some elements that particularly stood out to me: First, McGregor looks at the changes both the novel and the movies made to what we know of dinosaurs, and what these changes say about the place they hold in our imaginations. She also frames these as apocalypse tales, where the characters grapple with the terror of losing control of the worlds they’ve created/enjoyed and potentially losing their lives, and draws parallels to other world-ending events, from the climate crisis to the death of a parent—the more we resist outside forces (instead of adapting to them), the more devastated we are when our orderly systems fail.

Most delightfully, McGregor reads the female dinosaurs through a queer lens. They are supposed to be unable to breed, unnaturally so. But particularly in the first movie, not only do the dinosaurs find ways to make babies, they cooperate with each other, forming relationships. This behavior echoes the queer experience of creating families and friendships despite patriarchy and heteronormativity claiming this is impossible. Life finds a way.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a digital ARC of Clever Girl from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

I have read several of the Pop Classics books from ECW, and this is the first one that I've not loved. Most of my issue with this book comes with the way it's loosely connected to the premise that it states - that "Jurassic Park", the movie, is a story of feminism and queerness. I think that would have made a great book, that's the book I thought I was picking up to read. And there were parts of the book that did deal with that. However, I felt like the connections made to Jurassic Park were tenuous, unless it was one of the more explicit connections from Laura Dern's character's dialogue.

I felt like "Clever Girl" jumped all over the place and I had a really hard time staying focused on the book due to this. There was a lot of interesting stuff in here, but it just didn't connect to the thesis set out at the beginning. Had I gone in to the book expecting more of the author's personal reflections on queerness and feminism, connected to various pop culture totems, I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more. There were parts I highlighted and that made me laugh. But as a book connecting Jurassic Park and the ideas of feminism and queerness, I felt it was lacking.