Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 08/01/2025 *Starred Review* Heiligman’s latest YA biography, about Emma Goldman, solidifies her as one of the absolute best in the business. Goldman is fascinating: she was an outspoken advocate for workers’ rights, women’s rights, freedom from the shackles of marriage, and more, and her personal life was full of scandal. Despite lawsuits, arrests, and harsh—and often inaccurate—representation in the press, she was tireless in her zeal throughout her life. Heiligman treats Goldman with immense perception and compassion, providing helpful context around her subject’s contradictions and delivering a lucid portrait of a complicated, multifaceted, and dynamic individual who dared to imagine a better world, full of joy and unconstrained by rules established by people aiming to maintain or increase their own power. As a work of biography, Loudmouth is a master class, but it’s Goldman’s story in particular that makes this such a success. Goldman’s recognition of escalating poverty driven by wealthy business magnates; the importance of truly free speech and a free press for an enlightened, informed citizenry; the ways that conventional expectations of women engender oppression; the inalienable rights of immigrants; and more will resonate with today’s teens, who will surely see the clear parallels of Goldman’s era in the events of our own. Heiligman doesn’t push this connection, however, instead trusting her readers to notice those echoes themselves and letting Goldman be central in her own right, not as an object lesson. Juicy, empowering, extraordinarily well researched, and deeply intelligent, this is essential reading, and not just for teens. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.