"Lively, well-researched and wide-ranging"
Katha Pollitt, London Review of Books, 9/6/01

"Any woman reading Houppert's book will bristle with anger at almost every page, but the intellectual rigor and vivacity that mark The Curse throughout come with a good dose of humour.
Kathleen O'Grady, Toronto Globe and Mail, 6/26/99

"Houppert is a reporter with the investigative cojones to take on a seldom-questioned industry and a science journalist able to gracefully guide us through confusing medical studies; she's also an astute cultural critic."
Liza Featherstone, Newsday, 4/18/99

"Both solidly researched and provocative…"
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon, 4/21/99

"Engaging reading…well-researched."
Laura Shin, Newsweek

"Of interest to anyone concerned with women's health, the relationship between industry and health, or the development of adolescent girls."
Leslie Hartley Gise, MD, Journal of the American Medical Association

"A smart analysis of toxic beliefs about women and reproduction, sex, sexuality and power. Serious stuff, but Houppert's wry style is cackle-out-loud funny."
Beth Hitchcock, Chatelaine, 5/00

"An enlightening, enjoyable lesson in something many of us thought we knew only too well."
Carmen Scheidel, Time-Out NY, 4/22/99

"A book 53.4 percent of the population cannot afford to ignore….Statistical spin-doctoring, the power of pharmaceutical giants, the hormones v. circumstance debate-Houppert takes it all on like Scully ploughing through the X-Files. The Truth is Out There, and she makes the journey towards it fascinating."
Beverly Pagram, London Weekly, 6/9/00

"An unexpectedly entertaining tour of the culture surrounding menstruation…Houppert is a no-nonsense writer who's able to navigate expertly through the murky territory surrounding this subject."
Sarah J. Coleman, MetroActive, May 27-June2, 1999

"Funny, insightful, shocking"
Margit Detweiler, Philadelphia City Paper, 5/27/99

"Karen Houppert's fierce and witty examination of menstruation shows how the natural workings of women's bodies-from our periods to our sexuality-are medicalized, sanitized, taken from us and sold back at a profit."
Peggy Orenstein, author of Flux and Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap

"This funny, alarming, and well-researched book belongs on women's and girls' bookshelves between those two classics: Our Bodies, Ourselves and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret..
Meema Spadola, director of Breasts: A Documentary

"Houppert examines everything from plugs, corks, and pads to Prozac and dioxin-laced tampons, including riot grrls and the menstrual counterculture. Everything we ever needed to know about "Aunt Flow" written with rigor, style, and grace.
Donna Gaines, Department of Sociology, Barnard College

"This smart and lively report shows convincingly that the only real curse of menstruation is the unwarranted secrecy and sexual moralism surrounding it, which have long served to keep women in their place."
Alix Kates Shulman, author of Good Enough Daughter

"In the witty, on-point tradition of Deirdre English and Barbara Ehrenreich, The Curse takes the brown paper wrapper off a bloody subject of the utmost importance to girls and women."
Sharon Thompson, author of Going All the Way: Teenage Girls' Tales of Sex, Romance, and Pregnancy

"This got my juices flowing to the point that I was ready to help organize the marches, prod 60 Minutes to take on the sanitary protection industry, lobby for change in sexuality education curriculums, and, perhaps most of all, want to find new ways to get these messages out to young girls and their families."
Nathalie A. Bartle, School of Public Health, Hahnemann University