After a while, I could pretty easily predict exactly what the negative reviews would say, raising questions not only about the insularity of the journalistic community (aren’t they a bit embarrassed to all be writing essentially the same thing?), but whether they care more about Clinton’s contrition than the facts of the matter. If Hillary’s analysis of the perfect storm that swamped her candidacy is accurate, what’s the problem?

The problem, it seems, is Hillary’s attitude; people want her to efface her own knowledge in the service of being properly humble, to beg forgiveness for her sins. At times, the tension between regard for fact and the need for Hillary to be someone else is right at the surface. Joanna Weiss, of The Boston Globe, admits that “nothing [Hillary] complains about is untrue” but goes on to berate her for having “no true sense of reflection.” But “true reflection” does suggest that a distribution of responsibility is the more accurate assessment than one long mea culpa from Hillary (who does, perhaps more than warranted, admit the mistakes she made). Haven’t these people been watching the news?

Beyond the familiar Hillary-blaming and the nasty digs at her hubris, there is an unmistakably gendered perspective to the reviews. It’s not just that those aimed at a female readership (such as People, Newsday, Entertainment Weekly) are the most appreciative. It’s the domestic, female-centered details that the harsh reviewers are most scornful of: the “endless takes of her encounters with wise old biddies in coffee bars,” (Craig Brown, Daily Mail) the “interminable” passages about friends and aides, “how much she hydrates” and tips for relaxation (Joanna Weiss, The Boston Globe) (the yoga technique of “alternative nostril breathing” is given far more attention in the reviews than in the book), the fact that “Clinton was surrounded by women” (David Weigel, The Washington Post) throughout her campaign and in defeat. The book is described as “gossipy” and “mean” (Sarah Leonard, The Guardian) (and, according to Kirkus Reviews in need of “supplementing” by “hard-edged” books like Shattered), but at the same time, Danielle Kurtzleben complained on NPR Now that Clinton leaves out juicy details like “what did [she] say (or scream) when she found out her husband had met with the attorney general on an airport tarmac?”