Scan barcode
deedireads's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Summer is a fantastic finale to this hopeful, poignant quartet about the kindness of strangers during troubling times. It tied all four books together in a fun, impactful way.
For you if: You like to read stories that fuse excellent characters with astute social commentary.
FULL REVIEW:
Well, friends, my year-long, seasonally timed journey through Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet has come to an end. What a lovely reading experience this has been. (Extra thank you to @caseys_chapters for hosting a fantastic year-long buddy read!)
I’m not British, but from what I have heard and can tell, there’s nobody out there who can capture the modern British experience like Ali Smith. Four books in less than four years — including this one, which came out in August 2020 and yet still had COVID lockdown as a central plot point?? So impressive. I think if I were British and felt that final degree of personal connection to the current events these books comment on, they would have fallen into the LOVE category; as it is, Ali Smith is undeniable, and they’re still firmly in LIKED A LOT.
Summer focuses on a young pair of siblings, the younger of whom is an especially gifted boy whose response to bullying has been a particularly vile form of acting out. Art and Charlotte (from Winter) enter the scene as well. We also get a glimpse into the mind of Daniel (yes, Daniel from Autumn) and his memories of time spent in the German internment camps that England set up during WWII, separated from his beloved half-sister. (The juxtaposition of these memories alongside commentary on Brexit was particularly excellent.)
I absolutely loved coming back to all these great characters and spotting the threads that tied the books together. Given that I read one of these books every three months or so, I’m sure there were plenty I missed as well. Honestly, I’d love to reread these books closer together; someone in the buddy read said they might do that before reading Companion Piece, and I like that idea too.
Thank you, Ali Smith, for this hopeful, poignant quartet about the kindness of strangers during troubling times.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Summer is a fantastic finale to this hopeful, poignant quartet about the kindness of strangers during troubling times. It tied all four books together in a fun, impactful way.
For you if: You like to read stories that fuse excellent characters with astute social commentary.
FULL REVIEW:
Well, friends, my year-long, seasonally timed journey through Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet has come to an end. What a lovely reading experience this has been. (Extra thank you to @caseys_chapters for hosting a fantastic year-long buddy read!)
I’m not British, but from what I have heard and can tell, there’s nobody out there who can capture the modern British experience like Ali Smith. Four books in less than four years — including this one, which came out in August 2020 and yet still had COVID lockdown as a central plot point?? So impressive. I think if I were British and felt that final degree of personal connection to the current events these books comment on, they would have fallen into the LOVE category; as it is, Ali Smith is undeniable, and they’re still firmly in LIKED A LOT.
Summer focuses on a young pair of siblings, the younger of whom is an especially gifted boy whose response to bullying has been a particularly vile form of acting out. Art and Charlotte (from Winter) enter the scene as well. We also get a glimpse into the mind of Daniel (yes, Daniel from Autumn) and his memories of time spent in the German internment camps that England set up during WWII, separated from his beloved half-sister. (The juxtaposition of these memories alongside commentary on Brexit was particularly excellent.)
I absolutely loved coming back to all these great characters and spotting the threads that tied the books together. Given that I read one of these books every three months or so, I’m sure there were plenty I missed as well. Honestly, I’d love to reread these books closer together; someone in the buddy read said they might do that before reading Companion Piece, and I like that idea too.
Thank you, Ali Smith, for this hopeful, poignant quartet about the kindness of strangers during troubling times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Confinement
Moderate: Racism, Bullying, Misogyny, and War
Minor: Abandonment and Pregnancy
kglas's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I just finished reading the whole seasonal quartet, and here is my experience with some recommendations.
1) It's definitely best to read the seasonal quartet in the order yhe books were published: autumn - winter - spring - summer. Even though there are new characters at the heart of each novel, it is such a delight to re-encounter some loveable ones in more than one of them. Especially, half of the fun of reading Summer at the end is recognising the characters and stories from previous seasons.
2) I read Autumn twice. I finished it and realized that for understanding more deeply I needed to read it again , and that was fully worth it.
3) I regularly checked out the references to artists and other writers, looking at their work online. That made the reading experience more complete and made me get to know about some exciting works of art I'd had no idea about before I read these books.
To sum up, I adore Ali Smith's masterful writing style, her wordplay, the topics she picks up (female art, migration, the Brexit, climate change, COVID 19, activism, ...) and the loving, caring characters she has created.
A must-read for anyone who loves good and sometimes complex novels.
1) It's definitely best to read the seasonal quartet in the order yhe books were published: autumn - winter - spring - summer. Even though there are new characters at the heart of each novel, it is such a delight to re-encounter some loveable ones in more than one of them. Especially, half of the fun of reading Summer at the end is recognising the characters and stories from previous seasons.
2) I read Autumn twice. I finished it and realized that for understanding more deeply I needed to read it again , and that was fully worth it.
3) I regularly checked out the references to artists and other writers, looking at their work online. That made the reading experience more complete and made me get to know about some exciting works of art I'd had no idea about before I read these books.
To sum up, I adore Ali Smith's masterful writing style, her wordplay, the topics she picks up (female art, migration, the Brexit, climate change, COVID 19, activism, ...) and the loving, caring characters she has created.
A must-read for anyone who loves good and sometimes complex novels.
Content Warnings
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Confinement, Death, Bullying, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Racism
samarakroeger's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.75
And this is the book that brings all the pieces together at last. SO glad I decided to read each book at the beginning of its designated season over the last year. Each book in the quartet was better than the last (3.25, 3.75, 4.25, now 4.75) and I finally feel like I understand Ali Smith’s vision. Even more impressive is how quickly she wrote these books and got them out into the world — an exercise in contemporary literature that I don’t think anyone has quite pulled off before. She can’t have planned the books out, necessarily, because they all deal with contemporary issues as they are happening. This is probably the first true pandemic book, set mostly in March-May 2020 and published in August 2020.
The characters here are from Autumn and Winter (mostly), and they’re MUCH easier to pick up on (instead of vague references to the other books in Winter and Spring). The thematic focus is on borders, like Spring. The important literary references are made very clear here, too, with Grace reflecting on performing both Shakespeare and Dickens works in her youth. The important female artists get nods in Summer as well.
Anyways, can’t wait to reread these and annotate them with the knowledge of the series as a whole. Certainly a series that is far more than the sum of its parts and was well worth continuing despite not loving Autumn.
I’ll certainly be picking up Companion Piece soon as well.
The characters here are from Autumn and Winter (mostly), and they’re MUCH easier to pick up on (instead of vague references to the other books in Winter and Spring). The thematic focus is on borders, like Spring. The important literary references are made very clear here, too, with Grace reflecting on performing both Shakespeare and Dickens works in her youth. The important female artists get nods in Summer as well.
Anyways, can’t wait to reread these and annotate them with the knowledge of the series as a whole. Certainly a series that is far more than the sum of its parts and was well worth continuing despite not loving Autumn.
I’ll certainly be picking up Companion Piece soon as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Dementia, Deportation, Mental illness, and Pandemic/Epidemic
dicle's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Bullying, Suicide, and Xenophobia
More...