Reviews

Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood

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meredithw's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

bobbo49's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Disappointing. I have read a lot of Atwood's work, and some (like The Blind Assassin) is magical, most is excellent . . . but this was somewhat mundane. Yes, she captures the challenges of childhood very well, and the challenges of life as a woman growing up in the 1940s, and as an artist in adult life, but overall I felt the story was overly drawn out and without enough of Atwood's magic.

yulenka's review against another edition

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emotional reflective

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

dearbhlanoonan's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

Content Warnings

avesmaria's review against another edition

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4.0

Just read this for the first time since middle school, and it's better than I remembered, so I'm taking my rating up to 4 stars.
Cat's Eye is the story of a middle-aged painter looking back on her life, especially friendships with other girls in her youth and the eventual unraveling of those relationships. While it lacks some of the inventive sci-fi/dystopian settings of some of my favorite Atwood novels, it's still got her signature voice. It's a novel I appreciate much more now, as an adult navigating an artistic career and parenthood, than I did as a young teenager.