Scan barcode
laurenbb23's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Rape, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexual assault
ruffian23's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship
clevermird's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Wide Sargasso Sea is the latest in my quest to read through the "great classics" of Western literary canon, and it's the first one I can truly say I didn't like.
I should start by getting the elephant in the room out of the way - this book is essentially published Jane Eyre fanfiction. Now, that's not inherently a bad thing. The story makes little secret of it and the premise was intriguing. Who was Rochester's mad wife really? What was her side of the story? Sadly, although it does deliver the promised tale, Wide Sargasso Sea fails to offer much to a reader that they couldn't already have figured out for themself.
Antoinette Cosway lives with her mother and disabled younger brother in the crumbling ruins of their family's estate. When slavery was abolished, the family was plunged into near-poverty and rejected both by the freed slaves (who were understandably resentful of their former masters) and the white community (who saw them as both morally deficient former slave owners and as social inferiors). As she grows, the constant feelings of outcast will weigh down her mind and combine with her husband's own problems and lead to madness, infidelity, and a disaster of marriage that threatens to destroy both of them.
I was really disappointed in this book. I found Antoinette to be irritatingly childish and helpless. I know that the lack of agency she has in her own life is kind of one of the points of the book, but for me it moved past that and into "good grief, woman, stop wringing your hands and do something". Her husband, meanwhile kept oscillating between "very reasonable" and "what on earth is wrong with you?" In the end, rather than a portrait of a woman kept down by a cold and unfeeling man, or a tragedy of two hopelessly mis-matched souls, I wound up almost feeling like they deserved each other.
The reason this book got more than two stars (instead of the 1.5 I would have given it otherwise) is the prose. It's beautiful, dreamy, almost stream-of-consciousness stuff that makes every line interesting to read on its own and really captures the almost fever-dream like nature of the story and the lush tropical setting. However, this proves as much a hindrance as a help, with major events often glossed over in favor of more mood setting. There were several important plot points that I was confused on because the writing style obfuscated them so much.
Overall, a book with a promising start and an enjoyable writing style that fails to offer much of substance or deliver on the promised narrative.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Colonisation, Racial slurs, and Sexism
Moderate: Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Confinement, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Alcohol, Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, and Alcoholism
c_dmckinney's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Cursing, Abandonment, Grief, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Racism, Misogyny, Mental illness, Infidelity, Confinement, Colonisation, Chronic illness, Racial slurs, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Domestic abuse, and Classism
felicityebhaslin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Confession time: I’ve never actually read Jane Eyre. I don’t even know what happens. It’s just one of those books that I’ve ALWAYS wanted to read but every time I want to pick it up, I find myself committed to another book first - that one laid on my bedside table with a bookmark half-way through, an assigned reading due this week, or I’m just in the mood for something short and snappy. So, putting my shame of being a pathetic excuse for an English Lit student aside, I’m in the position to contribute living, breathing evidence to the discourse around this book. You DON’T need to have read JE to understand, enjoy and relish this book.
Goodreads reviews for Jean Rhys’s ‘literary sensation’ seem to either be 4-5 stars or 1 star, little in-between. The 1-star-reviews say that without reading JE, they wouldn’t have understood it. Well, here I sit; looks like it’s back to the drawing board. Entitled as they may be to their opinions, their reasoning feels like a cop-out for saying they just didn’t like the book.
I acknowledge the themes of this novel can be COMPLEX. Our main character, Antoinette (later known as Bertha Mason), has a family tree so chaotic I still don’t fully understand it by the end. I wouldn’t blame anyone for struggling to get their head around some of the things in this book, and for that I have to knock off the 0.3 stars. However, everything else this book brings to the table makes up for my minutes of head-scratching.
Themes (apparently suppressed in JE) of race, isolation and hatred weave a disturbing, pitiful tale. What caused her insanity? It’s not as simple as genetics. Does anyone deserve our pity? Or should we feel sorry for them all?
Will definitely reread (hopefully having read JE this time
Moderate: Racial slurs
Minor: Toxic relationship, Slavery, Mental illness, and Child death
asmallgremlin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Racism, Racial slurs, Slavery, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Colonisation
mariebrunelm's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Colonisation
Moderate: Confinement and Toxic relationship
Minor: Animal death, Child death, and Death of parent
bethsicle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Alcohol, and Classism
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Death of parent
Minor: Blood and Child death
seanml's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Racism, Colonisation, Toxic relationship, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Classism, Slavery, Alcohol, Confinement, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, and Mental illness
Minor: Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
kaylaej03's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Minor: Drug use and Toxic relationship