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david_slack110507's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Child death, Death, Child abuse, Classism, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Racism, Abandonment, Gaslighting, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Death of parent, Infidelity, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Ableism, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Incest, Medical content, Vomit, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Cultural appropriation
sarasreading's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This prequel take on colonialism and feminism was definitely interesting, and packed a lot into a short book. There were so many metaphors and details that held deeper meaning. It's a little rough to read though, as there is a lot of racism, racial slurs, violence and powerlessness. An interesting and eerie take on the story of Bertha.
Graphic: Confinement, Racial slurs, Racism, and Misogyny
Moderate: Colonisation, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, and Child death
elisabethshanahan's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Colonisation
Minor: Death of parent, Slavery, Child death, and Forced institutionalization
morenowagain'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? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Mental illness, Infidelity, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, Racism, Colonisation, Racial slurs, and Confinement
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
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
cammiem8's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicide
ceallaighsbooks'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
4.25
“She seemed such a poor ghost, I thought I’d like to write her life.” — Jean Rhys on why she wrote Bertha’s story in Wide Sargasso Sea
“Do you think that too,” she said, “that I have slept too long in the moonlight?”
“Now there was no time left so we kissed each other in that stupid room… We had often kissed before but not like that. That was the life and death kiss and you only know a long time afterwards what it is, the life and death kiss. The white ship whistled three times, once gaily, once calling, once to say good-bye.”
- Within These Wicked Walls, by Lauren Blackwood
- The Icarus Girl, by Helen Oyeyemi
- I, Tituba, by Maryse Condé
- White is for Witching, by Helen Oyeyemi
- The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racial slurs, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Racism and Slavery