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michaeltirion's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny and Racism
marinaschulz's review
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
The "Midwich Cuckoos" is one book were I think the movie adaptation was better. While the idea of the story, especially for the time, was very original, I feel that it faltered in terms of execution, especially since the main conflict of the book only starts near the end. Literally half of the book simply focuses on the set-up to the story, telling how Midwich's women came to become pregnant, and the city's reaction to the turn of events.
The Children barely feature in a book that ostentatiously is about them - I swear they have their first line around page 150, in a book that is only 220 pages long. Instead of having a cool story featuring alien-like, superpowered creatures that look like innocent human children, the author chose to focus the bulk of the book on how confused the Midwich inhabitants are that all the women are pregnant, and how shocking and uncivil that is. The book was such a bad offender as to failing to talk about its subject matter, that the best parts of the book happened in pages 190 to 210 when we finally learn anything about the Children, rather than just hearing about how odd it is that they even exist, and how they may or may not constitute a threat.
Furthermore, I found the book to be somewhat dated in some aspects, specifically its references of race, the British Empire, and femininity, which make it a bit hard to read at points. I also don't think this book is "old enough" to be exempt for criticism of its casual racism and sexism; it's from 1957, for Christ's sake.
Regarding femininity, I disliked how the book makes a ton of dated statements and allusions. These include: that most women want babies, with the implication that even those who don't just don't know better; the accersion that "women require to be sheltered from certain truths which may harm their psyche"; and that old spiel about how women are naturally more passive than men, which in turn makes us dummer than them aswell. (Page 98: " If we take all old wives' - or young wives' - tales at face value; if we remember that the majority of feminine tasks are deadly dull, and leave the mind so empty tat the most trifling seed that falls there can grow into a riotous tangle, we shall not be surprised by an outlook on life which has the disproportion and the illogical inconsequence of a nightmare")
As for the subject of race and the British empire, you will find a few very dated references to colonialism (page 198: "History has shown us [the British] to be more tolerant of minorities than most"), and race biology (page 203: "Can you see the whole diversity of races evolving from [the missing link]? I can't however hard I try. Nor, at a later stage, can I see a nomadic creature segregating the strains which would give rise to such fixed and distinctive characteristics of race."). Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but considering how the Children even refer to themselves in the book as a minority in numbers, but the better race when compared to humans, could it be that the author maybe intended this book to be an allegorical cautionary tale about the rise of some "nefarious" actual minority through the ranks of society, and how this should be stopped?
To conclude, I would not recommend this book, and I would in fact suggest skipping it. "The Midwich Cuckoos" should have been a short story, not a novella. This because if you remove all of the extra fluff, you will be left with only about 50 pages of plot, the bulk of which would be gathered from the end of the book. Save your time and watch the 1960 movie instead.
The Children barely feature in a book that ostentatiously is about them - I swear they have their first line around page 150, in a book that is only 220 pages long. Instead of having a cool story featuring alien-like, superpowered creatures that look like innocent human children, the author chose to focus the bulk of the book on how confused the Midwich inhabitants are that all the women are pregnant, and how shocking and uncivil that is. The book was such a bad offender as to failing to talk about its subject matter, that the best parts of the book happened in pages 190 to 210 when we finally learn anything about the Children, rather than just hearing about how odd it is that they even exist, and how they may or may not constitute a threat.
Furthermore, I found the book to be somewhat dated in some aspects, specifically its references of race, the British Empire, and femininity, which make it a bit hard to read at points. I also don't think this book is "old enough" to be exempt for criticism of its casual racism and sexism; it's from 1957, for Christ's sake.
Regarding femininity, I disliked how the book makes a ton of dated statements and allusions. These include: that most women want babies, with the implication that even those who don't just don't know better; the accersion that "women require to be sheltered from certain truths which may harm their psyche"; and that old spiel about how women are naturally more passive than men, which in turn makes us dummer than them aswell. (Page 98: " If we take all old wives' - or young wives' - tales at face value; if we remember that the majority of feminine tasks are deadly dull, and leave the mind so empty tat the most trifling seed that falls there can grow into a riotous tangle, we shall not be surprised by an outlook on life which has the disproportion and the illogical inconsequence of a nightmare")
As for the subject of race and the British empire, you will find a few very dated references to colonialism (page 198: "History has shown us [the British] to be more tolerant of minorities than most"), and race biology (page 203: "Can you see the whole diversity of races evolving from [the missing link]? I can't however hard I try. Nor, at a later stage, can I see a nomadic creature segregating the strains which would give rise to such fixed and distinctive characteristics of race."). Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but considering how the Children even refer to themselves in the book as a minority in numbers, but the better race when compared to humans, could it be that the author maybe intended this book to be an allegorical cautionary tale about the rise of some "nefarious" actual minority through the ranks of society, and how this should be stopped?
To conclude, I would not recommend this book, and I would in fact suggest skipping it. "The Midwich Cuckoos" should have been a short story, not a novella. This because if you remove all of the extra fluff, you will be left with only about 50 pages of plot, the bulk of which would be gathered from the end of the book. Save your time and watch the 1960 movie instead.
Content Warnings
Minor: Misogyny and Racism
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