Reviews

The Price of Salt: Or Carol by Patricia Highsmith, Claire Morgan

thegreenship's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

purple_frog's review against another edition

emotional hopeful slow-paced

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

3.5

steen's review against another edition

4.0

This book was so melancholic yet lively at the same time. The first half of the book was fairly dull; even the interactions between Carol & Therese were stilted and a bit mundane. From a plot perspective, things picked up during and after the road trip in the latter part of the book.

The prose surrounding Carol & Therese and their love (physically, spiritually, emotionally) was beautiful and eloquent. It was full of life, rebirth, passion & femininity.

charlote_1347's review against another edition

2.0

I've only read one of Highsmith's works, The Talented Mr Ripley, and I loved it. It was gritty, intelligent and matter-of-fact. Another of her novels, her first, is also on my reading list. Carol, on the other hand, only caught my attention because of its film adaptation. But a dated novel about a lesbian relationship in New York seemed like an interesting read, so I went for it. Therese was a mediocre character - dull and flawed, but this only made her emotional growth more satisfying. Carol was the opposite - a dynamic, mysterious figure that caught my sympathy and attention straight away, but gradually lost them as the story progressed. I grew frustrated with her behaviour and her deliberate aloofness. It became irrelevant to me - the time period, the necessity for secrecy, their clandestine looks and touches. I wanted honesty and affection to be apparent between them, and I felt that it never was, even in their most private moments. The film, from what I've seen of the trailer, will rectify this. Provide the reader/audience with something tangible, something that will make their relationship feel real and authentic. I can't say the writing style or the characters or the world-building were bad - they weren't. They were brilliant. But this left a...void. I felt that Carol and Therese didn't earn what has been portrayed as an epic love story, that their encounters were frank and devoid of that spark that makes romances jump off their pages. The best way to describe it, I think, is that I felt like I was reading a summary of the novel, instead of the actual thing.

emzapk's review against another edition

3.5

Very well written and I loved the ending. But I didn't like Therese or Carol so it just didn't fully work for me. I'm not a fan of "love at first sight" or "obsession" love stories and this was fully that. Therese seemed like a little kid and I never felt like Carol was present when they were together? But I appreciated the story a lot and how it didn't just end with doom and gloom like a lot of LGBTQ+ stories of the time did.

tinchenbienchen's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The characters are delightfully imperfect people (my god are they toxic) and I could not put this book, or their story down. 
Another bonus (to me) was the bittersweet but hopeful ending. Queer people hardly ever get that in literature (espacially older books) so this was incredibly refreshing to read and I will probably read it again at some point.

camicarreno's review against another edition

4.0

Me gustó mucho esta novela, es muy rápida de leer y muy visual, obvio que tenían que transformala en película y quiero mucho verla. Es la historia de dos mujeres, una mucho más joven que la otra, que se conocen en una juguetería en Manhattan, justo antes de navidad en los años cincuenta, una historia muy disruptiva para la época que hizo que la autora decidiera publicarla con un pseudónimo.

chloeauden's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

3.0

anyajulchen's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• 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

3.25

smsadeee's review against another edition

5.0

when i finished reading this book the first thing that came to my mind was that i wanted to read it again because i’m absolutely obsessed with the vibes and in my opinion it's the inverse of call me by your name (where that's a summer read, the price of salt has more of a wintry feel to it).

the characters were phenomenally well-written. every aspect of the book was executed brilliantly and while the ending was heartbreaking the book as a whole was magnificent. overall an excellent read from start to finish.