Reviews - After Sappho | The StoryGraph

1.37k reviews for:

I had high hopes for this book, but sadly I was let down. I thought it was going to be a book about lesbians throughout history engaging with Sappho and how Sappho all bound them together. In actuality, it was a bunch of narratives of lesbians in history strung together with an occasional Sappho quote at the end of a chapter. I was expecting Sappho and her work to have a much larger presence in the book, after all, her name is in the title. The premise of the book had so much potential, but my main issue was the writing—this book had no plot. Don't get me wrong, I am all for "no plot, just vibes," but the lack of plot or storyline in this book was detrimental in combination with the dull writing style and the forgettable and interchangeable character that would appear for three pages and then disappear. If I were an expert on 20th century lesbians and female artists, I might have enjoyed this book a lot more, but I'm not so I was bored by the repetitiveness of writing and how not much was explained. On the positive side, I did feel like I learned about lesbian history by reading this book, and at the end where being a lesbian/homosexual became criminalized the book kind of made more sense to me. There was some form of stakes/plot, finally. But that was just the ending. I also did like how lyrical the writing was, there were some quotes I tabbed and wrote down from this book.
But aside from my personal thoughts and enjoyment, a glaring issue I (and others) have with this book is how whitewashed and Eurocentric it is. The entire book, I kept waiting for a woman to appear who wasn't from France or Italy or England, or I waited for the perspective from women of color. I'm pretty sure there were two? I'm sorry but that's ridiculous. This book was written in 2022 and we should know by now that there is so much more to history than white Europeans. So in combination with my other problems with this book, the lack of racial diversity in After Sappho made it a huge let down for me.

emily_schlegel's review against another edition

4.5

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

estrogenism's review against another edition

1.0

medium-paced

ellie_cripps's review against another edition

3.0

Really felt as though I had to love this, but ultimately felt it was only okay. Had some really great moments and lovely writing, but was incredibly hard to follow at times and felt like it lacked a clear focus.