Reviews

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

stephanie_e's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• 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

1.0

shanerdreadssometimes's review against another edition

3.0

Concept was good, liked the post apocalyptic vibes. Didn’t enjoy the layout/writing of the story.

bhable's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.25

larawalden's review against another edition

4.0

Margaret Atwood is probably either really fun or completely frightening to hang out with. Oryx and Crake is a supremely creepy novel that drops you in yet another dystopian, post-apocalyptic society. Little by little you learn how we got where we are, and then it ends, masterfully leaving you wanting more.

hartzski's review against another edition

4.0

Very Atwood. Dystopian, absolutely, but an interesting angle of it. Highly recommended.

tctctcme's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

anna_hepworth's review against another edition

slow-paced

• 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

4.0

It's been a week since I finished reading this, and I still don't know what I want to say about it. It is very clever, and I'm glad I read it, but I did rather spend a lot of time wondering why I was reading it. The writing holds the attention, but I really did not appreciate the viewpoint character, the world building, or much of the plot. Which is not to say that I think this could have been done better, just that I put the book down and grumbled away from it a lot. Not least because I was never convinced by the setting -- either pre- or post-apocalypse -- because it was all too weirdly glossy. I get that some of that was the fact that the viewpoint character came from a place of privilege that they hadn't really questioned, and thus their assumptions about the way that other people lived were dodgy. But I also felt like that about the characters, that they were caricatures or archetypes rather than people. 

So, worth it as reading for the language, and interesting in a way of seeing what the literary end of science fiction is doing with the end of the world doom saying, but I don't think I actually recommend it more generally. 

dmp_39's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

pallotj's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

leighalice's review against another edition

3.0

I read this because my mother liked it so much. I am not fond of dystopian novels, this one was very intriguing and incredibly well thought out in the creation of the Crakes. The way it ends pretty much forces you to read the next book in the trilogy. Snowman, the protagonist, is about to take action and you have no clue what will happen next.