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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
I found parts of it bonkers and didn't love the plot but on the other hand, I almost couldn't look away at parts and wanted to find out what had happened.
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Two women awaken in an unfamiliar, abandoned property in the middle of nowhere, Australia. Dressed in strange clothes, their heads shaved, it soon becomes clear that they – with eight other women in similar circumstances – have been abducted, imprisoned and punished for being part of a sex scandal.
Charlotte Wood's The Natural Way of Things is a devastating, haunting read. Wood has clear skill with her writing. It is evocative, provocative and precisely beautiful. Although the subject matter is dark and sometimes gruesome, there is an unbearable deftness to the story that lets the reader see how bad things are without feeling drowned by it.
I've seen The Natural Way of Things occasionally labelled alternatively as science-fiction, dystopia and speculative fiction. But to me, this novel is rooted firmly, frighteningly in the present day. It takes it cues from current attitudes surrounding women and sex, women and rape and the prevalence of slut-shaming and victim-blaming. In this book, I found very real echoes of so-called sex-scandals, how the media reports on such cases and the public reaction.
But all this wouldn't work if it wasn't for Wood's skill. I've already praised her writing style, but I also need to focus on her character work. The story is told through the point-of-view the two women we are first introduced to – Yolanda and Verla – and they are well-developed, complex characters. But Wood doesn't neglect the other characters.
The eight other imprisoned women may not have big roles in the narrative, but Wood sketches them well. They are flawed, sometimes repulsive or shallow, but there are little moments that allows for them to be pitied and sometimes loved. The women's jailors, Boncer and Teddy, and the "nurse", Nancy, are, as you expect, terrible people. But Wood keeps shifting our expectations, presenting Teddy as a beautiful hippie who is just as horrible as the more obviously villainous Boncer. Additionally, they have moments of vulnerability that don't take away from their evilness, but still lets them appear more human.
The ending at first didn't sit well with me. I wanted more certainty. I wanted answers. I wanted the girls to get their freedom. I wanted to know what was going to happen to the imprisoned girls, why, exactly, they had been taken and imprisoned and what the end-game was going to be. But I've come to feel that the uncertainty at the end is deliberate, making the reader question our society. Would we choose the freedom to make a life (albeit a brutal one) for our own selves, even within the walls of a prison, or would we choose to leave the prison and once be individuals in a society that insists women...
Charlotte Wood's The Natural Way of Things is a thought-provoking, beautiful read and well-deserving of the accolades being showered upon it. Highly recommended.
Charlotte Wood's The Natural Way of Things is a devastating, haunting read. Wood has clear skill with her writing. It is evocative, provocative and precisely beautiful. Although the subject matter is dark and sometimes gruesome, there is an unbearable deftness to the story that lets the reader see how bad things are without feeling drowned by it.
I've seen The Natural Way of Things occasionally labelled alternatively as science-fiction, dystopia and speculative fiction. But to me, this novel is rooted firmly, frighteningly in the present day. It takes it cues from current attitudes surrounding women and sex, women and rape and the prevalence of slut-shaming and victim-blaming. In this book, I found very real echoes of so-called sex-scandals, how the media reports on such cases and the public reaction.
But all this wouldn't work if it wasn't for Wood's skill. I've already praised her writing style, but I also need to focus on her character work. The story is told through the point-of-view the two women we are first introduced to – Yolanda and Verla – and they are well-developed, complex characters. But Wood doesn't neglect the other characters.
The eight other imprisoned women may not have big roles in the narrative, but Wood sketches them well. They are flawed, sometimes repulsive or shallow, but there are little moments that allows for them to be pitied and sometimes loved. The women's jailors, Boncer and Teddy, and the "nurse", Nancy, are, as you expect, terrible people. But Wood keeps shifting our expectations, presenting Teddy as a beautiful hippie who is just as horrible as the more obviously villainous Boncer. Additionally, they have moments of vulnerability that don't take away from their evilness, but still lets them appear more human.
The ending at first didn't sit well with me. I wanted more certainty. I wanted answers. I wanted the girls to get their freedom. I wanted to know what was going to happen to the imprisoned girls, why, exactly, they had been taken and imprisoned and what the end-game was going to be. But I've come to feel that the uncertainty at the end is deliberate, making the reader question our society. Would we choose the freedom to make a life (albeit a brutal one) for our own selves, even within the walls of a prison, or would we choose to leave the prison and once be individuals in a society that insists women...
... lured abduction and abandonment to themselves, they marshalled themselves into this prison where they had made their beds, and now, once more, were lying in them.
Charlotte Wood's The Natural Way of Things is a thought-provoking, beautiful read and well-deserving of the accolades being showered upon it. Highly recommended.
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Rape, Suicide, Trafficking
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment
Minor: Addiction, Sexism
WTF. Ha, I'm not sure how I feel after reading this novel. On some levels, it's a book of empowerment, I suppose, but at the heart it's a book about being captive to both literally and figuratively. Everyone's coping mechanism to being held captive is different, and each is interesting. Like others, though, I wish the ending was more conclusive.
dark
reflective
slow-paced