Reviews

Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf

tayloryams's review

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funny reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

sheeprustler's review against another edition

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

3.0

quitenerdyblog's review against another edition

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3.0

Like with The Years, I felt an immense sadness on finishing this, because of the shadows that loom large over it. One of those shadows is the deliberate setting of this in June of 1939, but the other terrible shadow is Woolf's death, before this novel was even published. The blurb put it in my head and I couldn't get it out after that. That meant by the time I finished the novel, I shocked myself by how sad I was. Even though I still have more Woolf to read, I felt like I had reached the end of her. In finishing Between the Acts, I had this horrible feeling that I'd killed Virginia Woolf.

literarytranquillity's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

klizzie333's review

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

3.0

tuisku's review against another edition

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I cannot rate this because I am too ignorant to have appreciated it or really disliked it. I struggled to understand the purpose of it. Yet I endured till the end.

There, couched in the grass, curled in an olive green ring, was a snake. Dead? No, choked with a toad in its mouth. The snake was unable to swallow; the toad was unable to die. A spasm made the ribs contract; blood oozed. It was birth the wrong way around - a monstrous inversion. So, raising his foot, he stamped on them. The mass crushed and slithered. The white canvas on his tennis shoes was bloodstained and sticky. But it was action. Action relieved him. He strode to the Barn, with blood on his shoes.


'Dispersed are we,' she murmured. And held her cup out to be filled. She took it. 'Let me turn away', she murmured, turning, 'from the array' - she looked desolately round her -
'of china faces, glazed and hard. Down the ride, that leads under the nut tree, and the may tree,
away, till I come to the wishing well, where the washerwoman's little boy-' she dropped sugar,
two lumps, into her tea, 'dropped a pin. He got his horse, so they say. But what wish should I drop into the well?' She looked around. She could not see the man in grey, the gentleman farmer;
nor anyone known to her. 'That the waters should cover me', she added, 'of the wishing well.'

miss_moonshine's review

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3.0

I just can't GET Virginia Woolf. Everything I've read by her seems like another read through would make it so much clearer, but I never want to make the second attempt badly enough. There are some really interesting paragraphs in Between the Acts, as pointed out by my lecturer, and I'm sure that there are more but I can't care enough to dig them out.

emjasmine's review against another edition

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reflective 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

jenna0010's review

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2.0

I read this shortly after reading Woolf's Orlando, which was much better. That being said, Between the Acts is a sharp meditation on the nature of time, the construction of reality, and how we hold ourselves together. And, not without some of Woolf's great wit, of course. My favourite line: "So all your fine words were tinsel wrapped around a Christmas cracker?"

maeclegg's review

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reflective relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5