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bookofcinz's review against another edition
2.0
Umm..... what did I just read....?
I am a bit confused by what I just read and I want answers.
Dubbed a coming-of-age novel we meet a seventeen year-old girl who is called Kid by the persons around her. Kid went to live temporarily with her Grandmother on Swan Island off the coast of New Hampshire. Swan Island is home to the Wrinklies as Kid calls them- they moved to Swan Island to be away from the "Bad Place"- that is, the "real world". The Wrinklies all gather on Swan Island to retire and...die, some of the Wrinklies are strong separatist who do not want to see any young persons on the island. Kid is made to feel unwelcome as she awaits the return of her parents.
What was supposed to be a temporary arrangement for Kid, turns into her Grandmother dying and Kid being left to fend for herself on an island where she is not welcomed. Added to that is Kid is waiting on her parents to return so she keeps the need to stay out until they get there.
I cannot say I enjoyed this read. I felt it dragged in a lot of areas. I was expecting a dystopian read and it was nothing like that. I just felt underwhelmed for majority of the read, it was as if the book was not going anywhere...kinda like Kid I guess. Maybe this is a me thing and not the book but it just was not for me...
I am a bit confused by what I just read and I want answers.
Dubbed a coming-of-age novel we meet a seventeen year-old girl who is called Kid by the persons around her. Kid went to live temporarily with her Grandmother on Swan Island off the coast of New Hampshire. Swan Island is home to the Wrinklies as Kid calls them- they moved to Swan Island to be away from the "Bad Place"- that is, the "real world". The Wrinklies all gather on Swan Island to retire and...die, some of the Wrinklies are strong separatist who do not want to see any young persons on the island. Kid is made to feel unwelcome as she awaits the return of her parents.
What was supposed to be a temporary arrangement for Kid, turns into her Grandmother dying and Kid being left to fend for herself on an island where she is not welcomed. Added to that is Kid is waiting on her parents to return so she keeps the need to stay out until they get there.
I cannot say I enjoyed this read. I felt it dragged in a lot of areas. I was expecting a dystopian read and it was nothing like that. I just felt underwhelmed for majority of the read, it was as if the book was not going anywhere...kinda like Kid I guess. Maybe this is a me thing and not the book but it just was not for me...
gilmoreguide's review
4.0
The narrator of Season Butler’s debut novel, Cygnet, is known as the Kid. She’s 17 and her parents have dropped her off at her grandmother’s house on an island off the coast of New Hampshire to live while they try and get their lives together. It’s supposed to be for a few weeks, a month at most, but three months later, the Kid’s grandmother has died and she’s never heard from her parents. Not an ideal situation in the best of circumstances, but the girl is known as the Kid because Swan Island is owned, run, and populated by senior citizens; the youngest person there is in their late sixties. The community is a response to the obsession with youth in America so Kid and anyone like her is not welcome. With her grandmother gone the clock is ticking as to how long she can stay before she’s forced back to the mainland. And where are her parents?
Cygnet’s premise is a fabulous one and debut author Season Butler uses it to its maximum potential. With her grandmother gone, Kid is now saddled with making a living while fending off questions about when her parents will be back. She takes a job with a wealthy woman obsessed with rewriting her past. Kid spends eight hours a day, five days a week going through family photos, movies, letters, and diaries, and digitally reconstructing them to give Mrs. Tyburn the life she thinks she deserved. It’s fascinating, disturbing, and sad. Gone is her chubby daughter, her unfaithful husband, her flat chest. They’re replaced with a slender girl, a boat named after her and not her husband’s mistress, and a bust that undergoes multiple iterations until landing on a D cup.
Unfortunately, Kid also has to take the abuse for society’s treatment of the elderly. Swan Island is an upside-down world and Kid is talked over, ignored, reminded she has no place there, and no real life experience. Everything around her is foreign—the slang, the music, the references—so she is constantly on the outside of the conversation. No one has time for her. She tries to fit in with suggestions to make things better or easier but it backfires.
The rest of this review is at The Gilmore Guide to Books: https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2019/06/cygnet-by-season-butler/
Cygnet’s premise is a fabulous one and debut author Season Butler uses it to its maximum potential. With her grandmother gone, Kid is now saddled with making a living while fending off questions about when her parents will be back. She takes a job with a wealthy woman obsessed with rewriting her past. Kid spends eight hours a day, five days a week going through family photos, movies, letters, and diaries, and digitally reconstructing them to give Mrs. Tyburn the life she thinks she deserved. It’s fascinating, disturbing, and sad. Gone is her chubby daughter, her unfaithful husband, her flat chest. They’re replaced with a slender girl, a boat named after her and not her husband’s mistress, and a bust that undergoes multiple iterations until landing on a D cup.
Unfortunately, Kid also has to take the abuse for society’s treatment of the elderly. Swan Island is an upside-down world and Kid is talked over, ignored, reminded she has no place there, and no real life experience. Everything around her is foreign—the slang, the music, the references—so she is constantly on the outside of the conversation. No one has time for her. She tries to fit in with suggestions to make things better or easier but it backfires.
The rest of this review is at The Gilmore Guide to Books: https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2019/06/cygnet-by-season-butler/
natalierosy's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I actually really enjoyed this, felt very unique and interesting and just what i desired, scrumptious/10
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Addiction, and Injury/Injury detail
mychemicalseal's review against another edition
3.0
i'm not really sure how i felt about this book and how to put anything into words? it's desperate, it's sad, it's a commentary on how society shuns the elderly but flipped on it's head? i don't know!
cutlet's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
jarvo_666's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75