Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Galatea

I quite liked it. Very different from The Song of Achilles but still quite good. This novella is a worthy successor of previous great feminist literature. You can definitely feel the influence of authors such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Angela Carter, or Katherine Mansfield. It is similarly heavy and mysterious (in a gothic kind of way) and has very similar themes though with a more modern twist were the woman actually takes her fate back into her own hands. It's an interesting exposition of how men attempt to control women's bodies and it's especially well done here as we only get Galatea's perspective - how she experiences that oppression, how smart and cunning she is, how she reaches freedom and takes revenge.

Would have loved to include this in some essay at uni, which makes me say it's well-written and interesting inany ways.

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l_noona's review

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

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quarkie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.25

I picked up this book based on a recommendation from the New York Times "Read Like the Wind" newsletter. It was one of two physically small books described that week, and it is small! 6" by 4", and about 50 pages long.

Honestly, I'm sort of glad it wasn't any longer. It didn't have to be, to get its main point across. The world that Galatea lives in is horrifying, and was very uncomfortable to read about. It is even worse to think how near this fiction is to reality: women being seen by men, their partners, their families, or society as a whole as nothing but property, and used as such. That it would be much better if they were silent and simply did as they were told. And how everyone - professionals, other women, strangers - all help uphold this role.

That said, it was beautifully written. Galatea's voice is clear, strong, and very matter-of-fact. To hear this story solely through her eyes is powerful. her reclamation of her own is ending is powerful.

Overall, it made me look forward to reading more by this author.

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