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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
This book/play centers on the tragic stories of 4 of Shakespeare’s female characters. Mccullough’s story-telling is super inventive, engaging, and fast-paced as the girls/women argue and bond in a theater trap room after dying in each of their plays. As they deconstruct what has happened to them and realize their lives and deaths were constructed to be props for men, they each take a turn controlling and re-telling their own story. Lots of great quotes, but this might be my favorite, as Cordelia reflects on how she will not “perform” her love for her father — a man, like most men, who she realizes is not capable of loving her but is only capable using her love to benefit himself while congratulating himself on having “earned” the love and devotion of his daughters — “You haven’t seen me,
Have no idea who I am,…
I won’t dance for you.
I won’t contort my true devotion into a playing piece upon your board. I love you. I love you more than you deserve (for that’s not why we love).
But I won’t rip my heart out for you to devour, leaving nothing for myself.” Side note - I never read King Lear, and this book makes me want to.
I wasn't an English major or theater geek so I haven't spent much time analyzing his works very deeply, but I really enjoyed this feminist perspective.
dark
reflective
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
dark
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I enjoyed this book. I like the idea if allowing female characters to rewrite their stories and create their own endings.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
This book only took me seven hours to read. So pretty great.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In this book we get a retelling, but we also get a re-telling - Shakespeare's characters take control of their narrative and tell it how they would have wanted it to go. It's written like a play, set in the liminal space where characters are caught in the endless cycle of performances. Their stories really hit you when they're expanded and the characters have more of a voice.
I love what the author did in this book. Tragic heroines taking back their story - fantastic. I listened to the audiobook, which was done very well.