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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Unnecessarily wordy and a stolen concept. The only interesting and original ideas were only hinted at, and we were made to suffer through the world's most boring dystopian protagonist. Save your time and read The Handmaid's Tale instead.
4.5 stars. Try to find a way to start this book without knowing anything at all about it. Don't read reviews or listen to folks trying to explain it before you take it on yourself. Let the surprise of the plot reveal itself, wash over you like calculus, so that, at page 51 when the author sets the hook, you are as anxious as your protagonist. I was enticed to read this solely by the reputation of the author who is one of my favorite contemporary storytellers. That was enough to convince me that it would be worth it. It was.
Set in Minnesota.
Set in Minnesota.
I wasn't sure I was going to like this book, but I really enjoyed it. Set in a dystopian world where pregnant women are rounded up, the book follows pregnant Cedar, a woman who is trying to remain free and learn about who she is. It's well worth your time.
Four minus. All of Louise Erdrich’s books make you think. They all lead you out of reality into a more spiritual perspective on the story she’s telling. There were many things to like about the book—wonderfully drawn characters, deep questions about how to define family ties, Erdrich’s quirky observations and descriptions. What’s missing is a coherent plot.
The story starts out with intriguing happenings—Cedar is pregnant. Who’s the father? Why is she returning to a birth mother she’s never met? And what the hell is going on in America? It’s the last—describing what reverse evolution means, how it plays out in Minnesota, why Cedar is constantly endangered— that’s never fully explicated. This could have been a rip-snorting thriller laid over all those big questions. Instead, it’s kind of muddled.
The story starts out with intriguing happenings—Cedar is pregnant. Who’s the father? Why is she returning to a birth mother she’s never met? And what the hell is going on in America? It’s the last—describing what reverse evolution means, how it plays out in Minnesota, why Cedar is constantly endangered— that’s never fully explicated. This could have been a rip-snorting thriller laid over all those big questions. Instead, it’s kind of muddled.
If I could give this 10 stars, I would. It's a powerful, beautifully-written novel. It's a tense thriller that tells the story of a dystopian future where evolution is running backwards. It's a visionary book, wise and wonderful in its scope. I loved it.
This book “grabbed” me unexpectedly. I did not know what to expect of a dystopian Erdrich novel, but the worlds it wove together were done so beautifully. Perhaps because I read this book right before the Advent season, I read it as an Advent book—for the most compelling of its messages, I thought, were those that connected the power of birth, the power of life, and the power of the natural world. Erdrich was able to make each of these distinct, and yet connected. I’ll admit I did not like the ending, but there were many passages in the book that just left me speechless, full of awe. That’s how good Erdrich is—she can do that in a book that will not be thought of as her finest.
Basically the new Hamdmaids Tale. Beautifully written but I felt the ending was abrupt and left a lot of unanswered questions.