Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

16 reviews

shanhulud's review

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adventurous funny inspiring reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

One of my favorite books ever. I'll never stop thinking about Orlando.
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steven_anita's review against another edition

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

3.0

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heshe's review

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

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funny slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I wanted to like this really badly but alas it is dry as fuck. i’d apologize to virginia woolf for saying that but she still owes me for several hours of awful class discussions on To The Lighthouse. let’s call it even 

incredibly dense, wordy, garrulous — almost always on purpose, but there’s a certain point where the page-long paragraphs start blurring together despite the satirical point in having them. small parts of this got a chuckle out of me, I’ll give it that, but in general I had to push myself to pick it up again 

I think this being billed as a capital q queer book is a bit of a trap: it is undoubtedly a book about a queer person directly engaging with their gender identity & performance, but you are also inundated with a lot of pithy jabs at multiple eras of eng lit and British society between the interesting gender bits. I’m sure people can write really interesting things with gender and the Victorians or something from this but as a casual read I think you could find much more engaging queer material. 

I also just think the book is boring. As someone who spent much of her eng degree focusing on many of the poets & lit trends woolf has a go at here, i expected to get more kicks out of it. oh well

overall: a snooze, if a culturally important one. i don’t think i like virginia woolf
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ellaroshea's review

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4.5

really intriguing blurry realism/magical realism. it was both stream of consciousness and history, frivolous and profound at the same time (reminding me a bit of the picture of dorian gray). I thought that it would be more didactic than it was re experiencing the world as two different genders but it was not and I think that was particularly effective at creating the generally fluid, dreamlike and playful yet serious atmosphere to the book.

05/02/2025

so enjoyable! so silly! so camp! playful and fluid and thoroughly queer. queer temporality is an interesting lens through which to look at this book. forgot how violent and casual the racism is in places though so that was a bit of a downer
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inirac's review against another edition

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challenging inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
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lenka_juchelkova's review

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

4.0

Amazing gender bending story, would do without collonualism and racism though. 
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alexblais8's review

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challenging dark funny reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
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annaki_laila's review against another edition

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slow-paced

1.0

An incredible disappointment which has put me off the possibility of reading any more Woolf. When reading Mrs Dalloway, there were plenty of moments when the writing got away from itself and I completely lost what Woolf was actually talking about, but the plot and characters made up for that by being decently interesting. Orlando severely lacked those redeeming factors for me, and so when the writing got away, it got away. By the end of it I was heavily skim-reading and it would've been a DNF, but my frustration powered me through, I guess.
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cassie_04's review

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

3.0

DEAR GOD. AN INFURIATING READ. TOOK ME 5 MONTHS TO FINISH. Great book though. Interesting takes on gender throughout. I also enjoyed the surreal passage of time and place throughout the book. Unfortunately, like much of Woolf's work it is incredibly racist. I enjoy her experimental style but this one was a little bit too loosey goosey and descriptive in places, as well as the frequent racism made this book difficult to read. Has historical and literary interest though, so in those regards, was worth a read.
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