Reviews - Prodigal Summer | The StoryGraph

1.77k reviews for:

Prodigal Summer

Barbara Kingsolver

4.06 AVERAGE

sungmemoonstruck's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

I loved this book. Lush, expansive, generous, and beautifully written in a way that my brain had been craving. There was a sentence or turn of phrase on almost every other page that I had to stop and admire. Kingsolver's prose is just incredible: vivid, surprising, and indelible. This book drips with summer and has some of the most beautiful and atmospheric nature writing I've read in a long time. But it's more than the prose--the characters are wonderfully drawn too. I could have spent hundreds more pages with these people. Kingsolver makes an often-stereotyped region of the country come to life in all its complexity and by the end, I was deeply attached to these fictional creations in all their flawed glory.

farwden's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous emotional 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: Yes

i really liked this one until the last 75 pages :(

as a wildlife biologist she hit on so many relatable things, but i thought the way lusa’s story ended was very strange, garnett’s was very forced, and deanna felt defanged like in the ending of jane eyre. idkkk i really like kingsolver and read this while i was in appalachia which was fun but the ending took away a lot for me

evelyn_m's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

lilbuttonbutton's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

jaynerooke66's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I love Barbara Kingsolver's writing style and I thoroughly enjoyed that she read this book. She takes her time in this novel, which is exceptionally well researched to describe ecology/circle of life- with a big nod to the damage that is caused by chemicas/ pesticides. From the coyote to the moth, how she explains the need for predators and their symbiotic relationship with the land is beautiful and so cleverly woven in to the 3 stories.

The three stories are of powerful, nurturing women who in different ways try to win around their male/familial counterparts who are of the shoot em up and ask questions later type. If only the corporations killing the soil for profit were as easily persuaded, we might stand a chance as a species.

I also really enjoyed the descriptions of farming life and what a very difficult life style it is to earn a decent living from.

Prodigal Summer is a brilliant name for the book - it positively heaves, drips, flows with potency. Even death is tragic but also beautiful.

I'd read this again just for the ecology alone.