Reviews - The Waves | The StoryGraph

2.2k reviews for:

The rare five star review. Woolf as much as any modernist writer is able to capture the feeling of consciousness, the particular impressionistic moment in nature, in a restaurant, on the tube. Here we have a Faulknerian changing of perspective that she plays with in To the Lighthouse and Orlando. The whole thing has to wash over you, like a Renoir; you can spend time lost in the details. The paragraphs stand alone as prose poems. It rewards slow reading, the teasing out meaning as the characters shift and age and mourn and experience the world.

abbie_louise's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lexiekuhnemann's review against another edition

2.0

Not my cup of tea. It took ever ounce of brain power

rflcain's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

nathankm's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad slow-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

klou91's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

guccigabbs's review against another edition

3.0

for lack of better words, my experience with this book really was like a series of waves. i liked it, i didn’t, i liked this word, i didn’t like these pairings of words, i like this character, i didn’t understand another. as a whole, i enjoyed the story though i feel like i did not entirely capture or walk away with some grand revelation like i have with other of woolf’s works. though, this just makes me excited for when i revisit it in a couple of years and it speaks to me in an entirely different way.
now, while on a large scale it wasn’t my favorite, i adoreeeeeee the way solitude is talked about here. the line “i would willingly give all my money should you not disturb me but let me sit on and on, silent, alone” was a gem to come across all the way at the end. i read it over and over. i love writers because there is something so magical about being able to write about solitude in a way that is completely devoid of melancholy or “lacking-ness”. and maybe only certain people will understand the joy in that line—the joy of being alone. it is one of the worlds biggest flaws to have made being alone synonymous with being lonely. there is no better love, no love that i enjoy experiencing more, than being able to just sit with one’s self and quite literally do anything. to read with oneself. to walk with oneself. to talk with oneself. to watch a movie with oneself. to go grocery shopping with oneself. to have dinner with oneself. to go to bed and snuggle into oneself after a long day.
idk maybe it’s just the state i’ve always been used to, so i’ve found comfort in it. but i will forever believe that existing alone and finding joy in it is not at all a sad or pitiful experience.