You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
“Dear God I am tired. It is late. Writing like Shakespeare is hard work for a woman with a cracked head who cannot spell properly.”
I haven't read a book this good in a long time. Alasdair Gray's 'Poor Things' left a profound impression on me. Not only were the characters well written but also incredibly impactful with Bella standing out as a deeply relatable character - for some of her struggles seemed all too real.
Alasdair Gray might be my new favorite author because I am completely captivated by his unique style of writing and I can't wait to delve into more of his work.
This book is a masterpiece of literary genius.
I haven't read a book this good in a long time. Alasdair Gray's 'Poor Things' left a profound impression on me. Not only were the characters well written but also incredibly impactful with Bella standing out as a deeply relatable character - for some of her struggles seemed all too real.
Alasdair Gray might be my new favorite author because I am completely captivated by his unique style of writing and I can't wait to delve into more of his work.
This book is a masterpiece of literary genius.
adventurous
funny
informative
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
adventurous
funny
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ok so I’m not sure what to rate as for 2/3rd I was pretty confident in giving it a solid 4 starts but I don’t know the shift in perspective for the last bit of the book kind of reduced my enjoyment but also increased my respect from a narrative point of fun like I wasn’t having as much fun as a reader but it was still very gripping and interesting
Already like it’s style of storytelling
Feels like a series of unfortunate events for grown ups
“Furthermore no book needs two introductions and I’m writing this one”
Made me chuckle, well done introduction made me very intrigued
“I said I’d Written enough fiction to recognise history when I read it he’d said he had written enough history to recognise fiction”
Good first chapter I understand Archibald and how his class background plays into his attitude and personality, it’s interesting but familiar to me I wonder if people who aren’t working class either feel confused by these types of characters I always understand them perfectly and we’re there coming from
That’s sad how they made fun of his accent
“The public hospitals are places where doctors learn how to get money off the rich by practising on the poor, that is why poor people dread and hate them and why those with a good income are operated on privately”
Different worlds
I like how it praises the nurses
“His voice was repulsive but his words highly interesting” did his dad make him? Seems to envoke such a uneasy unhuman effect on people?
“I have never killed nor hurt a living creature in my life”
- See I live books like this they are having such interesting fascinating conversations you almost feel like you shouldn’t be listening to but where else can you he them except in a book?
“Impossible baxter, Brattain has become the industrial workshop of the world”
- He makes some interesting points, som valid points just look at tuberculosis how easy that would be to end if people united not chasing profits
“ exactly so until we lose our world wide market, British medicine will be employed to keep a charitable mask on the face of a heartless plutocracy”
“I know this is not the frank answer of a friend but I know see you were never my friend, but tolerated the company of a harmless, insignificant madman because other well dressed students would not tolerate yours”
“I disagree you did mean to hurt me and have done so more than you intended, goodbye”
- Not someone want to be on the bad side of yikes
- Shame seems like they could of built a genuine friendship of being outcasts and brilliant
I like that the chapters are short and concise
Their introduction is infesting, she’s interesting clearly Archibald is a little attracted to her, but is Godwin also will that be the point of tension or is he trying to set them up?
Their quarrel was a year ago so it didn’t take him long to perfect creating human life?
Why’s he telling him all this?
Chose the cover story of being his niece not his wife so?
Damm what an outburst “for her honour?”, I’m curious what Godwin said in response pretty nasty implications?
Yeah they are two weird men
“Woman shaped emptiness”
Wait so he does want to sleep with her? That’s what he’s implying with all the Ophelia stuff and needing long term affection and admiration for attraction?
Attracted to a wok man with the mind of a baby?
See I think it’s fascinating cause you automatically trust Archibald way more than Godwin why is that? Is it just based off of who gives you the bigger creeps?
- It’s the novel every author wants to get out of their system, it’s twisted and intellectual and topical and homage to classics (Frankenstein)
Okay 15 months time jump, he’s a house doctor now and got some money to his name
“But if she seemed a glorious dream, Baxter loomed beside her like a nightmare”
Ooh so he’s changers then says his eyes seem more insane, gloom
Well she seems to be in charge?
We he literally just said he mentally age is still a teen but now there getting frisky in a bush
Oh she nicknames Godwin “god” that’s clever I like that
“More with men makes babies, I want fun not babies”
I’m sorry what? “I only do more with women if I like the look of them” “a lot of women are shy” and that women ran away when she wanted to do more than kiss
“She obviously brooding upon the mysteries of her origin, I fretting over her neglect of my impulsive by it sincere proposal”
Ew praising wuthering heights- is that foreshadowing by saying Heathcliff goes mad but that baxter won’t
Oh shit she accepted his proposal but what the fuck is being described for Godwin’s reaction that is terrifying “when the scream came the whole sky seemed screaming”. So safe to say he took the news badly
Also this is all happening so fast things are not going to work out well like at all I’m getting comfortable with popcorn
For my face while listening to this book is hilarious I just am so bemused like her saying that she needs a lot of sex but not from Godwin cause he treats her like a child
“I saw that to her still developing brain this was a noble sacrifice so there were tears in my eyes”
- Dude you just acknowledged that’s she’s still developing, disgusting
- I feel Godwin is doing her a favour pushing back as much as he can so she doesn’t make any rash decision while still developing even though it isn’t completely unselfishly
Oh shit decided to break his word but it does make sense if she struggles with writing letters, also it makes me laugh how egoistical he is about some simple rhyming poetry he did
Oh shit I wasn’t expecting that haha it ms like a soap opera, waiting to elope?
Versed in the arts of contraception
Again says himself she has the mental age of 10 “but Baxter she had the mental age of 19 she’s a child” like your trying to have sex with her mate
“Baxter stared at me with the distaste and amazement” “he said reproachfully I must not thwart belle” “that is why I must not use force if I hurt someone she loves, her liking for me will turn to fear and distrust and my life will have no purpose it will still have a purpose if I keep a house for her to return to”
- Actually pretty reasonable and would be acting as a good guardian
“But Dunkin’ will give me a lot of past fast”
- Makes sense she feels like so much is missing and that she has so few experience so she’s rung in to trying to get a lot of it I relate to it it’s an awful feeling
“When I tried to breathe I became unconscious”
- Damm girl did she just drug him
“She liked meeting strangers and mending animals”
The book does acknowledge class and patriarchy which I like
“ many lives and limbs have been lost by excluding women from the more intricate medical arts”
That’s an interesting point that he took he baby and adds it to a life span of 30 therefore robbing it of those years
“By recasting her brain in the mothers body I shortened her life as deliberately as if I stabbed her to death at 40 or 50”
But I took the years of the start not the ending of her life a much more vicious thing to do”
“Selfish greed and impatience drive me”
“I also doubt if the woman who chloeiformed me will be anyone’s helpless play thing, maybe we should pity Dunkin’ “
- True she is a little scary
I find the two eccentric men living together for company kind of wholesome
And yes it is fascinating to think of why I must be like to be a baby and wake up in a fully devilled adult body like baxter mentioned already experiments menstrual cycle not feeling any disgust about it, not being afraid of people because never had a phase of being smaller than others
“The. The following months were perhaps the pleasantest I’ve known”
Forget Bella I’m way more fascinated by what’s going on with Baxter like why does he have so much medical issues that sound like he was thrown together or something? Was he? Is that what he meant by improving his fathers methods by creating Bella?
“There must be something dreadful to worry about if she tells me not to do it?”
Dunkin is odd but I’d never thought about novels having kinks specifically for working class women I mean I be levied that probably did truly happen
Haha engaged to another glad to see him played
She clearly knows how to get what she wants or how to go about doing it herself while people are sleeping
Hmm interesting she doesn’t sleep? Or sleeps very little and has a lot of energy and obviously high libido
“From then on until the day I escaped I was a man of straw and her helpless play thing”
- Well they predicted they should pity him instead of Bella and we’re right
“I will now skip 6 pages of superstitious dribble”
- Thank god
Well at least she payed him for all the fun he gave her lol
His Bible evidence was pretty funny like by the last one he just gave up and said they’d figure out together
Yeah he clearly liked her and ended up disappointed but he also was wicked and got what he deserved a little bit by being so pathetic and wanting to use others and to be creating fantasies that they must be evil when they tune it around and are the ones to use him
“Can we do nothing to save that poor fellas sanity?”
“Nothing”
- I mean nice of them to be so sympathetic.
“Forgive my excitement you cannot share it because you’ve never been a parent, have never made something new and splendid it is wonderful for a creator to see the offspring live, feel and act independently”
“I read genesis 3 years ago and could not understand god’s displeasure when eve and Adam chose to know good and evil, chose to be god like, that should have been his proudest hour”
“They deliberately disobeyed him, he had given them life and everything they could enjoy, everything on earth, except two forbidden trees those were sacred mysteries whose fruit did harm Nothing but perverse greed made them eat it”
“Only bad religions depend on mysteries, just as bad governments depend on secret police, truth, beauty and goodness are not mysterious, they are the commonest, most obvious most essential facts of life”
- Yeah the whole chapter (chapter 13) is pretty full of religious debate which was interesting
At this point good sign it’s an engaging story as I’m looking forward to liking it back up even as the chapters get longer I don’t mind
“Love (he) thinks only deserves the name when men insert their middle footless leg”
I’m just thinking as her letter goes on whether she is a completely reliable narrator?
“To me the place stank like a Roman game where tortured minds not bodies were the show”
Very different perspective of events, so she didn’t have a surplus of energy was just mostly sleep walking?
“Is this because like me they have very little past” in relation to feeling comfortable especially in Russia and the USA
I hate gambling
Chapter 15- another interesting religion debate between an American and an Englishman on a ship
“But the holiest bit of god is movement, because it keeps stirring things to make new ones, movement turns dead dogs into maggots and daises”
“But we are both glad you find the world a classic and happy place” this was sweet of him
“Not many English can be regarded as natives because we have a romantic preference for other people’s soils”
God that American is insufferable what a superiority complex “duty to teach them” please gimme me a break - sickening to listen to wanting Anglo- Saxon domination
A lot more of the bevel is spend with her being independent than I thought it would and I’m glad of that I’m glad it is more focused on her and they (two men who feel entitled to her) can only sit and read without interfering
Damm girl another marriage proposal
God it’s getting a bit boring with the constant monologuing without anything actually happening plot wise I don’t care what this guys opinions are
Her timeline of events are way longer
It’s nice she wants to improve the world and only wants to marry someone who also wants that but I feel like candle is a lot more bitter about that sort of thing and they might end up being incompatible
It’s nice she’s getting a female friend
Working as a living will be a good change for her and help even more with her development
This book isn’t what I expected I thought there would be more violence, maybe even murder, there is swearing and sexual references
So she’s become a prostitute
Given she’s only been alive for technically 3 years memory wise and developing from a baby brain for most of that I’m surprised she knows and makes so many literary references surely she’s not had time to read Shakespeare id Hugo, etc
“The cause was my own ignorance, will I ever reach the end of it?”
Part that I don’t like is that it’s a little similar to around the world in 80 days where there feels like a lack of stakes cause every probable is solved by either throwing money at it or having good connections “friends” to go crying to who offer assistance?
So he’s just setting up fake hypnotherapy but wants funding for it?
How does he not have an answer prepared for the baby questions?
“Half his brain was trying to tell Bella the truth about her origin, the other half was appalled by the attempt”
- I mean their technically lying because their not saying the whole truth keeping it concealed
Eh they should just be a throuple
It’s good she wants to become a doctor, but what’s left plot wise? there’s like 1/3 of the book left
“I need cuddles more than weddings nowadays”
- Bundleing
It’s good that she wants to make a plan for her future life and put hard work in to get the skills to help people, it’s admirable and needed, it’s nice she has support like a lot of support already knows 2 doctors, bunch of money behind her plans to put her husband in a government Position, class privileges, it is very cool for her to be the first female doctor
He’s an atheist? Is Godwin an atheist also?
Married on a Victorian Christmas Day that’s a vibe
Oh shit! an objections it’s getting juicy, again I’m say with popcorn haha, I wasn’t expecting her past to come into it but now I’m intrigued how it works surely she has to stay married to him? To every else seems like she’s just eloped or something they don’t know that’s she technically died
Ooh she’s going to learn the truth (I doubt the whole truth just that she isn’t really Godwin’s niece) I feel she will despise both of them for a little bit but then come around
Now I know where the Victoria part comes from
Why am I getting a full Wikipedia page of this general??
She’s does have a strange ability of getting people to spill their guts to her - which is good for a novel lol
Erotimania? Oh every night of the week how dare she, psssh please why is he even chasing her done then if he found her so clingy, god just shows what women had to put up with, treated as hysterical is the pendulum swung too much in one direction
“No normal healthy woman, no good or sane woman, wants or expects to enjoy sexual contact except as a duty”
- Well someone is exposing he’s never succeeded at pleasuring a woman lol
God, I can’t even imagine why it would have been like to of been institutionalised, how awful the conditions would have been
Aww he called himself Godwin’s best friend
What a shit he had a mistress? Then locked her in a coal cellar and there all here arguing about dragging her back when Baxter is giving them ample opportunity to drop the whole mess
The one thing I will say is that there isn’t much mad scone in the book, like the story could be pretty much exactly the same if she had been simply a woman with amnesia? Which isn’t as intriguing I like mad unethical science in books I kind of wanted more of it
It’s nice to see the charity of her old self is still the same she still seems so kind as the old her before the memory loss
Her dad is just awful
I feel a bit relieved she doesn’t hate them both seeing how much worse the other men are
I was gonna say I’m surprised he’s taking it so well
Very brave I’m glad story wise that she saved the day and didn’t have candle save her
Oooooh shit, he’s the weird guy from the brothel with the fetish that’s a good tie in
- Impressive of the author to only give that one scene but make it so memorable the reader pieces it all together instantly
“Fuck off you poor daft, silly, queer, rotten old fucker”
- Damm that’s some language
Well it’s a hit convenient he just died but works out for them, it’s so interesting to think how hard it used to be for woman to leave these contact acts (marriages) I’m glad how far we’ve progressed
Well clearly he does have more to tell there are 2 hours left
It’s nice he’s so supportive of his wife being more successful especially for those times
And it’s nice he grew to genuinely think highly of Godwin
Good advice, “he also pointed out the flaws in what she planned, not to stop her seeking better ways but to help her make them practical”
“Never be violent with them and never preach” it’s a shame Godwin couldn’t live long enough to be an uncle/grandfather figure
- Him dying is actually pretty sad
“In due course, I and my wife who are very upset by his death can join him there, and so can all our children and grandchildren, I’d they make room for themselves by getting cremated”
I guess I expected more explanation from Baxter before he died about why he was such a medical mystery?
The end? There’s still an hour and 55 minutes left
Ooh yes the letter I forgot about that
Wait he died 1911? How long did she live after that?
Quite the tone shift, says she only married him out of convenience and seems very unimpressed by how he spends his time and hush writing it’s kind of sad
Had he not used Baxter’s money to buy the idleness he mistook for freedom”
- This feels like something that couldn’t possibly f just been solved with a conversation instead of letting the resentment build?
“Having fulfilled his mothers ambition by joining the middle class, he had no wish to reform it from the inside, no wish to help the labouring class reform us, and themselves from the outside”
She does sound very practical and no nonsense now
“I stayed beside him though I could of done more good at other bedsides, never mind I may want company in my own last days so I am glad I did not refuse it to him”
Ooh I wasn’t expecting to get her side like this it’s really cool
- I wonder if it is her writing this letter after having read the book that is colouring her feeling towards him in retrospect a little sourly??
Oh she does have her memory??
Jesus the story for her crack is very different I can see why a story is f memory loss caused by something else would offend her
“I do not know if she was able to read but if she ever saw me with a book, it was snatched away because girls need no excuses for idleness”
Good how heartless to not even care about losing 5 children, and to become rich and tell your wife you change who she is entirely
So she did love blessington? “I felt truly happy on my wedding day”
- She was begging for a cliterectemia
What?? This changes everything!
“So one afternoon I was visited by the only man I have truly loved Godwin Baxter” “why did my 2nd husband describe Godwin as a monster?”
- Yes why?
“I repeat and emphasise it, all women at first sight felt safe and at peace with him”
“But leave me alone if possible lady blessington”
- This series of events makes it seem the opposite where it is “Bella” who is much more into Baxter than the other way round
“Was ever surgeon in this manner woo’d, was ever surgeon in this manner won?, the last possible moment came 2 months later and I was not pregnant, and had never considered leaping from a bridge when I arrived in Glasgow”
- Is it weird that it kind of feels surreal that the story is being rewritten after I’ve spent so long set with it being one way like I knew at the start she had a letter contesting the book but I figured she was only offended by the baby brain part I wasn’t expecting this extent rearranging the story within a story
- It just kind of feels like I’ve started reading an entirely new book and am struggling to connect it to what’s already in my head, the characters I thought I had grown attached to?
Mrs dimwitty is his mother? I like that he treat her well
So they made up the story together, about the train and amnesia
“No Bella they seem in different world because you met them far apart”
Dunkin’ took her to the theatre because “god could not do that he had a fear of crowds”
Starting reading “I wanted nobody but god to teach me with him learning was a surprising meal”
Very different first introduction of candle haha no wonder she was offended by the book
“I did not seem him again for a very long time and certainly did not want to” haha
“There was only one source of misery in those happy happy days, god would not let me seduce him”
“I loved him with all my heart, and all my mind, and all my soul and so wanted to convert him to humanity”
“Then I will become a doctor and cure you”
- Aww
- I actualy really like this book, I’m a little surepirisef but it’s weird and philosophical, and progressive and dramatic, reminds me of a classic play lot of twists and eccentricity but also a lot of vulnerability
“So you need not become a doctor on my account”
“Then I will become a doctor on the world’s account” I declared between sobs, “I will save some people’s lives if not yours, I will replace you, I will become you”
- Beautifully tragic
- I don’t like that he suggests he would “first like to see her equipped with a useful husband before becoming a doctor” = just terrible advice clearly now she needs to marry for live to be happy? Doesn’t he want her to be happy?
“Starvation shall be my husband if you will not”
“I had never been kissed by a man before my only amorous pleasures had been a sapphic affair with my piano teacher in (place), I would of loved her till the end of time, but alas she loved too many others for my selfish taste”
Okay so the elopement did happen and she does come across as pretty self centred and cruel for doing it
“But it was I who took it from him and after pressing my lips to my beloved’s in the only kiss we ever shared, put my arm behind his head and helped him drink”
- So she was the person that killed
- “So you dear read have two accounts to choose between”
“Driven by carefully hidden envy”
“Unluckily my Archie envied the only two people he loved, the only two who could tolerate him”
“Most of all he envied the care and company god gave me, and the strength of my love for god and hated the face that the most we felt for him was friendly good will tempered on my side with sensual indulgence, so in his last months he soothed himself by imaging a world, where he and god and I existed in perfect equality”
“I realise I am taking it too seriously but I am thankful to have served into the 20th century”
- I mean the other just ripping apart his own story by saying it stinks of Victorian-ism and listing off inspiration
Damm she was optimistic about the socialist revolution
The notes are a bit much the fact the author (I know it’s a persona for the story) thinks it’s true makes me believe Victoria’s version more
- Is that Kipling poem real?
- How much history in this is fact?
“I have described these four worthless books in detail, to discourage others from wasting time on them, they do however prove that dr (name) had no creative imagination or ear for dialogue so must of copied poor things out of highly details diary notes”
- Damm man bit harsh can’t he of just honed his craft, been struck by inspiration?
“I have a very good wife in my husband”
Journalists didn’t take it well then
Yes girl, active suffragette, oh so sad her sons died in a war she opposed
Ah ewww noooo she started believing in Freud!!! Fucking citing the Oedipus complex? Ew seriously?
She had affairs?
Damm being accused of incest is harsh
Court drama
Renting room to uni students while works in the basement - it’s sad to think how life goes on as you get older with no one to remember and just waiting it out basically
Damm she’s still alive in 1945?
“Leave that me alone I am going to die happy”
- Books basically a political history of Victorian Scotland discussed as a fantastical gothic drama
1946 - only 66years old, okay 92 makes way more sense
- Wit does the ending reveal it? That her body was 92? But her brain was 66? So candles’s version was true?
I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed toward the end and the more it went on I found myself feeling more drained and confused?
- Maybe like the book was trying to be too many things at once? So therefore sacrificing an intriguing, entertaining, engaging story?
- I feel it could of ended pretty naturally at Baxter’s death
But maybe just tired I’ll give it a proper rating and overall review after I sleep on it
it was more a historical political commentary on classism in Victorian Scotland just disguised as a fantastical, gothic drama
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was such a brilliant book! I absolutely adored it (and the film really did do it justice!)
The character exploration of Bella developing from being brought back to life, learning about the world and exploring her potential was truly incredible. The characters were so well described and were so intriguing. I really enjoyed going along with Bella on her journey, I felt that I was there with her experiencing the world for the first time.
The character exploration of Bella developing from being brought back to life, learning about the world and exploring her potential was truly incredible. The characters were so well described and were so intriguing. I really enjoyed going along with Bella on her journey, I felt that I was there with her experiencing the world for the first time.
Never has a book made me appreciate its film adaption more. Yorgos Lanthimos made one of my favorite films of all time, while Alasdair Gray provided an enjoyable text until its final part when I became irate. I'm too much of an idealist, I guess; in my world, there is no scenario in which Bella Baxter was ~faking it, whadda waste *blows the biggest raspberry*
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-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
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is definitely a post-modern Frankenstein! The storyline was rather interesting, especially at the end where Victoria's letter disproves the entire book, or does it? That's the thing, you can't be sure and I found that intriguing! The only critique I have is that it felt dragging at times as the story seemed to be going nowhere of importance, such as Wilderburn's letter and a large chunk of the historical notes. Except that, it was quite enjoyable!