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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is my first Winterson. Her prose is poetic and witty and deals with the highly sensitive topics of sexuality, religion and family relationships.
amazing stunning wonderful writing. i just love the way winterson writes so much. her experiences with religion and queerness were so interesting to read, and provided a lot of insight into a perspective of religion i had never really considered before. i really want to buy this book so i can annotate it
adored the side stories with winnet and sir perceval
adored the side stories with winnet and sir perceval
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-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
While this was a good novel that put forth another important perspective of the queer experience, to me it felt very familiar which is sad thinking back on it. While reading I could not stop reminding myself of "Boy Erased" a story of a boy from a religious family sent to conversion camp. This made the reading experience feel slightly dragging despite it's low page count. My favourite part was all of the literary allusion in the novel to fairy tales, made up and not as well as wintersons own retelling/rewriting of the Bible and Biblical themes, painting herself as the christ figure and very much mimicking his story line.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Biphobia, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
this is exactly what i wanted in a book omg omg omg. sapphic mc w religious trauma!! just what i needed!! usually while reading things go over my head, but in this book i felt like i understood the symbolism and the purpose for the things like the folktales. peak of the book to me is when jeanette asks if this is what the pastor is talking about when he speaks of unnatural passions and melanie says no, that’s supposed to feel awful so it can’t be. KILLED ME KILLED ME KILLED ME!!!! I WAS THINKING ANOIT THAT FOR DAYS!!! and the fact that when she sees melanie near the end of the book she pretends that it meant nothing. and that historically speaking what happened was insignificant. and the four page chapter about how history is manipulated to fit certain interests and is never accurate. right. also!! love that the chapters of this book are based off the bible i found that very interesting!! to finish this off the part that stuck out to me the most was the brown pebble. i feel like this interpretation could be a bit wrong, but to me it represents living in her moms bleak world. her aura is orange, she’s meant to be vibrant and true (and gay lmao) while her mom lives in a colorless version of the world. after denying herself the pleasure of melanie her orange demon, a manifestation of her desires, throws the brown pebble at her which is meant to symbolize her decision. the only thing i don’t understand is where the pebble went, because they never mentioned her losing it or throwing it or anything, but it’s alright. (i also like that the oranges (im pretty sure) represent her love for women, as her mom is the one who says that oranges are not the only fruit, and it is after she’s out. and her aura is orange. i wondered about the title since i picked it up.)
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
Her style of writing was so different from what I've read before. I liked her incorporation of tales that also aligned with her life, and found many things she said to be relatable.
"Everyone thinks their story is the most tragic. I am no exception." etc.
"Everyone thinks their story is the most tragic. I am no exception." etc.
