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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
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:
Complicated
I really loved this book. There are definitely some issues. I think that some of the fairytales interjected throughout the book can make the story disjointed. There’s also a chapter in the book that felt like more like the author thoughts than Jeanette’s. There were a couple funny moments in this the book that made me laugh. I loved Jeanette’s character growth. She became more confident and stood up for herself. This book is really relatable even if you didn’t grow up in an extremely religious family like Jeanette. The ending was also really relatable and realistic in terms of mother daughter relationships.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault
Minor: Racial slurs
This book really captures the loneliness of lesbianism and the alienation of people deemed sinners from religious communities. It’s quite sad, but good, and also comforting.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
big day for mentally ill lesbian william blake fans.
safe to say that this was a great book to start the year with
safe to say that this was a great book to start the year with
“my mother had painted the white roses red and now she claimed they grew that way” THE SERVE BITCH
“At that time I could not imagine what would become of me, and I didn’t care. It was not judgement day, but another morning” BITCHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
“At that time I could not imagine what would become of me, and I didn’t care. It was not judgement day, but another morning” BITCHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I read this book years ago in a graduate seminar and don't remember much of the details. But I do remember that it generated lots of good conversation.
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
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:
Complicated
- I loved the introduction and thought it would turn out to be a new favourite. Although I liked it as a whole, I was a little disappointed
- there is a short middle chapter (Deuteronomy) that is explorative about our human understanding of history and memories that I thought was fantastic and very thought-provoking - "suck out the spirit until it looks the way you think it should"
- "History is a string full of knots, the best you can do is admire it" - points at the 'real truth' of a past as mythical. You can only see the past as you are! Through your perceptions, narratives, and experiences. More so, how we can tamper and play with it, often to suit our current narrative. Memories are a distortion through our own lens, never wholly shared.
- though sad, I also enjoyed the ending - "not for a man, because they want to be the destroyer and never be destroyed". If you haven't realised yet this is a lesbian book, though a young wlw love is written about very sweetly it quickly becomes soured by the evangelical Christian backdrop. Post this and moving away, Jeanette - "I kept looking at her, and wondering how we ever had a relationship; yet when she first left me, I thought I had blood poisoning"
- I guess my issue with the book was the slow narratives between. Potentially the heavy religiousness, which even the protagonist is heavily entwined in, bored me a little
- I liked her original writings on the human condition
- reading the book is cyclical and spirally, running into history and back again and into could have been histories - "I really don't see the point of reading in straight lines. We don't think like that and we don't live like that." Hence, the book was filled with side stories and anecdotes, though I didn't catch the relevance of many of them
- there is a short middle chapter (Deuteronomy) that is explorative about our human understanding of history and memories that I thought was fantastic and very thought-provoking - "suck out the spirit until it looks the way you think it should"
- "History is a string full of knots, the best you can do is admire it" - points at the 'real truth' of a past as mythical. You can only see the past as you are! Through your perceptions, narratives, and experiences. More so, how we can tamper and play with it, often to suit our current narrative. Memories are a distortion through our own lens, never wholly shared.
- though sad, I also enjoyed the ending - "not for a man, because they want to be the destroyer and never be destroyed". If you haven't realised yet this is a lesbian book, though a young wlw love is written about very sweetly it quickly becomes soured by the evangelical Christian backdrop. Post this and moving away, Jeanette - "I kept looking at her, and wondering how we ever had a relationship; yet when she first left me, I thought I had blood poisoning"
- I guess my issue with the book was the slow narratives between. Potentially the heavy religiousness, which even the protagonist is heavily entwined in, bored me a little
- I liked her original writings on the human condition
- reading the book is cyclical and spirally, running into history and back again and into could have been histories - "I really don't see the point of reading in straight lines. We don't think like that and we don't live like that." Hence, the book was filled with side stories and anecdotes, though I didn't catch the relevance of many of them
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Den är bra! Men jag blir lite förvirrad av sagoinslagen ibland, och jag tyckte det gick långsamt. Man får veta vad som ska hända genom att läsa beskrivningen av boken men behöver vänta ut 4/5 av boken tills det händer. Så seg. Men ändå bra och fin.
I enjoyed the subject and ideas as well as the way things were described. The author really paints a picture and there a lot of funny moments where you can totally imagine the situation. Unfortunately for me though, the writing sometimes seemed scattered to the point that I lost the thread and it felt like a struggle to get through certain sections. Overall an enjoyable and interesting read though.