Reviews - Tin Man | The StoryGraph

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3.22k reviews for:

Tin Man

Sarah Winman

4.03 AVERAGE

chloelouisestott's review against another edition

2.5

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

teabooksandbreathe's review against another edition

5.0

emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

conor27's review against another edition

First ever DNF i think!! So boring and hated the Backman-adjacent style of writing

_mhewlett's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

jayisreading's review against another edition

3.0

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

This was a quiet novel focusing on the somewhat complicated relationship between Ellis, Michael, and Annie. I say complicated in the sense that the relationship between Ellis and Michael in particular wasn’t exactly defined, other than that there was an intense intimacy between the two that somewhat fell apart as they grew older. Told first from the perspective of Ellis, followed by a more intimate perspective from Michael (which I think was a result of it being told in the first person), the reader saw the wonders and tensions of love in every sense of the word through their narratives during the 1980s and 1990s in the United Kingdom (and France, for some moments).

I found that I was most invested in Michael’s section, especially to see how he made sense of his identity as a gay man during the AIDS epidemic. Unfortunately, I felt that his section wasn’t nearly as developed as it could have been, though, to be frank, I feel that the novel overall wasn’t as developed as I had hoped. Given the shortness of this novel, I think Winman could have taken more time to flesh out her characters more to really dig into their interiorities and, of course, their relationships with one another. While the prose was beautiful, I was a bit let down by the fact that there wasn’t depth in the content to make the writing really shine.

It seems like this novel worked really well for many other readers, but I found myself wanting a little more than what was given.

Content Warnings