Reviews

I loved this book until the end, which fell flat for me. I wanted the conclusion to be somehow more than “I went to an island to be alone and write a novel, and when the novel failed I learned I had really written a book about going to an island to be alone and write a novel, and guess what?? It’s THIS book.” But also: I really truly loved this book, up until her very last days on Bleaker Island.

j0annasolomon's review

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adventurous reflective medium-paced

4.0

macfiar's review against another edition

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1.0

This gets 1 stars only because the writing was good. I was tempted to leave it unrated. The idea that someone can go to a place outside of their regular routine for an extended length of time and emerge on the other side with a fully written novel is such a teenage romantic thing to think, that the book reads strangely. It is a conglomeration of her romantics, novel-writing dreams, descriptions of the Falklands, bits of prose that do not add up to a novel, and tables that describe stuff she is interested in keeping track of but I had no interest in whatever. What's supposed to be a way to keep herself from procrastinating ends up bring a sort of celebration of procrastination while at the same time, the author believes she's not. The writing is beautiful and the scene about finding the internet was hilarious but overall this book wastes everyone's time. I'm surprised anyone wanted to publish this.

ssbasile's review against another edition

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5.0

I first heard of this book last year and have been anticipating it ever since. I ended up reading it over the course of a day and was not disappointed. The concept intrigued me and while it was different than I expected, I truly enjoyed the format- stream of consciousness narrative sprinkled with examples of the author's short story fiction, as well as portions of the novel she intended to write during her time on Bleaker. Bleaker Island itself becomes a character throughout Stevens' account and the juxtaposition of her narrative to Esther's narrative in Bleak House was especially poignant. I found that a large part of my connection to this book was on a personal level, as a 27(ish) year old woman who also finds herself in need of some substantial changes in life.

tunamunki's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.5

waybeyondblue's review

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adventurous funny inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

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