Reviews with content warning for Violence - Old Babes in the Wood

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood

2 reviews

reba_reads_books's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

This book is thematically <i>all over the place</i> (other reviewers have said the exact opposite, so take or leave my opinion). I'm sad to say the audiobook narration with multiple voice actors didn't serve its likely intended purpose of comparing/contrasting the stories; still, I was bored, mostly because there's scant dialogue, setting, or plot in Atwood's writing here--it was as if I was floating in a salt bath of introspective moments in time. I enjoy that feeling in flash fiction, not in stories that require an hour of reading a piece. Hell, maybe it's me. Maybe I keep trying acclaimed literature when what I really enjoy is genre fiction with reliable structure and resolution. Either way, I DNF at the clamshell story specifically. I can understand what Atwood was going for with it, but it came across as violent pornography for pornography's sake to me. Again, my opinion, one that is much easier to disagree with in a literary discussion, so I'll chalk this collection up to not for me.

Content Warnings

skudiklier's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

So I know semi recently Atwood was sharing and defending a transphobic article, which was really disappointing to see. I decided to read this anyway, while knowing I was probably going to be more critical of her work in light of that, rather than being inclined to read her more generously. And I do think I would have liked this more if she hadn't done that, because I've liked other works I've read of hers in the past, and used to probably be biased towards thinking whatever she wrote was good.

That said, overall I did like this collection. Some of the stories were more engaging than others, and the one that's just an interview between her and Orwell was by far my least favorite. But I liked both the ones about the "main character" of sorts, though her grief hit a little too close to home at times (for one of them I wrote "fuck. This one is good but I hate it. It would be good to read if. If. I don't want to ever want to read this"), and the ones that were entirely standalone (my favorite was the alien one). I'm not the biggest fan of short story collections in general, if only because it takes me longer to get through them when I'm constantly having to readjust to an entirely new story/world/premise. But overall I did like this book, all things considered.

Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday Books for the chance to read and review this ARC.

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