1.9k reviews for:

Χειμώνας

Ali Smith

3.84 AVERAGE

challenging informative reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

very sweet, good n’ complicated sister relationship happening here

audiobook
reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I don't know if I "got it," but I really enjoyed this. The writing was beautiful and the intergenerational aspect was compelling. Each situation had just enough oddness to stay moored to reality.

I loved, loved, loved this text's ethereal connection to Autumn, one of my favorite 2017 reads.

The characters in this story are, each, unforgettable in their own right. While their relationships with one another were strained and capitalized by estrangement, as one might expect given the season, there was a fluidity between the way they actually *related* to each other that matched the ethereal changing of the seasons.

Perhaps what I find most captivating, if not straight up charming, is the kind of hazy and inexact mood of Smith's work. Within her work, she builds up contexts and situations that should, and sometimes do, engender one thing while meaning something quite different. I guess what I mean is that as I read each sentence, there always seems to be about 10% of it that I don't get or won't understand and rather than hinder my enjoyment or understanding of the novel, it actually contributes to my experience of it.

Well this was a jolly jape of a read. I have no idea what it signifies, if anything, but I let myself go with it and was carried along in nice aromatherapeutic waves. The character of Lux was fantastic and beautiful and I fell in love with her, but then Smith provided her (immigrant) back story and such heavy dose of reality somewhat shattered my ethereal image of the girl named after 'light'. I did like the effortless way Smith moves through time, using shared echoes of events and feelings to pilot us. The usual female artist (in this case Barbara Hepworth) only gets introduced 2/3 of the way in and doesn't take up too much space, so we can forgive that trope. And that's it, not much else to say, although the Greenham Common (anti-nuclear protest from the 1980s) stuff was good too, if a bit unmoored to anything else.

This was written in a very similar style to "Autumn" and has some crossover in social-cultural-political themes. Overall, I think the meanderings of this volume feel more "in season" than those in Autumn and the work feels more internally cohesive. 
challenging reflective 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: Yes

Helmet-lukuhaasteen 2025 kohtaan 47. Kaksi kirjaa, joissa on samannimiset päähenkilöt.
emotional hopeful reflective 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: Yes