Reviews - Prodigal Summer | The StoryGraph

1.75k reviews for:

Prodigal Summer

Barbara Kingsolver

4.06 AVERAGE

bellasnider's review

4.5

hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

I enjoy Kingsolver so much because she effectively writes the setting as a character. She breathes life into the natural world, combining biology with a sense of mysticism, allowing it to reflect the essential nature of the characters. The way she captures womanhood and its inner dialogues reminds us to listen to our inner wisdom imbued by nature, not to societal expectations. Though the characters are written to be redeemable, I was struggling to redeem some of their flaws. An emotional, inspiring, informative book that I enjoyed reading.

anne_reader's review against another edition

5.0

hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-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

katierich's review

4.0

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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

satanstan's review

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Content Warnings

readersjs's review

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

mimima's review

4.0

emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

This book is having a moment in 2025 – and is in fact, a Community Read for MMD. Having loved Kingsolver since the 1990s, I bought it new and read it often in those early years of having it, though hadn’t returned since probably 2009 or so . While I’d forgotten how Open Door it is (in fact, in a non-fiction, Kingsolver tells a story of being newly married and writing more Open Door than circumspect,) and it took me a bit to get into the rhythm of her writing again, but I found it was as absorbing and meaningful as before