emcadena 's review for:

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

4.5

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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YES!!! GIMME A WOMAN STUCK IN SOCIETAL DOOM TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHO SHE IS. Reading about a mother who ultimately loves her kids but feels like she’s not meant to be a mother and only did it out of pressure was heartbreaking and a little bit too close to home for me. This book was so easy to read despite being written in the 1890s. And also some of the topics I was like “oh how MODERN of you!”. The ending disappointed me just because I’m in a point in time where these advances in a women’s life isn’t so taboo, but I guess a book written at that point could only go one way. An argument could be made that any woman experiencing such cognitive dissonance would end the way it did but idk struck me as a let down. Also: there is racism in this book durrrrr. Nothing too jarring and nothing coming from the main character but once again there has to be a recognition that it was written in the later 1890s.