chase_mcl 's review for:

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

3.5

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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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While this was a good novel that put forth another important perspective of the queer experience, to me it felt very familiar which is sad thinking back on it. While reading I could not stop reminding myself of "Boy Erased" a story of a boy from a religious family sent to conversion camp. This made the reading experience feel slightly dragging despite it's low page count. My favourite part was all of the literary allusion in the novel to fairy tales, made up and not as well as wintersons own retelling/rewriting of the Bible and Biblical themes, painting herself as the christ figure and very much mimicking his story line.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Biphobia, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment