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leafyshivers 's review for:

Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood
5.0

there are two kinds of readers: those who adore margaret atwood and those who haven't finished anything she's written. i'm kidding, of course; i can objectively understand why some don't enjoy her style – i'm in the former camp, and at this point i've loved enough of her books and other work that i may not be critical enough anymore. but most everything else feels so lacklustre in comparison that, like joan sneaking off to be with the royal porcupine, i can't care if it's wrong.

joan foster's narrative reads as far more than a portrait of the 'authoress' as a young lady, or oracle, or both. her thoughts and decisions are, oh forgive me, relatable -- , but her skin is also too real and imperfect for me to simply slip into, like the bella swan-girls she invents for her costume gothics. the theme of writing- or reading-as-escape is more inventively handled than i find it usually is; here the escape through creation is both figurative and literal. joan is both shadows and substance, and i am grateful that it's not just me. and does she get the happy ending that she repeatedly tells us she longs for? it's hard to say.