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sasstronaut's Reviews (195)
This was so hard for me to read. I only powered through bc it was a book club pick.
I don’t like this writing at all. I also don’t understand where the “magical realism” is supposed to be either. I found the writing hard to follow, as I felt it didn’t flow well at all and I hated reading about the main male character. I didn’t find any of the characters interesting and much of the book felt superfluous to me.
I’ve read and enjoyed generational stories but for some reason I just couldn’t get grasped by this one.
I have heard some say it flows better in the original Spanish, and since that’s a key issue for me, that may be where it’s missed the mark.
All that said, the underlying message of our actions playing out in the long term on a generational scale that we don’t necessarily see come to fruition is excellent and such an important idea for humans in general. I truly like that message, I just wish it had been delivered better.
I don’t like this writing at all. I also don’t understand where the “magical realism” is supposed to be either. I found the writing hard to follow, as I felt it didn’t flow well at all and I hated reading about the main male character. I didn’t find any of the characters interesting and much of the book felt superfluous to me.
I’ve read and enjoyed generational stories but for some reason I just couldn’t get grasped by this one.
I have heard some say it flows better in the original Spanish, and since that’s a key issue for me, that may be where it’s missed the mark.
All that said, the underlying message of our actions playing out in the long term on a generational scale that we don’t necessarily see come to fruition is excellent and such an important idea for humans in general. I truly like that message, I just wish it had been delivered better.
A dystopian future in which most women are infertile and the fertile ones are property.
I liked this much more than I thought I would! The only thing I can say against it is it left me wanting more.
We don’t get much of Gilead as a whole, merely the parts that our main character can see, which, as a handmaid, is very little. What we do see is a world about control of women’s bodies to the extent that we use them as a commodity and try our best to de-humanize them. There is a great surveillance state that serves to keep everyone paranoid of each other and helps to keep any real relationships from forming.
Dystopian novels will always catch my eye and I like that there’s a different way each one plays out. The fact that this is yet another such novel that we can see hints of in our current life is disturbing, but also makes the story so much more thought-provoking and terrifying. I don’t think the purpose of these is to say we will end up this way inevitably, but to look at all the little things that make up the dystopian landscape and realize how insidious all those little pieces can be in the whole scheme of our daily lives.
I liked this much more than I thought I would! The only thing I can say against it is it left me wanting more.
We don’t get much of Gilead as a whole, merely the parts that our main character can see, which, as a handmaid, is very little. What we do see is a world about control of women’s bodies to the extent that we use them as a commodity and try our best to de-humanize them. There is a great surveillance state that serves to keep everyone paranoid of each other and helps to keep any real relationships from forming.
Dystopian novels will always catch my eye and I like that there’s a different way each one plays out. The fact that this is yet another such novel that we can see hints of in our current life is disturbing, but also makes the story so much more thought-provoking and terrifying. I don’t think the purpose of these is to say we will end up this way inevitably, but to look at all the little things that make up the dystopian landscape and realize how insidious all those little pieces can be in the whole scheme of our daily lives.
I kept getting blown away with how recent and relevant this book seemed to me, despite being written in the 90s.
Woodson switches perspectives between the two main characters and bit by bit, we get these layers of depth for each of them. She has a wonderful way of helping me identify with them in ways I never thought I could and shed light on things that I cannot experience. The underlying tones of empathy don’t stop at the two main characters either - there are times when I feel connected to others too, which is very surprising for me in such a short book.
Woodson connects you to that old feeling of young, instant love, and the innate desire to reach out to someone, and how society can make those feelings difficult. Families can be messy. We hold back little things when we’re inexperienced and newly vulnerable. I find this to be such a sweet retelling.
Woodson switches perspectives between the two main characters and bit by bit, we get these layers of depth for each of them. She has a wonderful way of helping me identify with them in ways I never thought I could and shed light on things that I cannot experience. The underlying tones of empathy don’t stop at the two main characters either - there are times when I feel connected to others too, which is very surprising for me in such a short book.
Woodson connects you to that old feeling of young, instant love, and the innate desire to reach out to someone, and how society can make those feelings difficult. Families can be messy. We hold back little things when we’re inexperienced and newly vulnerable. I find this to be such a sweet retelling.
I read half of this book in 2018, and only just got around to this second half - though not for lack of interest. I didn’t ever buy the book for some reason, though I do plan to. All of which is to say that my review will be rather disjointed.
Overall I enjoyed the book very much. I will be adding it to my shelf. The questions and meandering answers take you on a journey of rediscovery of memory - it’s value, use, and improvement. He approaches this topic in a way that is fascinating to me and while I don’t think I’ll be doing any memory competitions anytime soon, it does make me want to improve working memory for hints in my daily life.
Overall I enjoyed the book very much. I will be adding it to my shelf. The questions and meandering answers take you on a journey of rediscovery of memory - it’s value, use, and improvement. He approaches this topic in a way that is fascinating to me and while I don’t think I’ll be doing any memory competitions anytime soon, it does make me want to improve working memory for hints in my daily life.
Right from the start this reminds of a childhood fairytale and it never stops even to the end.
I always love stories like these that bring me into a time of more comfortable uncertainty or resigned acceptance of the unexplainable (or perhaps too dark) things around us. I like the kind of magic present in these books - where words have power and magic can come from belief, both from the caster and the user.
It’s great fun to go with Sophie in her adventures and it shows how extraordinary our lives can be if we make our own way instead of quietly settling into our fate. This is a classic, fun, fairytale, told with peripheral characters and details without the forced arrows pointing you at everything as you go. A wonderful book to while away a weekend.
Once I finished reading I found I missed the characters already, and I kind of want to read it all over again! That hasn’t happened in a long time.
I always love stories like these that bring me into a time of more comfortable uncertainty or resigned acceptance of the unexplainable (or perhaps too dark) things around us. I like the kind of magic present in these books - where words have power and magic can come from belief, both from the caster and the user.
It’s great fun to go with Sophie in her adventures and it shows how extraordinary our lives can be if we make our own way instead of quietly settling into our fate. This is a classic, fun, fairytale, told with peripheral characters and details without the forced arrows pointing you at everything as you go. A wonderful book to while away a weekend.
Once I finished reading I found I missed the characters already, and I kind of want to read it all over again! That hasn’t happened in a long time.
Really enjoyed this book. The look back into early internet days was nostalgic and comparing that emerging tech to the early days of others was very interesting - like most things, progress is contextual.
The writing style further endeared the book to me, as research can be a bit stilted to read but I could feel the excitement she got from researching and writing about this topic and it was never dull. She also throws in some tangential facts here and there, and the overall feeling I got from this book was wanting to get back into linguistics myself.
I’ll be adding this one to my bookshelf.
The writing style further endeared the book to me, as research can be a bit stilted to read but I could feel the excitement she got from researching and writing about this topic and it was never dull. She also throws in some tangential facts here and there, and the overall feeling I got from this book was wanting to get back into linguistics myself.
I’ll be adding this one to my bookshelf.