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readingbrb's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Deadnaming
Minor: Suicide, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, and War
hannahbailey's review against another edition
dnf @ 45%.
Usually I catch myself a lot earlier persisting with a text I’m not enjoying, but the short vignettes kept me hopeful that the pace would pick up. This was an idea that should’ve been captivating, but sadly it was tedious and clunky to read. Exploring female artists throughout history and connecting them in fiction sounds like a great idea, but when they’re mostly aristocratic white women spouting Ancient Greek there’s a lot less for me to empathise with.
This may appeal to classicists and European historians who understand all the Ancient Greek references — unfortunately my IQ isn’t high enough for this one.
Usually I catch myself a lot earlier persisting with a text I’m not enjoying, but the short vignettes kept me hopeful that the pace would pick up. This was an idea that should’ve been captivating, but sadly it was tedious and clunky to read. Exploring female artists throughout history and connecting them in fiction sounds like a great idea, but when they’re mostly aristocratic white women spouting Ancient Greek there’s a lot less for me to empathise with.
This may appeal to classicists and European historians who understand all the Ancient Greek references — unfortunately my IQ isn’t high enough for this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Homophobia, and Violence
mothie_girlie's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Misogyny, and Lesbophobia
thebankofbooks's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide attempt, Death, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Confinement, Drug use, Hate crime, Suicide, War, and Mental illness
booking_along's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
this is so different and strange but somehow worked very well for me and dragged me in and along for the ride this book was.
it was such an unexpected read in all ways a book can be.
it was an emotional read, i felt for the women, was yet again reminded that i just can’t understand our history and still continues fight of women being seen as human beings and at least as worth of being treated as such by men as men seem and deemed themselves as.
the different characters were fantastic even if i can’t really explain way?
the writing was strange but worked and it’s just… this book is an experience that you just have to be willing to go along with and let yourself be swept up in.
i honestly can not understand why this wasn’t shortlisted for the 2022 book but especially “treacle walker” was.
but k am very thankful for the long lost to have brought it to my attention since i didn’t even know about it or hear about it before that!
it was such an unexpected read in all ways a book can be.
it was an emotional read, i felt for the women, was yet again reminded that i just can’t understand our history and still continues fight of women being seen as human beings and at least as worth of being treated as such by men as men seem and deemed themselves as.
the different characters were fantastic even if i can’t really explain way?
the writing was strange but worked and it’s just… this book is an experience that you just have to be willing to go along with and let yourself be swept up in.
i honestly can not understand why this wasn’t shortlisted for the 2022 book but especially “treacle walker” was.
but k am very thankful for the long lost to have brought it to my attention since i didn’t even know about it or hear about it before that!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Homophobia, War, Lesbophobia, and Sexism
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
After Sappho, arguably the most experimental of the Booker longlisted novels, won’t be for every reader. I, however, was fascinated by this collective, speculative, interlinked biography of some incredibly creative, unconventional, fiercely intelligent, and queer women, which spans the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Given the title and the connections with Sappho the fragmentary nature of this work, where snippets of different lives interweave with each other, seems appropriate. While some of the women featured in this book were already familiar to me - Virginia Woolf, Isadora Duncan - many were women I’d never heard of, which tells you something about the fate of women in the historical record and the fact that I’m less familiar with women from continental Europe than those from the US and UK. I’m sure there will be much debate about the women who weren’t included - this book is very white. Obviously I loved learning about their lives, and happily spent time Googling, not because I had to in order to understand the book, but because it inspired me to learn more. The way in which these women expressed themselves whether through dance, writing or painting, they way they discussed and debated ideas in salons, and especially they way they pushed back against the social mores and laws of the day which attempted to limit what they could do and how they could live was inspiring. As was the support they gave to each other and the love - platonic, romantic and sexual- that they shared. I also loved the use of first person plural, a really effective way of including the reader in the story, emphasising that the women featured were not the only ones but were actually part of a larger whole, and encouraging the reader to continue their legacy. This book is meticulously researched so in many ways it reads like non-fiction. Yet its fragmentary nature and the prose itself give it a poetic feel. These two statements sound contradictory yet the reading experience was never jarring. Rather it was a joyous (deliberately so), feminist, inspiring, genre-bending delight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Lesbophobia, Misogyny, and Sexism
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