deedireads's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Summer is a fantastic finale to this hopeful, poignant quartet about the kindness of strangers during troubling times. It tied all four books together in a fun, impactful way.
For you if: You like to read stories that fuse excellent characters with astute social commentary.
FULL REVIEW:
Well, friends, my year-long, seasonally timed journey through Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet has come to an end. What a lovely reading experience this has been. (Extra thank you to @caseys_chapters for hosting a fantastic year-long buddy read!)
I’m not British, but from what I have heard and can tell, there’s nobody out there who can capture the modern British experience like Ali Smith. Four books in less than four years — including this one, which came out in August 2020 and yet still had COVID lockdown as a central plot point?? So impressive. I think if I were British and felt that final degree of personal connection to the current events these books comment on, they would have fallen into the LOVE category; as it is, Ali Smith is undeniable, and they’re still firmly in LIKED A LOT.
Summer focuses on a young pair of siblings, the younger of whom is an especially gifted boy whose response to bullying has been a particularly vile form of acting out. Art and Charlotte (from Winter) enter the scene as well. We also get a glimpse into the mind of Daniel (yes, Daniel from Autumn) and his memories of time spent in the German internment camps that England set up during WWII, separated from his beloved half-sister. (The juxtaposition of these memories alongside commentary on Brexit was particularly excellent.)
I absolutely loved coming back to all these great characters and spotting the threads that tied the books together. Given that I read one of these books every three months or so, I’m sure there were plenty I missed as well. Honestly, I’d love to reread these books closer together; someone in the buddy read said they might do that before reading Companion Piece, and I like that idea too.
Thank you, Ali Smith, for this hopeful, poignant quartet about the kindness of strangers during troubling times.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Summer is a fantastic finale to this hopeful, poignant quartet about the kindness of strangers during troubling times. It tied all four books together in a fun, impactful way.
For you if: You like to read stories that fuse excellent characters with astute social commentary.
FULL REVIEW:
Well, friends, my year-long, seasonally timed journey through Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet has come to an end. What a lovely reading experience this has been. (Extra thank you to @caseys_chapters for hosting a fantastic year-long buddy read!)
I’m not British, but from what I have heard and can tell, there’s nobody out there who can capture the modern British experience like Ali Smith. Four books in less than four years — including this one, which came out in August 2020 and yet still had COVID lockdown as a central plot point?? So impressive. I think if I were British and felt that final degree of personal connection to the current events these books comment on, they would have fallen into the LOVE category; as it is, Ali Smith is undeniable, and they’re still firmly in LIKED A LOT.
Summer focuses on a young pair of siblings, the younger of whom is an especially gifted boy whose response to bullying has been a particularly vile form of acting out. Art and Charlotte (from Winter) enter the scene as well. We also get a glimpse into the mind of Daniel (yes, Daniel from Autumn) and his memories of time spent in the German internment camps that England set up during WWII, separated from his beloved half-sister. (The juxtaposition of these memories alongside commentary on Brexit was particularly excellent.)
I absolutely loved coming back to all these great characters and spotting the threads that tied the books together. Given that I read one of these books every three months or so, I’m sure there were plenty I missed as well. Honestly, I’d love to reread these books closer together; someone in the buddy read said they might do that before reading Companion Piece, and I like that idea too.
Thank you, Ali Smith, for this hopeful, poignant quartet about the kindness of strangers during troubling times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Confinement
Moderate: Racism, Bullying, Misogyny, and War
Minor: Abandonment and Pregnancy
amelianotthepilot's review
slow-paced
2.5
the quartet ending with summer is interesting. Years normally start with winter and end with winter but the choice of beginning of fall and ending with summer, the school calendar year, makes more sense to me. summers are slow, steady, heavy, sweltering- and i feel like that is most like later life. and fall is full or change and unrestfullness, shedding skin- like the beginning of life
i didn’t really like this book though. i liked that it tied together some previous characters. but it overall didn’t feel like summer to me and only had a few pages of summer themed prose.
overall not a big fan of this quartet, i don’t understand the hype
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Confinement, Genocide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Antisemitism, and Hate crime
at806's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Alcohol, Violence, War, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Antisemitism, Deportation, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture
ilovebugs's review
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture
Moderate: War and Genocide
katewhite77's review
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
<strong>A meditation on the summer and how the past should inform the present.</strong>
So that we might then inform the future. However we don't seem to be learning from the past so we can't expect the future to take us seriously either.
The above makes this novel sound really dreary but nothing could be further from the the truth, which make the messages it's trying convey all the more powerful.
The words fair dance off the page because of the way Smith plays with time, language, and points of view.
This is a book I plan to listen to again as I think I will get out of it after hearing it but I am glad to have read it first.
So that we might then inform the future. However we don't seem to be learning from the past so we can't expect the future to take us seriously either.
The above makes this novel sound really dreary but nothing could be further from the the truth, which make the messages it's trying convey all the more powerful.
The words fair dance off the page because of the way Smith plays with time, language, and points of view.
This is a book I plan to listen to again as I think I will get out of it after hearing it but I am glad to have read it first.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death and War
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