Reviews with content warning for Cancer - Written on the Body

Likes: The writing is undeniably beautiful. There were so many passages that I underlined and absolutely see my self going back to and enjoying. I liked the ambiguity of the narrator a lot. Jeanette Winterson is a lesbian and even though the lead character's gender, name, race, etc. are never revealed you can still sense the fact that this is a queer character because of the way that they interact with the world and their lovers. I also enjoyed the first few chapters of the book a lot.
• Dislikes: The plot of the book and the ending really fell flat for me. Things just ended out of the blue with seemingly no explanation and sometimes that's ok but because this story is about a romance having and ending like that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I also feel like even though the beginning really caught me the rest of the book failed to keep my attention (I actually ended skimming some sections towards the end).
• REP: The lead character is bisexual and all the characters that are named are white as far as I know. One thing that struck me as a possible issue is that the villain of the story is a Jewish man. I am not Jewish so I cannot say that the depiction of him was anti-Semitic, however, the trope of the Jewish or Jewish coded villain is so common I felt it needed to be mentioned. I highly recommend trying to seek out reviews for this book by Jewish readers to find out more.
• Final Thoughts: I really just think this book was not for me. I wouldn't discourage people from reading it but it may not be your cup of tea. However, Winterson's writing is beautiful and I own another book of hers that I got for a class at Uni so I might give her another shot and see how I feel.

Content Warnings

annaonthepage's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

dxisymitch's review

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I have mixed feelings about this book. For the most part I found the narrator unlikable and the way they talked about women and their past relationships was uncomfortable and often times misogynistic. The book was also very slow paced and primarily exposition, which I personally dislike as I find it difficult to follow (though I know that’s down to personal taste).
However, I did find the book somewhat enjoyable and I found the unique storytelling and structure to be very interesting. I also felt like the narrator does, in some ways, redeem themselves and grows from some of the things that bothered me about them in the beginning.

Content Warnings

gloomylamp's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective

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? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

clem's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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