purechaos's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I did keep reading it because there was a small interest as to what would happen, even though this book is following what could be considered a 'usual every day life'.
Towards the end, I found the final 3 or 4 chapters actually quite interesting. Not something I'd read again, but glad I finished it!
Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Deportation, Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Police brutality, Drug abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Gun violence, Murder, Pregnancy, and Violence
Minor: Misogyny, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Violence, Body shaming, Incest, Pedophilia, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Child death, War, Chronic illness, Deportation, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical content, Miscarriage, Rape, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Vomit, Xenophobia, and Confinement
amaya_jam's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Death, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Trafficking, Vomit, and Slavery
Minor: Child death and Pregnancy
pomegranatepanacea's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Grief and Sexual content
Minor: Incest and Pregnancy
Minor content warnings are mentioned in passing in the novel.kaziaroo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
This was very interesting to read, especially from a 21st century perspective where we are accustomed to the boundaries of the gender binary being pushed, twisted, and ignored in wonderful diversity. We are also mostly familiar with, and accepting of, the gender neutral pronoun "they" being used exclusively to refer to a particular person.
In The Left Hand of Darkness, the main character, Genly Ai, is a poor representative of planet Earth in this respect; he is frequently disgusted by the Gethenians' bodies and attitudes towards sex and constantly tries to fit them and their characteristics into gendered boxes. He refers to the Gethenians using masculine pronouns, and seems to reject their femininity; it is only when one of them cries, or flirts, or is distressed, that he thinks "Ah ha! There is his femininity!" when it has been there all along. Genly's awkwardness around the Gethenians' sex and even his own fumbling description of what defines a woman, paired with the fact that he is the minority, the alien, on this planet, betray the notion that perhaps it is us earthlings who are the silly ones, forcing divides and highlighting differences between genders where there are none, and believing ourselves superior because of it. The Gethenians have no gender, yet they also have so far had no testosterone-fueled war or sexism (although they are not perfect; some parts of the book had strong echoes of 1984). On the other hand, the society of Earth that we see glimpses of is cisnormative and allonormative; at the beginning of the book, Genly cannot fathom a sexless and genderless society
I enjoyed this book a lot, and although I would have liked an earlier explanation of certain concepts (mostly kemmer), once I understood them I could fully immerse myself in the world. The Gethenians' societies and customs felt incredibly detailed and well thought out for such a short novel. It was interesting reading from the perspective of both the alien visitor and the visited, except this time it's us earthlings who are the visitors. I particularly loved the scenes journeying across the icy landscape. I highly recommend this book, but it's important to remember the publication date before complaining about the intricacies of gender politics – it was ahead of its time.
Graphic: Blood, Medical trauma, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Death, Kidnapping, Grief, Incest, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Medical content
Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, Gun violence, Sexism, Excrement, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Pregnancy, Rape, Child death, and War
aurora_noriealis's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
the pacing varies quite a bit throughout.
that said, some of the depictions of cultures and gender are dated, discomforting at times. noting this less as a deterrent and more to bear in mind going into reading.
as someone who doesn't typically read fiction, I greatly enjoyed it.
Graphic: Death, Abandonment, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Sexual content
Minor: War
much of the imagery parallels pieces of the cold war - era states. collectivization, imprisonment, and exile are presented in ways reminiscent of Stalinist and McCarthyist states.quillreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Sexism, Death, and Incest
Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, War, and Miscarriage
smolren's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
Moderate: Blood, Confinement, and Grief
Minor: Drug abuse, Animal death, Vomit, Incest, Suicide, Misogyny, and Sexual content
brothertubber's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Sexual content, Incest, and Suicide
Minor: Rape
jmcampbell57's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Suicide, Sexual content, and Incest
moonytoast's review against another edition
3.0
It’s a very dense, slow sci-fi with long “travelogue” sequences that help to build a richly complex and vivid world while also examining the nature of Gethenian ‘ambisexual’ anatomy. Right off the bat, The Left Hand of Darkness has a dense but lush sense of world-building — similar to Frank Herbert’s Dune,* but with a much preferred writing style.
The narrative is reserved to a primarily first-person perspective that switches between both our Envoy, Genly Ai, and his advocate and eventual traitor-turned-travel-companion, Estraven, with the occasional break in order to provide the reader with certain folklore and stories from the world of Winter. In doing so, it avoids what I would call the Frustrating Omnipotence™ of Frank Herbert, whose writing style tends to lean a bit heavy on telling the reader exactly what each character is thinking in every moment as though we are inside their head and experiencing those thoughts as the character.
That being said: if you’re coming into this story for character work or a more extensive interrogation of how mankind can build connections across different sociological perspectives, then you may be slightly disappointed. Genly Ai and Estraven have an interesting relationship dynamic which morphs throughout the course of the story, but on their own they aren’t the most compelling characters. If you’re not prepared for a VERY, VERY slow burn of a sci-fi book, then you will probably hate this.
Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Torture, and Confinement
Moderate: Body shaming and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Incest, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Suicide