Reviews

Stengudarna by Jeanette Winterson

alyxbrett's review against another edition

reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

rituxa's review against another edition

3.0

there are so many great bits that get unfortunately tangled with pointless abstract and shock value details and scenes that take away from the otherwise great concept of the book.

tsauxghiegh's review against another edition

4.0

A, strangely poetic, sapphic science fiction piece that felt simultaneously bigger than itself and like Groundhog day.

pondaholic's review against another edition

The humor, the timelines, it's quite jolting. It's reminiscent of "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" and reimagines our history like "The Passion," but imaginative of relationships like "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." It pushes the boundaries of our concepts of love, being loved.

Spoiler: (The weird final android head was just weird and off-putting to me...a bit. Well done, but weird...)

kiayaa's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

ladywhiskers's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

ovenbird_reads's review against another edition

5.0

I just finished this a few hours ago and I already want to read it again. Jeanette Winterson is one of my favourite writers ever. When it comes to language use so lovely it hurts, she's the master. This novel reads like a prose poem and there are images in here that I want to go back to, in order to savour them, drink them in. Humans, doomed to repeat their destructive dance in many different times, on many different planets are described in this parable-like tale as creatures that cannot escape their own violent and environmentally catastrophic tendencies. Yet we are also creators of beauty that can make you weep--poetry, music, love that is completely unmoored from gender. Winterson explores what makes us human, what connects us, and what makes our frequently selfish and murderous lives worth living. One segment of this book is told by a baby, first unborn and then in its early days of life, describing its consuming love for the universe that is its mother. Abandoned by this same mother to an orphanage at just 28 days old the child grows into an adult who is forever searching for her lost parent, the one that is made of the very same stuff that she is. It was, perhaps, one of the most moving and terribly beautiful things I have ever read. I think I need to buy this book for my permanent collection. Wish I could give it more than five stars.

And as a PS. I desperately wish that I could get a group of people together to read this aloud. The intensity of the prose demands it!

paveley_poet_prat's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

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

3.25

eletricjb's review against another edition

2.0

Ehhhhh?

asukaluthien's review against another edition

3.0

This book had a very strong start. Fascinating universe, tons of potential....then it fell apart and got very convoluted.