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A review by earnestlee
The Yellow WallpaperHerland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
the yellow wallpaper is an easy, obvious 5/5
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herland is... trickier for me. i can't decide how i feel about it. on one hand, it feels overly long and bloated; it could have been half that length. it was also insanely unsubtle and felt like someone's fantasy world loredump at times. but on the other hand, i thought the themes brought up were mostly well-handled, and ones we still need to discuss today. seeing three men with wildly differing views of women prevented the story (or lack thereof) from getting too stale. it was so beautifully cathartic seeing them all get taken down a peg or three. it's not a feeling you get in modern "feminist" works anymore. i don't agree with a lot of the feminist takes presented in this novel - anti-abortion with some whiffs of eugenics? - but it does actually have takes, which third wave feminism is sorely lacking. i'd give herland a 3.5/5, maybe. it's a story that goes nowhere, but clearly has a lot it wants to say. shoutout to ellador she's a baddie
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it feels wrong to rate this collection with a star number. i'm not giving herland 5 stars, but it would be a shame to have the yellow wallpaper listed on my page as not being a 5 star read for me. check it out! and if your copy comes with herland, might as well give that a read too
~
herland is... trickier for me. i can't decide how i feel about it. on one hand, it feels overly long and bloated; it could have been half that length. it was also insanely unsubtle and felt like someone's fantasy world loredump at times. but on the other hand, i thought the themes brought up were mostly well-handled, and ones we still need to discuss today. seeing three men with wildly differing views of women prevented the story (or lack thereof) from getting too stale. it was so beautifully cathartic seeing them all get taken down a peg or three. it's not a feeling you get in modern "feminist" works anymore. i don't agree with a lot of the feminist takes presented in this novel - anti-abortion with some whiffs of eugenics? - but it does actually have takes, which third wave feminism is sorely lacking. i'd give herland a 3.5/5, maybe. it's a story that goes nowhere, but clearly has a lot it wants to say. shoutout to ellador she's a baddie
~
it feels wrong to rate this collection with a star number. i'm not giving herland 5 stars, but it would be a shame to have the yellow wallpaper listed on my page as not being a 5 star read for me. check it out! and if your copy comes with herland, might as well give that a read too