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morenowagain's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Mental illness, Infidelity, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, Racism, Colonisation, Racial slurs, and Confinement
clevermird's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Wide Sargasso Sea is the latest in my quest to read through the "great classics" of Western literary canon, and it's the first one I can truly say I didn't like.
I should start by getting the elephant in the room out of the way - this book is essentially published Jane Eyre fanfiction. Now, that's not inherently a bad thing. The story makes little secret of it and the premise was intriguing. Who was Rochester's mad wife really? What was her side of the story? Sadly, although it does deliver the promised tale, Wide Sargasso Sea fails to offer much to a reader that they couldn't already have figured out for themself.
Antoinette Cosway lives with her mother and disabled younger brother in the crumbling ruins of their family's estate. When slavery was abolished, the family was plunged into near-poverty and rejected both by the freed slaves (who were understandably resentful of their former masters) and the white community (who saw them as both morally deficient former slave owners and as social inferiors). As she grows, the constant feelings of outcast will weigh down her mind and combine with her husband's own problems and lead to madness, infidelity, and a disaster of marriage that threatens to destroy both of them.
I was really disappointed in this book. I found Antoinette to be irritatingly childish and helpless. I know that the lack of agency she has in her own life is kind of one of the points of the book, but for me it moved past that and into "good grief, woman, stop wringing your hands and do something". Her husband, meanwhile kept oscillating between "very reasonable" and "what on earth is wrong with you?" In the end, rather than a portrait of a woman kept down by a cold and unfeeling man, or a tragedy of two hopelessly mis-matched souls, I wound up almost feeling like they deserved each other.
The reason this book got more than two stars (instead of the 1.5 I would have given it otherwise) is the prose. It's beautiful, dreamy, almost stream-of-consciousness stuff that makes every line interesting to read on its own and really captures the almost fever-dream like nature of the story and the lush tropical setting. However, this proves as much a hindrance as a help, with major events often glossed over in favor of more mood setting. There were several important plot points that I was confused on because the writing style obfuscated them so much.
Overall, a book with a promising start and an enjoyable writing style that fails to offer much of substance or deliver on the promised narrative.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Colonisation, Racial slurs, and Sexism
Moderate: Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Confinement, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Alcohol, Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, and Alcoholism
c_dmckinney's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Cursing, Abandonment, Grief, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Racism, Misogyny, Mental illness, Infidelity, Confinement, Colonisation, Chronic illness, Racial slurs, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Domestic abuse, and Classism
milliemillz's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Colonisation, Mental illness, and Racism
Moderate: Vomit
asmallgremlin's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Racism, Racial slurs, Slavery, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Colonisation
mariebrunelm's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Colonisation
Moderate: Confinement and Toxic relationship
Minor: Animal death, Child death, and Death of parent
edesia_guest's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Racism, Abandonment, Colonisation, Deadnaming, Misogyny, Violence, and Racial slurs
bethsicle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Alcohol, and Classism
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Death of parent
Minor: Blood and Child death
seanml's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Racism, Colonisation, Toxic relationship, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Classism, Slavery, Alcohol, Confinement, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, and Mental illness
Minor: Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
lola_milk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Child death and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Incest and Colonisation