Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Poor Things by Alasdair Gray

35 reviews

xcinnamonsugar's review

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

[Audiobook] This book discusses feminism, sexual autonomy and socialism in the Victorian era. While sex is mentioned frequently, it is almost always alluded to in amusingly polite Victorian slang rather than described explicitly. 

Bella's origin story initially reads like a misogynistic rewrite of Frankenstein. The narrator (Candless) discovers that his doctor friend (Baxter) has resurrected a beautiful 25-year-old woman (Bella) and given her the mental faculties of a literal child.

Candless meets childlike Bella and is instantly smitten, asking her to marry him. Big yuck. Bella also meets playboy/lawyer Wedderburn, who convinces her to let him sneak into her bedroom at night and they eventually elope. Extra big yuck.

It's an uncomfortable narrative for many reasons, not least because there is no shortage of predatory male characters.

As the story progresses, Bella assumes the role of a young child trying to understand the ways of the world, and why its rules promote inequality and exploitation.  She routinely calls out instances of misogyny and colonialism.

One poignant example is when Bella observes that women working in a brothel are healthy when they are first hired and it is the male clientele that brings in diseases. She suggests that male clients should therefore be the ones subject to the inconvenience and invasiveness of health screenings before being allowed access, instead of the women. Predictably, Bella's suggestion was shot down because upholding the patriarchy is ~profitable~.

I felt slightly dissatisfied by the conclusion. There were still too many gaps and unanswered questions, even after accounting for the fact that we are reading conflicting accounts by two unreliable narrators. Perhaps weaving in so many complex topics came at the expense of a watertight storyline. The narrative did get boring at times, and I wish Bella's POV had been fleshed out more. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Sexual content

kurtwombat's review against another edition

challenging dark funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

• 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

4.25

 

My estimation of this novel rose and fell several times during my reading. I mostly enjoyed bobbing and weaving my way through this Victorian novel spoof pastiche of different unreliable narrators in different styles, formats and genres but there were a few points of tedium. The letters from abroad format went on a little too long and the third section of the novel delivered as bits of reporting were a tad too dry (more interesting when I finally realized what the point of it was). But the central idea is genius—that in order to tell the story of a smart, independent, self-actualized woman (in Victorian Scotland or even today) the story has to be approached as science fiction. Such a woman has to be the Frankenstein like creation of a man—she couldn’t come naturally by those qualities. That is the first part (maybe ¾ of the novel). Second part is the real female character telling her side—much more realistic but still skewed by her perspective. And the last part is a kind of reckoning of the two—dispatches from the time create a foundation of reality. Feels old and new at the same time—don’t settle in it will change directions. Lays waste to men as a gender—rightfully so. Presents them as foolish and temperamental and disposable just as women in literature were/are often portrayed. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Mental illness, Sexism, Suicide, and Sexual content

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

challenging dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Classism, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Violence, Confinement, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Child abuse, Suicide, Addiction, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Racism

louiepotterbook's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

What keeps me from giving it 5 stars is that I fear the author did not intend what I got out of it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Incest, Miscarriage, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Suicide, Blood, Gore, Gaslighting, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

issyd23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Insane last chapter: Gray deconstructs & satirises not just the novel but class, love & objectivity in storytelling/history. Keen to see how the film compares! 3🧠 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Self harm, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Classism, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Abandonment, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Biphobia, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Sexual content, Medical content, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Suicide, and Terminal illness

bdingz's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

4.5

I enjoyed this more than I expected. The bait-and-switch near the end really threw me through a loop and I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Sexism, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Medical content

Moderate: Sexual content and Gun violence

Minor: Child death, War, and Forced institutionalization

ahyshia's review against another edition

dark informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

lattelibrarian's review

emotional mysterious medium-paced

• 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

5.0

Fuck YES. I loved this book. It reminded me greatly of my first weird love, The Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis. Its epistolary nature, weird illustrations, letters, chicken scratch, and more created an absolutely unique reading experience. However, what we've come to know now as the 'movie portion' of the book is from Bella Baxter's husband's perspective...which is more fiction than fact, according to Bella, now, Victoria. 

It begs the questions of women's narratives, and who is allowed to tell them. It also begs the question of control, of medicine, of loving and living out of necessity or out of survival.

I'm somehow at a loss of words for this book--it was so much better than I could have imagined and brought my curiosity to new depths; it's sparked imagination like no other.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

Minor: Domestic abuse

thesvnthsense's review

dark funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Suicide

adventures_in_bookstagram's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

Interesting, occasionally surreal with effective metatextual elements and great performances by Kathryn Drysdale and Russ Bain as the narrators. The central concept is creepy and a bit gross (various men lusting after a woman with a child's brain), but those characters are presented as grotesque and/or pathetic so, to me, it reads as satire of male objectification of women (especially girls), especially when we get Bella/Victoria's perspective in the third act. I enjoyed the blend of genres, with unexpected dips into sci-fi (as a Frankenstein retelling), horror and magical realism (the Scream stands out), travel narratives and pseudo-historiography (I really enjoyed the preface and editor's notes, for example). There was also lots of commentary on classism, gender, misogyny (including medical misogyny), colonialism, regionalism (the main characters are <i>Scottish</i> and that matters!) and socialism and it was interesting to watch the naive and sheltered main character discover and reckon with the world's injustices; her long letter to the male narrator was one of my favourite sections of the novel.  It was also a lot funnier than I was expecting, though it ends on a kind of bitter-sweet note. Finally, I loved its strong sense of place and many references to places in Glasgow! This is a weird one, but well worth reading for its unusual narrative choices and fantastic heroine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Medical content, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Misogyny, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Abortion, Incest, and Pedophilia

The central concept flirts with pedophilia without technically actually featuring pedophilia, but some readers may not be comfortable with it. There are also incestuous overtones to the MC's relationship with her Guardian/father figure, according to the male narrator, though his perspective is later called into question. It only features relatively briefly, but the main character is also threatened with a clitoridectomy and shaming female sexual desire is a major theme, this being a novel set in the Victorian era about a sexually-active woman.