Book Review: The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson
I am on the fence about this book. On a five star scale, I teetered between two and three stars because the book was just so uneven. There were parts that I would have give three or four stars had it continued on that track but then it stopped and moved onto another section and I’d give the other section only 1 or 2 stars at best.
In my opinion, the Stone Gods is three different short stories where the same themes and characters, in a way, repeat. The stories take place at different time periods. Billie/Billy appears in all three stories just with a different gender (a woman in the present and a man in the past.) The first and the last story are told in an alternate, science fiction-y version of our present and the middle in 1774 on Easter Island. She tries to tie them all together with pieces here and there but in my opinion, she didn’t succeed in creating a cohesive piece.
The constant theme across all three stories is her dystopian tone. Winterson was definitely trying to make a statement about mankind and our wasteful, violent nature, damaging our planet and ourselves. For me personally, she didn’t succeed. Mostly because she wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. Partly because her story was distractingly disjointed (at least for me). In my opinion, it just seemed like she was trying too hard.
Though I must say, the first section of the book really was a page turner for me. She really had me with this alternate present that she had created and I was really curious what was going to happen to her heroine, Billie, as she embarked on an unexpected journey to a strange new world. I wish she had continued with that section of the story, delving deeper into Billie’s past and extending her time/stay on the new planet instead of cutting it short so abruptly. I don’t necessarily think that section of the book (or the whole book for that matter) needed a different ending, just different construction. Just my two cents…
Posted by Kristin Hanley at 09:23 AM. Filed under:
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