watermelleon's Reviews (254)

*Review based on the abridged audiobook from radio 4 *

Good bits: 

The questionable bits:

it is so hard to write a review for this one!!

the good bits:

the challenges;

I went into this book wondering if it would be a bit too close to the bone to those who in some way have lost their vision, but have left wondering perhaps the opposite. with something this descriptive and visual I feel like it could be an absolutely incredible audiobook journey!

I would recommend this book on everyone's bucket list, providing the topics covered aren't too difficult for you!

What a journey!! 

I think your experience of this book will greatly vary on either  your experience with other David Mitchell books, or interest in the historical topics covered. I absolutely love how different this was to other Mitchell books, but the topic was not one I'd usually reach for which at times made it very difficult to follow! 

The nest of different stories within was so interesting and kept the story flowing nicely if one part wasn't as interesting to me. 

Overall, an incredible journey where I learned so much about Dutch-Japanese trading and the history of such a specific time! 

Mitchell's books are a giant cobweb of a world, with one in particular  (struggling to spoiler tag on my phone!) having a strong link to this one. This has lead me to wonder if I would have enjoyed this more or less if I had read that specific book after this one!  I think for me personally, it was great to see where the story ended and then go back to its beginning (similar to how I felt reading the bone clocks and then utopia avenue) - filling in the additional context I knew made some parts, characters, far more interesting (and some parts incredibly darker). But, I can't imagine what it would have been like to read this book when it came out and learn further context years down the line! 

The Thing I was not expecting was the grey morality of Jacobs character - I was rather expecting him to be quite the hero, but this is at its heart a story about capitalism. Mitchell does not shy away from this and he does not expect you to fully respect his actions. The gritty side of this time and place are not fantasised, and there are no illusions - Marinus being strategically placed as a representative of a more ethical way of living was a very intelligent choice, and one that the book hugely benefitted from. 

There is some really interesting content here that I absolutely loved!! Lots to keep reading around the subject and keep me thinking after the book. The last chapter is absolutely wonderful and definitely what I needed to stop feeling so helpless in the world. 

It feels acessible, and doesn't go too deep into some topics. But a good starting point!

 I'm not fully convinced everything is perfect and I'm not 100% sold on all of the authors views (some about sex work as an honorable mention 😬) 

Passes the trans inclusivity test ✨✨

I was really enjoying this!! Will come back to it when I have a paper copy. 

An absolutely bizarre thought experiment that filled me with a weird sense of dread and also reflection. I feel a bit of similarity to "I have no mouth but I must scream" in terms of the dark tone and feelings of existentialism faced by the characters. 

Think that mental image of falling will stay with me for some time. 

Some parts were beautifully written, and I have some lovely highlights I will definitely be coming back to! Overall a really good novella that got me gripped, and gave me much to think about. It has also put the library of babel on my reading list! 

Everyone who knows a vagina in their lives must read this!!!

Absolutely wonderful!! Karin has a wonderful, easy style of writing that made this book effortless to read. I am so thankful for her openness and honestly in sharing her story as I have seen the impact of this first hand! 

I can only review this through the eyes of someone else: I did not know about this author or book before this was recommended (then subsequently loaned to me) by a wonderful work colleague. He brought this to our bookclub rather nervously, and explained how he had previously heard Karin talk on a podcast and felt immediately drawn to this book, despite very rarely reading anything! One flight to the USA later, and he had finished the whole thing. 

He explained how Karins open and raw writing taught him things he never knew about topics that are never talked about such as miscarriage and giving birth, and that this book changed his life and general sense of understanding with women. I can absolutely see this book being a key educational tool for many young boys and men, and I wish it was more well known!! 

This book is written in a very real way, that still presents as a good education on vaginal health and experiences without being overly crude. 

Disclaimer: did my best to do a terf check before reading this and nothing came up for the author on Google or in the book when I looked. 

I have never laughed at a book so hard until I realised I was 700 pages into book that I started 4 YEARS AGO to be reading the most baffling few pages I have ever read, fueled by an underlying hatred of women, disabled people, and anyone who isn't white in general.  

I'll add more later if I can be bothered 😭 never seen a book start at 5 stars and fall so hard on its face so fast. 😭😭😭 I can only laugh about whatever this book was at this point 😭😭😭

I listened to the audiobook version of this book.

I decided to stop reading around halfway through, I have had this on my list for a while and was quite aware it is very academic in nature, which can often run a little dry. 

I initially found the first part of the book to be quite interesting, as many things were touched upon including the pansy period which I myself had been researching recently. However the first issue I ran into was that people were beginning to be dead named. (x name, born as Y name). Pronouns also got messy when describing their stories. 

This is an excellent academic record of queer history, and something that definitely should exist to prevent further loss of queer history, but I think there is probably a question here of "do we need to mention someone's birth name, in order to make sure we can continue to locate them in historical records?"


the beauty of queer history (to me at least) is the verbal stories passed between us, some outrageous tales that become Chinese whispers. Surely it's better to refer someone by the names they chose, and the stories they chose to tell? 

On this note, there was a lot of myth busting, and lines like "many people thought x, but this wasn't true". Who has the right to expel queer myths? I feel a focus on the many stories, over the "actual facts" read into a far more interesting look at queer history (and feel way less mansplainy when listened to over audiobook) 


After the initial excitement around this book, and pushing back these issues discussed, I began to feel the book itself was not well structured and at times felt very scattered, which was when I decided to dnf. Very sad, but I think the author did not have a relevant enough background to discuss all kinds of people and topics in a way that worked, and this would have worked better as a collaborative effort with other researchers from these backgrounds.