Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Wetlands

2.73 of 5 stars 2.73 · rating details · 3,178 ratings · 503 reviews

Helen Memel, eighteen years old and laid up in hospital after an intimate shaving accident, whiles away the hours plotting to reunite her long-divorced parents. She also has plenty of time to ponder the finer workings of the female body and there's no such thing as 'taboo' in her vocabulary.

Courageous, provocative and very funny, Wetlands races headlong into one of the las...more

Paperback, 229 pages

Published 2009 by Fourth Estate (first published 2008)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jan 29, 2013 Michelle rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

Everyone says that this book is super gross. Honestly, I wasn't grossed out or amused by any of it. When I wasn't bored, I was annoyed. The "gross-out" parts made me feel like the book was written by a teenage boy with ridiculous fantasies of what women do behind closed doors. The stories Helen shared about things like spreading bacteria or what she did with avocado pits made me feel less like she was a strong woman with a "who-gives-a-crap" attitude, and more like she was just a perverted pre-t...more

16 likes · like · see review

Jul 28, 2008 Anna Sörries rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed-books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

4 likes · like · see review

Sep 20, 2011 Stephanie (Stepping out of the Page) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011, adult-fiction, realistic-fiction, translated, books-i-own

This book was certainly 'different'. It was absolutely disgusting and made me cringe at most points and laugh at a few, but I was still strangely intrigued by this book. I think the reason why I most enjoyed this book was seeing courage that Roche had to approach the very 'taboo' subjects that it deals with. I've never read anything like this and I wouldn't like to read more, I think I only found this interesting because it's the first of its type that I've read. I can completely understand that...more

9 likes · like · see review

Jul 28, 2008 edifanob rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-books

Ich wollte das Buch eigentlich überhaupt nicht lesen. Nachemd es jetzt meine Frau gelesen hat, habe ich es dann doch getan.

Jetzt frage ich mich, warum so ein Hype um das Buch gemacht wurde.

Letzen Endes ist es die Geschichte einer jungen Frau, die unter ihrer Erziehung und der Scheidung ihrer Eltern leidet.
Das Ganze wird angereichert mit zum Teil drastischen Beschreibungen, was man so mit Körperöffnungen und allen menschlichen Ausscheidungen so anstellen kann.

Wer dem etwas abgewinnen kann, der w...more

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 23, 2011 Beatriz Chavarri rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cuando decidí leer Zonas húmedas sabía bien con qué me iba a encontrar. Leí la sinopsis, así que estaba al tanto de la temática escatológica de la novela. También leí las reseñas de Goodreads y otras redes sociales de lectores, por lo tanto sabía bien de su baja puntuación y de las muchas críticas negativas. Aún así decidí darle una oportunidad. "No puede ser tan malo", me decía. Si alguien previamente me hubiera advertido y ahorita me dijera "te lo dije", tendría que darle la razón.

El mayor pro...more Cuando decidí leer Zonas húmedas sabía bien con qué me iba a encontrar. Leí la sinopsis, así que estaba al tanto de la temática escatológica de la novela. También leí las reseñas de Goodreads y otras redes sociales de lectores, por lo tanto sabía bien de su baja puntuación y de las muchas críticas negativas. Aún así decidí darle una oportunidad. "No puede ser tan malo", me decía. Si alguien previamente me hubiera advertido y ahorita me dijera "te lo dije", tendría que darle la razón.

El mayor problema de Zonas húmedas no es, curiosamente, lo escabroso, el culto a lo desagradable ni un erotismo mal entendido. A mi juicio lo peor del libro (aún sabiendo que leí una traducción y que puede haberse perdido algo en comparación con el original) es lo pésimamente escrito que está, lo inconsistente de la historia, o mejor dicho, la casi total ausencia de anécdota, la intrascendencia de los personajes secundarios y la absoluta superficialidad del personaje central, Helen, construido por Charlotte Roche como una especie de caricatura de la adoloscente postmoderna, liberal y liberada de convenciones.

He leído entre las críticas positivas de la novela que ésta preconiza un nuevo feminismo. Feminismo que no veo en lado alguno. No se trata en absoluto de un juicio de valor, pero que un personaje decida despreciar las convenciones de la higiene para hacer de ellas un supuesto rasgo de individualidad me parece descabellado. ¿Qué tiene que ver que a un personaje le parezcan caros los tampones y por ello se introduzca en la vagina compresas caseras de papel higiénico con un nuevo paradigma de libertad de la mujer?

Tras la lectura de Zonas húmedas siento que su autora quiso simplemente ser escandalosa y controversial a juro. No hay mayor erotismo que el encubierto, ya lo dijo George Bataille, y no hay mayor muestra de erotismo que el "Emma se abandonó" de Gustave Flaubert, no descripciones de cómo una mujer decide comerse todas sus excreciones corporales. Charlotte Roche no sólo no es una verdadera transgresora, tampoco sabe crear una atmósfera realmente erótica.

Le doy 1 porque no es posible dar menos, pero esta novela me parece un insulto a la inteligencia de cualquiera. Y no lo digo solamente pensando en lo desagradable que resulta, sino en lo inconsistente de su narrativa.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 19, 2009 Katrina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book featured on the cover of the Sunday Times magazine and I got it because I was morbidly attracted to the controversy and cringing sickness that the review highlighted. I have got to say that the review was very accurate as I couldn't help but feel sick to my stomach while reading the story. I also spent a reasonable amount of time pondering on the controversial statement that the main character, eighteen-year old Helen, makes about hygiene. According to her, we are all slaves of hygiene...more This book featured on the cover of the Sunday Times magazine and I got it because I was morbidly attracted to the controversy and cringing sickness that the review highlighted. I have got to say that the review was very accurate as I couldn't help but feel sick to my stomach while reading the story. I also spent a reasonable amount of time pondering on the controversial statement that the main character, eighteen-year old Helen, makes about hygiene. According to her, we are all slaves of hygiene, except for her, who's a maverick of dirtiness. She loves to taste and swallow her own mucus, pus, body flow and liquids, including her own blood, vomit, vaginal mucus discharge, menstruation, zits, tears and boogers. And, mischievously, she also likes to have other people taste her "delicatessens" without knowing. As a result, being the hygiene freak that I am (but had no idea until I read this book), I found Helen a very disgusting character from the outset and it took me a while to warm up to her.

What is more, hygiene matters aside, I thought this book was very poorly written, but then I don't know if that's the author or the translator's fault. The first chapters are a pain to read and to follow as paragraphs go unconnected and different ideas and states of mind are expressed in the same paragraph. Only after one has "conquered" the first part of the book does the writing become more fluid and enjoyable.

And it's here, on the second part, that the story also becomes surprisingly warmer and more interesting. The aim is no longer to scandalise the reader with Helen's lack of hygiene but to open her heart to the world. She becomes a rather endearing person, as she reflects on her loveless family life and concocts a plan to get her estranged parents together. The whole story takes place in the hospital, where Helen is being treated for an anus ailment. So her plan revolves around getting her parents reunited in her hospital room.

You cannot help but sympathise with Helen's family predicament. And suddenly all that cringe makes sense. She is disgusting because she doesn't love herself enough to take care of herself. Her mother and father are two aliens who can barely maintain a conversation with her for more than two seconds. Helen doesn't know what her father does for a living and she resents her mother for attempting to kill her younger brother while failing to commit suicide. In the end, she doesn't feel loved because she was never truly loved by these two strangers. She actually seems to have a healthier relationship with her avocado pits, which she nourishes like children, than with her own parents.

Overall, this is a very clever and innovative book, but unfortunately poorly written and too cringy for my taste.(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Feb 07, 2011 Mag rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It’s a book with a buzz. It’s the first German book to top the lists of Amazon bestsellers, and the one to which reviews referred to as a ‘feminist manifesto bordering pornography’. In truth, this book is both a tale of a troubled teenager, and a reaction to the artificial and sanitized model of femininity of the cosmetic ads and glossy magazines covers.
Helen, an 18-year-old heroin, desperately needs warmth and attention, but nobody really cares about her. She wants love; she wants her parents...more

7 likes · like · see review

Apr 10, 2009 Darlene rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book starts out "As far back as I remember, I've had hemorrhoids." and only goes downhill from there. There's been alot of buzz around this book and its "new feminism", but there's really nothing worthwhile about this book. I'll give the book one star just in case something was lost in translation, but the writing was horrible, there is no plot, and is trying to shock just for the cheap shock value.

12 likes · like · see review

Mar 22, 2009 Kathleen Baird-Murray added it · review of another edition

I so wanted to like this, but actually it was rubbish. Maybe it's a case of too much hype about a book, but once you get over the shock value of the bodily descriptions (pus/wounds etc) there's really not much left. I know it's fashionable to like this book, but try as I might, I just couldn't get excited by it. And you're supposed to get excited!

5 likes · like · see review

Mar 29, 2008 Isa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Charlotte Roche - Heldin meiner Jugend - schreibt ein Buch und ich muss es lesen! Sofort! Es geht in dem Buch um ganz andere Dinge als der blöde Skandal erwarten lässt. Ich konnte es zumindest nicht weglegen und fand das Ende wirklich rührend. Irgendwie wächst einem die Heldin des Buches doch ans Herz. Viele Passagen sind schon eklig und ganz schön.. krank, aber dann auch wieder lustig. Das Buch ist vor allem aber intelligent und ehrlich. Den Mut zu so einem Buch muss man erst einmal haben und e...more

6 likes · like · see review

Mar 02, 2013 Ayelet Waldman rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The most juvenile piece of total crap I've ever read. Avoid. AVOID.

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 07, 2009 Eva Mitnick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I listened to this in German as an audiobook and was thankful that it wasn't likely anyone overhearing would understand. Helen, an 18-year-old, is in the hospital for an operation on her infected hemorrhoids (exacerbated by shaving her nether regions). She whiles away the time by plotting to get her divorced parents back together, sharing with the reader her many fetishes, most of which are fairly gross, and spreading her own bacteria (from various intimate parts of her body) around the hospital...more

3 likes · like · see review

May 10, 2013 Coralyn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Where do I start? After the first few pages I was so repulsed I wanted to drop the story, but curiosity and a strange attraction kept me reading on. In turns, the book reads like a scatology list, a rant against hygiene, (the leitmotif), and a deeply-rooted resentment of society's various entrapments of women (often by other women). Yet, the fairly disturbed main, almost sole, character of the book, doesn't quite escape from these mores despite her sometimes crazy, electric lucidity.

For me, the...more

like · see review

May 05, 2013 Kassiopeia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

There's been a lot of talking and fussing and debating about this book when it was published, so I instantly lost my interest and decided to happily ignore it and all the hubbub people love to make about it. I mean, it's just a book containing some gross details, people. Chill. If you're not into that kind of thing - and for sure you have been warned - why go ahead and read it?
My friend, who bought the book and borrowed it to me, told me she actually was disappointed, because she had other expec...more

like · see review

Mar 03, 2013 Kellie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library-copy

I happened upon this book while shelving in the fiction section at work. The comment on the front of the book about it being "explicit" caught my eye, and so I decided to peruse it while on my break. I ended up checking the book out and staying up late to finish it.

Honestly, I'm not sure what I expected. The first line of the book is about hemorrhoids. Not really something you want to read about. I can't say I liked this book, I can't even say I hated it. It just is what it is. In all seriousnes...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 02, 2013 Rae rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wetlands deserves props for presenting (what I think is) an unprecedented written account of human bodily experience. We all live in bodies and so our daily lives are necessarily made up of bodily experiences, internal and external, and yet we almost never talk about what's going on with our bodies. Euphemism rules. Our every-day experience of secretion and excretion, hygiene, health, and sexuality are both omnipresent and hardly mentioned. This book is unique, then, in that it puts into words e...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 16, 2013 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2000s, 2013, sex-and-sexuality

We compulsively hide from one another the tiny disgusting things our bodies continuously do, as if we aren't bags of blood and mucous and decomposing food and fecal material. Are we innately loathsome, crawling with bacteria and futilely attempting cleanliness, or should we accept and embrace the earthiness of our shared humanity?

Whatever.

Helen examines, and subsequently orally consumes, most of her excretions, from vaginal discharge to vomit. She stops short of coprophagia, even though she is c...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 19, 2012 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like · see review

Oct 10, 2012 Sade's Valet rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Published in 2008, in a vortex of hype that had audience members fainting during public readings, and certain pious press quarters regarding it as nothing more than a “masturbation pamphlet, Wetlands had shifted over a million copies in Germany by 2009. The hype was continued overseas as us Brits got all in a lather over whether this was puerile porn or boundary-busting erotica. Indeed, if the Amazon reviews are anything to go by, the jury is still out, with arguments weighing in – vehemently -...more Published in 2008, in a vortex of hype that had audience members fainting during public readings, and certain pious press quarters regarding it as nothing more than a “masturbation pamphlet, Wetlands had shifted over a million copies in Germany by 2009. The hype was continued overseas as us Brits got all in a lather over whether this was puerile porn or boundary-busting erotica. Indeed, if the Amazon reviews are anything to go by, the jury is still out, with arguments weighing in – vehemently - for each case.
So, what’s all the fuss about? Well, the book opens with sexually obsessed 18 yr old Helen Memel, in hospital following an accident that occurred whilst she was shaving round her hemorrhoids. What follows is one girl’s account of the exploration of her body as she regales us with tales of anal sex, masturbation, and sexual perversions that include rubbing her vagina on the lavatory seat and making good use out of used tampons. Suffice to say, this is not your usual ‘tie-me-up-and-whip-me’ erotica. Instead, this is the sort of transgressive fiction that recalls the bizarre antics of George Bataille’s characters in Story of the Eye (more of that book at a later date) in that Helen is as outré and inhibited in her exploration with bodily fluids and smells (she deliberately neglects to wash her intimate parts) as Bataille’s characters. And, on that note, Roche’s heroine finds a sexual use for avocado stones in the same way Bataille’s Simone character finds stimulation from soft-boiled eggs.
Roche, herself, had meant for the book to be something of a serious feminist polemic against society’s expectations for over-cleanliness. Roche, incidentally, thought the best way to do this was present us with a character who wears dirty knickers and eat her “smegma.” In press interviews she mocked the idea of “pussy soap” and stated that women “think they have to shower three times a day, and then they ruin the body's own barriers.” I’m not sure it works as a feminist polemic since it is a male who resolves the book conflict (I won’t give that away) Roche admits, however, that it is also supposed to be erotic and has stated that many have also missed the humour.
I’m not sure you’ll guffaw, but Wetlands certainly is a unique sexual topography that has entered rarely uncharted territory and will delight those into the more transgressive end of erotica. Either that or you’ll simply be put off avocado for life.
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Aug 31, 2012 Niel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Yes, it made me feel a bit queasy at times, and Helen, our main protagonist, also did my head in sometimes with her 'grown up' thinking, but this was still a refreshing read.

This is a book about liberating the relationship you have with your own body. It's about our relationship with our environment, and our relationship with our past, and leaving that past behind. Whether you see Helen as a liberated free spirit or a messed up sicko will depend on how, or whether, you see the connection betwee...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 09, 2012 Jan Derksen marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Charlotte Roche schreef met Vochtige streken een uitgesproken roman, met in de hoofdrol een even openhartige als kwetsbare heldin. Vooruitstrevend en expliciet, maar ook dapper en ontroerend. ‘Hygiëne wordt door mij met een kleine letter geschreven.’ Na een mislukte poging om haar intieme delen te scheren, ligt de achttienjarige Helen op de afdeling interne geneeskunde van het Maria Bijstand Ziekenhuis. Ze koestert de hoop dat haar gescheiden ouders aan haar ziekbed nader tot elkaar komen en met

...more

like · see review

Aug 08, 2012 Christina rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had to read the original German for class –and after horribly misconstruing the first chapter, I had to buy the English version. For me, German literature always has a point where you just lose the narrative. Since I appeared to hit this point very early on, I knew I had to go with the English version. This book is more of a shock-story than anything close to feminism. I don’t see any empowerment or anything – I see an abused girl that finds coping skills in sex and spreading bacteria (which,...more

like · see review

Jul 20, 2012 Nina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Anmerkung: Diese Rezension ist möglicherweise nicht für Leser unter 18 Jahren geeignet!
Inhalt
Die 18 jährige Helen liegt nach einer missglückten Rasur ihres Hinterteils mit einer Analfissur im Krankenhaus und nutzt die ihr nun zur Verfügung stehende Zeit ausgiebig, um sich mit jeder einzelnen ihrer Körperöffnungen ausführlich zu beschäftigen. Dabei schwelgt sie in Erinnerungen an diverse Sexualpraktiken und Masturbationsversuche und überdenkt ihre ganz eigene Form von Hygiene und Sexualität. Pfle...more Anmerkung: Diese Rezension ist möglicherweise nicht für Leser unter 18 Jahren geeignet!
Inhalt
Die 18 jährige Helen liegt nach einer missglückten Rasur ihres Hinterteils mit einer Analfissur im Krankenhaus und nutzt die ihr nun zur Verfügung stehende Zeit ausgiebig, um sich mit jeder einzelnen ihrer Körperöffnungen ausführlich zu beschäftigen. Dabei schwelgt sie in Erinnerungen an diverse Sexualpraktiken und Masturbationsversuche und überdenkt ihre ganz eigene Form von Hygiene und Sexualität. Pfleger Robin wird eher unfreiwillig in ihre seltsamen Handlungen mit einbezogen und fotografiert ihr letztendlich sogar den Arsch - schließlich will man ja seine Wunde auch mal selbst sehen...
Zitate
"Also habe ich mich zu einem lebenden Muschihygieneselbstexperiment gemacht. Mir macht es Riesenspaß, mich nicht nur immer und überall bräsig voll auf die dreckige Klobrille zu setzen. Ich wische sie auch vor dem Hinsetzen mit meiner Muschi in einer kunstvoll geschwungenen Hüftbewegung einmal komplett im Kreis sauber. Wenn ich mit der Muschi auf der Klobrille ansetze, gibt es ein schönes schmatzendes Geräusch und alle fremden Schamhaare, Tropfen, Flecken und Pfützen jeder Farbe und Konsistenz werden von meiner Muschi aufgesogen. Das mache ich jetzt schon seit vier Jahren auf jeder Toilette. Am liebsten an Raststätten, wo es für Männer und Frauen nur eine Toilette gibt. Und ich habe noch nie einen einzigen Pilz gehabt. Das kann mein Frauenarzt Dr. Brökert bestätigen."
"Sie hat mir mal erzählt, dass der Sex mit meinem Vater ihr Schmerzen bereitet habe. Dass sein Penis zu groß für ihr inneres gewesen sei. Diese Information gehört zu dem Wissen, dass ich nicht haben will. Ich wollte mich doch eigentlich auf die Natur draußen konzentrieren. Dadurch kriege ich bessere Laune, als wenn ich über den Geschlechtsverkehr zwischen meinen Eltern nachgrübele. Ich stelle mir leider immer alles ganz genau vor. Und diese Vorstellung ist mir oft sehr unangenehm. Helen, töte diesen Gedanken in Dir."
Fazit
"Feuchtgebiete" ist der Debütroman der Autorin Charlotte Roche. Tjaa, was soll man als anständiges Mädchen von heute dazu noch sagen? Lange lange Zeit habe ich nur mit diversen Gerüchten und Halbwahrheiten bezüglich dieses Buches gelebt und irgendwann beschloss ich dann: Es reicht - ich überzeuge mich jetzt einfach mal selbst. Als Rezensent ist es allerdings schwer dieses Buch in irgendeiner Form zu bewerten, vorallem da die Praktiken, die die gute Helen anwendet einfach nur widerlich und abstoßend sind, das Buch meiner Ansicht nach jedoch nicht verurteilt werden kann und sollte, denn hier hat sich einfach mal jemand die Mühe gemacht sämtliche Tabu's der heutigen Gesellschaft in einen Topf zu packen, ordentlich umzurühen und zum Schluss nochmal in die Suppe zu spucken. Im großen und ganzen ist das ganze Buch eine reine Provokation, eine Aneinanderreihung von "tabuisierten" Themen, ohne Beschönigungen und möglichst anschaulich beschrieben.
Alles was man von "Feuchtgebiete" so hört ist wahr: Es ist widerlich, ekelhaft und übertrieben, abgehoben und äußerst wahrscheinlich, dass es auf der Welt niemanden gibt der so ist wie Helen - zumindest nicht zu 100%. Trotzdem bin ich der Ansicht, dass uns die gute Charlotte Roche mit diesem Buch nicht nur einen "Tabu-Schocker" verpassen wollte, sondern uns auch etwas ganz anderes mitteilen wollte: Schämt euch nicht für die natürlichsten Vorgänge, nicht für's Urinieren, Masturbieren, Stuhlgang haben (ob zuhause oder der öffentlichkeit), für's Nase bohren oder das Kratzen am Hinterteil - wenn's sein muss, muss es sein. Im Grunde ist das ganze nichts anderes als ein Hinweis darauf, dass wir das, was wir zuhause im Verborgenen tun, genauso gut auch gut draußen tun könnte ohne uns zu schämen - aber da spricht ja wieder die Norm und der Anstand dagegen. Natürlich wird das ganze auf eine Art und Weise dargestellt, die jeden von uns wahrscheinlich eher anwidert, doch im großen und ganze soll uns wohl so eine Botschaft überbracht werden.
Helen ist eine mehr als ausergewöhnliche Person, sie bricht alle Tabu's, alle Normen, alles was für jeden halbwegs hygienischen Menschen einen Standard darstellt, ist für Helen schon übertrieben. Sie wäscht sich nach dem Toilettengang nicht die Hände, wischt mit ihrem intimsten Körperteil über öffentliche Toiletten, betrachtet getrocknete Spermareste unter den Fingernägeln als "Sexandenkenkaubonbon" und findet, dass die "amerikanische Tamponindustrie" die reinsten Ausbeuter sind. Den Pfleger Robin lässt sie Bilder ihres frisch operierten, offenen Hinterteils machen und ist enttäuscht als die Bilder verschwommen sind, Die Kerne ihrer Avocadozucht führt sich die 18 jährige gerne auch mal ein und wenn gerade kein Mann zur Verfügung steht vergnügt sie sich auch schonmal mit dem Griff des Rasierers. Die Methode die Helen wählt um ihre Eltern wieder zusammenkommen zu lassen (also der reine Versuch) ist erschreckend und vorallem an diesem Punkt saß ich wirklich mit zusammengekniffenen Augen und schmerzverzerrtem Gesicht auf der Couch - ich konnte es mir einfach zu gut vorstellen, was da vor sich ging. Alles in allem hätte sich wohl kein passenderer Titel als "Feuchtgebiete" finden lassen können, vorallem weil sich Helen überausführlich über ihren Ausfluss und sonstige Körperflüssigkeiten auslässt, einschließlich Farbe, Konsistenz und Geschmack.
Der Roman wurde in sehr offenen und ehrlichen Worten beschrieben, er beschönigt nichts und die Worten beschreiben sehr deutlich was gemeint ist - es wird niemals auch nur etwas ansatzweise beschrieben. Die Kapitel sind ausreichend lang und der Schreibstil hat trotz der Thematik etwas packendes. Trotzalledem kann ich dem Buch nur 4 Sterne geben, begründen kann ich es jedoch nur folgendermaßen: Ein 5 Sterne Buch muss mich einfach umhauen - Feuchtgebiete schafft es zwar, mich irgendwie zu überrumpeln, vollends begeistern konnte es mich jedoch leider nicht.(less)

like · see review

Jul 02, 2011 Heidrun rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: german-fiction, why-did-i-waste-my-time-on-this, chick-lit

The book opens with "As far back as I remember, I've had hemorrhoids." It does not get better after that. This being a much hyped book on the German market, I still kept reading, thinking there would be something to it, after all it was said to be a ‘feminist manifesto bordering pornography’ - that's not bad advertising.

It is the never-ending inner monologue of a disturbed 18 year old, who is in the hospital to get surgery on her infected hemorrhoids. You get to read everything about every possi...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 26, 2011 Amy rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-hunt-for-the-worst-book-ever, i-m-gettingn-too-old-for-this-shit, not-good

Oh my good God.
Dude.
I can't even -
Ok.

There's a weird thing that sometimes happens where people think that if a book is insistently explicit sexually without coming close to being porn, or even slightly titillating, it must be important. We can call this the Palahniuk Principle. (I mean, right now we can call it that; eventually, we'll move on with our lives and forget that it ever came up).

The thing is, though, these books seldom actually are important. Being sexual without being sexy is not a...more

6 likes · like · see review

Mar 30, 2011 Nicole rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, chick-lit, comedy, contemporary, drama, fiction

This is like the teenage girls' version of the Marqui de Sade. It is open and honest and needlessly vulgar.

When I started to read, I honestly laughed out loud. The first chapter was hilarious, with moments of absolute honesty, that as a woman I could relate to. But then, as the character starts to describe the taste of her own body fluids and how she enjoys accumulating them "for later" my stomach started to turn, as did my interest.

As I read through, I couldn't help but hear the blunt tones of...more

like · see review

Oct 13, 2010 Luna Solaris rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like · see review

Aug 29, 2010 Sun rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookaweek2010

I've been looking forward to reading this ever since it was first published in the UK last year (translation by Tim Mohr). I remember a lot of controversy over whether the highly sexed female narrator and her lurid descriptions of both bodily functions and excretions make the cut as literature or whether it belonged firmly under the label of pornography. It didn't help that German author Charlotte Roche used to be a VJ and not a bespectacled student of letters.

Wetlands is the story of Helen, an...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 01, 2010 Daniela Wegert rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nun ja, Provokationen sind in der Literatur nicht neu, von daher hat Charlotte Roche damit keine neuen Wege beschritten. Warum um dieses Buch nun so ein Spektakel gemacht wurde, kann ich in keiner Weise nachvollziehen.

Gottseidank habe ich dieses Buch zum Lesen geliehen bekommen – ich hätte mich geärgert, für so einen Schmarren knapp 15 Euronen hingeblättert zu haben.

Wir leben, denke ich, in einer aufgeklärten Zeit, bei dem das Thema Sex einem von Werbeplakaten, aus Magazinen und Fernsehspots ent...more

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 14, 2010 Leanne Britt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

read on the train from Edinburgh to Stirling and return. Train ride is only about an hour or so, and I nearly finished it. I was warned by my friend that it was a no holds barred raunchy and ridiculous novel, which immediately intrigued me. I loved it. It made me LOL on the train and I appreciated the wealth of sexual and body function information, partly because I could relate and partly because it was educational. I totally applaud Charlotte's attempt to dissuade readers from modern sterile cl...more

1 like · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Contemporary Germ...: Charlotte Roche: "Feuchtgebiete" / "Wetlands"	5	38	Mar 06, 2012 01:41pm

combine
Other Editions (36)

More editions...

Genres

Feminism

17 users

European Literature > German Literature

16 users

Contemporary

12 users

Roman

9 users

Sexuality

8 users

Humor

8 users

Book Club

6 users

Cultural > Germany

6 users

Novels

6 users

Womens

4 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Charlotte Roche

Charlotte Elisabeth Grace Roche is a British-born German television presenter, actress, singer and author.

Roche, who is bilingual in English and German, is the daughter of an engineer and a politically and artistically active mother. She has lived in Germany since the age of eight, having previously lived in London and the Netherlands. She grew up in a rather alternative cultural environment in a...more

More about Charlotte Roche...

Books by Charlotte Roche

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Vlhká místa

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Wetlands
avg rating	preview: Wetlands Goodreads rating: 2.73 (3178 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6129748-wetlands?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348713498l/6129748.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6129748-wetlands?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Wetlands by Charlotte Roche[/url]

Wetlands

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website