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The Windup Girl

Paolo Bacigalupi

Start date: August 21, 2015

Finish date: September 11, 2015

Discussion: Book Discussions

Discussion leader: Aleah

Why we're reading this: Group Contemporary Novel Discussion August 2015
Hugo Award Winner 2010 (tie)
Nebula Award Winner 2009
[close] Group Contemporary Novel Discussion August 2015
Hugo Award Winner 2010 (tie)
Nebula Award Winner 2009

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What Members Thought

Jan 18, 2011 Miss rated it liked it

Shelves: reviewed, hugo-novels

I feel like reviewing this book is very difficult.

There are a lot of problems:

-- The author dumps you into a completely envisioned future, with all of the resulting slang and history, with no explanations. It made figuring out what was going on in the beginning difficult.
-- I spent a lot of time trying to understand the world the author was creating, only to figure out that the majority of all of it, didn't matter to the story in the end.
-- I can't decide whose story this book is suppose to I feel like reviewing this book is very difficult.

There are a lot of problems:

-- The author dumps you into a completely envisioned future, with all of the resulting slang and history, with no explanations. It made figuring out what was going on in the beginning difficult.
-- I spent a lot of time trying to understand the world the author was creating, only to figure out that the majority of all of it, didn't matter to the story in the end.
-- I can't decide whose story this book is suppose to be. Is it the Pinocchio-inspired story of Emiko? The calorie man? The revolution? The Chinese man? There are too many people in this story to keep track of sometimes.
-- The writing is seriously dry and the story takes awhile to actually start.

Even with all of those complaints, I still really enjoyed the book. I've never read Bacigalupi before and I was completely enthralled.

The world created is where the "Contraction" has happened. Oil is only available to the obscenely wealthy and powerful. Water is scarce. Disease has ravaged the crops of the world, which has made seeking out new seed stock a career and business field. Calories, both the consuming and burning of them, have become a daily struggle.

Thailand is one of the few countries to survive with it's political boundaries intact. But, as any country that protects itself by sealing it's borders, it's coming under attack from both internal and external forces. Emiko's story is a "human" symbol of the larger struggle, as her very nature comes under attack both internally and externally. Trying to give any more detail about the complex plot would make this review entirely too long.

I have to admit to a personal bias here. I don't like Monsanto and follow the Transition movement pretty closely. This book fed into my own doomsday fears and righteous indignation about the future and that definitely slanted me into enjoying the book. I'm not sure a reader who didn't have that bias already in place, would enjoy it as much as I did.

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Aug 02, 2010 Alex Moore rated it it was ok

Shelves: abandoned

I was really looking forward to reading this book, the premise is fascinating and it won a nebula. Unfortunately I could never really get into it. The story plods forward with thin characterization. I was never engaged and I simply couldn't force myself to care. The writing lacked clarity which made the constant barrage of Thai words irritating and gratuitous. An appendix is desperately needed, but even then that wouldn't help the fact that they were overused. ...more

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