Seahorses by Bidisha

Seahorses Reviews

• 
  Goddess Of Blah

  This book is pretentious and tries to shock. I think Bidisha was hoping to create an outrageos sensational response. Only you just think “oh dear, what on earth was she smoking when she wrote this?”
  
  However, please do bear in mind that she was only 17/8 years old at the time of publishing this, hence I can sympathise with her efforts to appear blasé and cynical, which may have persuaded her to write about incest so casually.
  
  BIDISHA
  
  There are perhaps metaphors in the book that relate to all the weird (and what I felt at the time random and unrelated) acts performed by the characters, however, at the time when I read the book (several years ago, aged 19) I wasn't convinced of their importance.
  
  Perhaps this book requires a re-read. Or perhaps its just a basic and first effort by an author who has now gained the maturity to write books without trying to make a statement about herself. And Bidisha is a brilliant writer.
  
  My thoughts regarding the book though:
  
• 
  Laurenmedoe

  I was expecting so much more from this book. Despite some of the descriptions she uses of everyday objects and places being quite beautiful, I also found at times that she had crammed in so many that they actually disjointed the flow of the book. In addition to the characters not being particularly nice people, plus the way she breezed straight through quite serious plot developments I found this quite a disappointing read.
• 
  Rhonda

  Bidisha is a very good writer - but this book left me a bit confused as to what the aim in writing it was, and a vague wish I hadn't read it at all. Quite early on I didn't like the way it was going but its a strength of the writing that I did want to find out how it unfolded. This it did after a lengthy lead up to a not totally believable .... conclusion? Resolution? Tying together of bits? There were however many lines I wrote in my diary, or wish I had, because they were so good. I am going to find something else by this author and give it another go. I found out she was 18 when she wrote Seahorses - so that might explain a bit in terms of how she handled her material and what the material was - in terms of what she chose to write about, or expose - not very good handling but no fear about writing about it. The latter is important I think.