A post-modern gothic satire. A woman who jumps to her death is resurrected by a 19th-century Scottish doctor and has to learn anew how the world works. We follow Bell as she navigates society, trying to find her place within it. The men around her want to marry her. All she wants is to improve the world she encounters. By the end, I was exhausted with them all. But, for once, I was grateful for an epilogue.

Re-released to coincide with the film version, this book is an absurd, free-wheeling story that keeps on shifting form throughout, never fully settling on one format, and moving between a whole range of story types.

Although at times this felt overwhelming to me, this was also great fun in many other ways, always keeping you on your toes.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A richly layered audiobook experience. This is a story of many parts. The core story is a 19th century pastiche, blending elements of Frankenstein, Dracula and Sherlock Holmes gothic thriller styles with the story of a young woman found drowned and modelled back to life by Archibald McCandless with the brain of a newly deceased infant. The young woman then goes through a coming of age and becomes a sexualised and insatiable being. Within her learning, she comes face to face with all the foibles of politics, feminism and socialism and social commentary on the world around her. This is all wrapped up in language that embraces syntactical play, and that is sardonic, witty, and wry. To add to this modernist expression, we then have the added layer of the frame story, where Bella, aka Mrs McCandless, calls out her husband's core story as a fictionalised and embellished account. We, therefore, have two differing narrative recollections of one account. Unreliable narration adds depth and humour. This audiobook is a feast for your ears and mind. My first encounter with Alasdair Gray has been a revelation. #poorthings #alasdairgray #netgalley #audiobook #wfhaudio

I very much enjoyed this audio production of Poor Things by Alasdair Gray. As someone who lives in Scotland, I find listening to the Scottish dialect very soothing, and the narrator's voice was no exception to that. The story was engaging to follow and brought to mind gothic classics such as Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Though I did feel that some parts were unnecessarily drawn out - I think almost the whole post-script (which was one hour long!) could have been cut out and the narrative would not have suffered from it at all, but rather been better that way.

They lost me within the first 10% when they made a literal child a sex addict, and then they lost me again when it ended up just being a story about white men, their double standards, egos, misogyny and racism, and a whole host of other distasteful themes.
This whole thing felt like the ‘yeah she’s mentally 10 but she’s built like a grown woman so i couldn’t help myself and i have a right to her,” argument….. i mean, McCandless literally throws a fit bc she’s gonna marry another man and he says “she’s a child” to explain why HE should marry her instead…..???????? Like be so fr

I understand the idea of the story, and I think it could’ve been cool??? A story about the journey of this child who’s been born into an adult woman’s body, how she navigates her role as a science project and commodity simultaneously; grief of the mother who’s body she now animates, love, independence, politics/ but it was giving manic pixie dream girl and I really cannot bear when a woman’s pov is written through the male gaze. It could’ve been a freaky science thing if it just committed to that instead of the weird social games and perverted desires of the main characters.

The audiobook narrators were fantastic, I really enjoyed it!! But the story was not for me :( Maybe if I was reading this in school, to analyse and pick it apart I would have more appreciation for the literary value- but the content and the story was not for me.

I’m generally up for reading off kilter titles; those that are a bit edgy or strange. The blurb for this was intriguing and initially I was drawn in to a dark Victorian world of medicine and learning. But about a third of the way in, I began to feel lost. Excellent narration and agents and a real feel for Victorian melodrama, but the whole premise became preposterous and I struggled. I found the book was first published in 1992 and this new edition is a film tie in.

There are touches of mad professors, Frankenstein type monsters, class stereotypes and social divisions. Didn’t find much humour and although well written, I found Bella annoying and I gave up. I’ll give it another go, maybe in hard copy but I’m sorry to say that despite the accolades, this wasn’t a title I could settle in to.

A rereleased from 1992 to tie in with the film adaptation of the same name, due out in January 2024.

According to her creator Godwin Baxter, Bella Baxter is the perfect companion, with a woman's body and the brain of a child.

This book is a mise-en-abyme postmodern pastiche of the Victorian novel, crammed with unreliable narrators, philosophy, politics, patriarchy, sex, humanity and dark humour.

Gray is a talented and intelligent writer. However, the aggressively jocular tone of this novel gave me a headache.

I thought I would love it, but it wasn't to be.

The audio version is well-narrated by Russ Bain and Kathryn Drysdale. However, it lacks the artwork and formatting of the hardcopy edition.

My thanks to NetGalley and W F Howes for the audio-ARC.

I just couldn't get on with Gray's writing style. I really struggled to get through this.
After seeing the trailer for the film, I was super interested in reading the book.
But, I just really struggled - the themes and the synopsis were/are super intriguing but it was the writing style I just couldn't get along with.