 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Girl Walking Backwards for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Most coming of age stories are huge yawns. In GWB right when you think you have the plot nailed the author redirects you, along with your assumptions. And the surprise drives the plot deeper into you. I might be way more attached to this book because I live in Santa Barbara but I think it is not a book rooted to its setting. I found the prose powerful enough that I didn't want to put the book down but I also didn't want it to end. The characters are developed and at first hit me as being way too mature for their supposed ages but maybe I have been living inside too long. I have to say Williams' writing shines in this book. She writes precise but loose and flowing, it rings with wonderful imagery, insights and postmodern poetic language. The biggest compliment I can give about this book is the range of emotions I felt reading it: anxious, annoyed, strengthened, made compassionate, defiant, liberated. It had an enormous palette of emotions which Williams handles deftly, without degrading into gross sentimentality and hedonistic suffereing that so often coming of age novels have to rely on to make up for the author's lack of skill and self esteem. The angst is genuine and not empty and at all like "Our Noise", or most other psuedo gen-x baloney. Read it. Buy it for your daughters, give it to your mom.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I enjoyed this novel a great deal. It was entertaining and engrossing, sometimes erotic. As a teenager myself (16) I can relate less to the turbulant sex-and-drug-drenched world the author depicts, and more to her style of writing. Bett Williams is obviously an extremely talented writer (some selections of her prose are astoundingly poignant) but she also shares the self-absorbed dramatization of everything in her writing that is characteristic of youth. Each "gothic" character was depicted as achingly beautiful, each description of each outfit and eyeliner described as if it were art in it's highest form, each syllable uttered by each character took on almost too much meaning. While suitable for perhaps the description of Jessica because the main character is so obsessed with her, it becomes almost tiring to keep reading about these 'profoundly' beautiful people. And cynic that I am, I never imagine them in my head as quite as beautiful or romantic as Williams probably would like me to; instead I imagine that they like to think of themselves in such a way. The book gets better farther along, and I was surprised to find a great deal of depth in Skye by the end. (Who's very name smacks of a teenager's main character) However, with mention of Doc Martins and goths, it will not be long before this book will become extremely dated and almost cringely-embarrassing to read. (it's never fun to read how self-important we are in our youth) However, read it. It's enjoyable and entertaining, and although it doesn't reach the level of depth I think it strove for, I am positive that Bett Williams is capable of such a novel in the future.
-Liz
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I read this book a while ago and wasn't bored and wanted to read more, so a good read. I would recomend.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
I loved it
I loved reading this book, After reading the first chapter I felt as if I knew the characters completely and personnally. I related to a lot of the topics held up in her book. Read more
Published on 24 Jan 2000
Intimate, funny and lively.
Bett Williams is a great writer, a fearless innovator who does not gloss over truth, even when it is fiction. Honest, provocative and edgy. Best book I've read in ages.
Published on 28 Jun 1999
RINGS TRUE
I'm 42 years old and wouldn't know a rave if it slammed me, but just about everything in this book rings true to me. I congratulate the author.
Published on 24 Jun 1999
Best lesbian novel in history.
Bett Williams can tell a story! I could not put this book down, even to go to the bathroom. Characters are deep and real. Story is totally compelling. Buy it! Read it! Now!
Published on 10 Jun 1999
Wonderfully NOT lesbian fiction..
Fortunately I found this book when I wasn't looking in the gay/lesbian fiction section of the bookstore. Read more
Published on 2 Feb 1999
Interesting and depressing story
I thought the book was very well-done, descriptive and easy to read. I found myself glued to the story, not wanting it to end. Read more
Published on 12 Jan 1999
Nothing to criticize!
Bett Williams' debut novel features a strong, self-directed and affable young lesbian, Skye, whose compelling and curious mind absorbs readers almost instantly. Read more
Published on 17 Oct 1998
The first review by Helena.
It is a wonderful book. Bett williams is a writer that is brutally honest and seems like a person who you could confide in. Read more
Published on 10 Oct 1998
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
