MixedThe New York Times Book Review\"The third-person narration, often charmingly populated with historical detail, exposition and dialogue, leaves little space for Lizzie’s interiority to develop on the page. This makes for tricky reading, because The Road From Belhaven seems like an ode to 19th-century character-driven novels. But Belhaven is lacking either a contemporary reflexivity or an urgency that would propel us through the emotional tribulations of its heroine ... Lacking intensity or suspense, Livesey’s novel is most accomplished in its presentation of history. The story brims with vivid observations of 19th-century Scottish life ... The Road From Belhaven is Victorian Scotland seen through heather-tinted spectacles, and its heroine is unfortunately wrapped in a layer of narrative cotton wool. Livesey has landed on an intriguing premise, but I felt myself yearning for something to help the book’s emotional arrows land. Without that, the novel risks reading like a sketch, awaiting embellishment and texture to bring it alive.\
Sandra Newman
MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewNewman’s version dovetails with the original, following Winston and Julia’s romance and their plot to join the traitor Goldstein’s resistance. But it also embellishes the prehistory of 1984, and imagines a future beyond Orwell’s ending ... At its most compelling in its exploration of the grim reality of women’s lives under an authoritarian patriarchal regime ... The novel is coded to produce a desired focus — in this case, women’s experience. It’s not alone; contemporary publishing abounds with retellings of classic stories from women’s perspectives. But 1984 is a perplexing choice to return to ... The motives of Julia don’t seem to be concerned with the differences between Orwell’s period and our own political moment. Instead, its main project seems to be redressing the gender balance in Orwell’s fiction. As a result, claims for its \'timeliness\' can only lead to vague generalizations about women’s oppression, rather than examining the political structures imposing it. For contemporary readers, whose reproductive rights are being encroached on by the right, the novel’s simplistic depiction of amalgamated socialist evils may feel somewhat out of step with present affairs ... As a retelling it is highly readable, innovative and entertaining. But as a political or feminist project, it only adds to the obfuscation of Orwell’s critique.
Bronwyn Fischer
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewThrough Natalie’s subtle but vivid narration, Fischer powerfully evokes the all-consuming force of a relationship confined to a private universe ... The Adult is delicate in navigating Nora and Natalie’s various imbalances — age, power, wealth, experience ... While...brimming tension almost makes The Adult an understated thriller, the novel’s quieter intrigue exists in the articulation — or disarticulation — of the awakening of queer desire.
