Comments (55)

What did you think about this title?
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Feb 19, 2023cheryl716 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Annabel is one of those books that sticks. The characters are full, lively, interesting, and steeped in their broken humanness. It’s one of the most beautiful, heart rending stories I’ve read. Kathleen is a gifted writer.
Aug 15, 2021harderblake rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I loved this book. Beautifully written.
Jun 12, 2020marybellinger rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I absolutely adored this book! As a high school teacher, I just felt so much empathy for all that Wayne/Annabel, growing up as a hermaphrodite, was going through. From beginning to end, I just wanted to comfort this child. I bought this…
Apr 01, 2018Eosos rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this book until the last few chapters. It just felt disconnected from the rest of the story.
Nov 19, 2017re_discover rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
I read Annabel for my 2017 Reading Challenge in the category of a Giller prize winner or nominee. I found the story to be unbelievable. For example, that a piece of glass would land so perfectly in her throat to cause permanent damage to…
Jul 21, 2017SurreyLibraries_Reads rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
“This book was hauntingly beautiful. It tells the story of a child, born in a remote Labradorean town in 1968, who is not quite male and not quite female. Winter’s storytelling is luminous and poignant as we grow up alongside Wayne…
Mar 26, 2017sgcf rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I liked this book about secrets more than I thought I would. About secrets kept – of a child hermaphrodite growing up a as the boy Wayne – and about secrets hesitantly revealed – of the girl Annabel living within ‘his’ body and psyche. On…
Jan 29, 2017spiderfelt_0 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
There are so many ways to look at this book, it is difficult to decide which lens through which to examine it. On the surface, it is a book about gender. On a deeper level, it is a book about identity. Influencing our identity are…
Mar 09, 2015ehbooklover rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5 stars. A beautifully written, evocative, and emotional read that touches on many important themes such as nature VS. nurture and learning to be true to ones self. Difficult to read at times but so worth it. The complex characters will…
Sep 10, 2014WVMLStaffPicks rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Descriptions of rural Labrador in the late 1960s provide a stunning, stark backdrop for the story of Wayne, born a hermaphrodite into a small community. The actions and inaction of the adults in his life shape his identity and…
Jun 14, 2014ideaLAB_Mandy rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Another Canadian master on the literary scene. Wayne struggles with his identity after he learns, abruptly, that he is not who he thought he was. Coping with the news he is "other", neither male or female, in unsophisticated Labrador is…
Bettiea1755
Feb 06, 2014
Ce livre fut mon tout premier e-read (numérique) et j'ai adoré cet auteure Terreneuvienne.
Jan 07, 2014molmil8 rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
I read this for Canada Reads 2014 and because I love Canadian Literature. By the time you finish this book you will feel like you have been on the journey with the characters, and also want to see thelandscape of Labrador first hand. If…
Dec 15, 2013
Dec 15, 2013....this is one of the picks for the Canada Reads debate which starts in March 2014. I am going to put aside my Steven King Dark Tower series and start these books. This one came in first so, it gets read first, although I see…
Nov 05, 2013vwruleschick rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
It is a story you are not expecting...you meet Treadway and Jacinta and their baby. But there is a secret about their baby that they only know and the midwife, Thomasina. As the child grows up and is unknown to its secret, it pulls on…
Mewsician
Aug 23, 2013Mewsician rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Ms. Winter is a wonderful writer. She can evoke place beautifully, along with varieties of spiritual experience perhaps unknown to most of us. This is a special coming-of-age book, which belongs in Adult as well as Young Adult collections.…
Aug 07, 2013artemishi rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Annabel is hauntingly gorgeous. I have no other words for it. Kathleen Winter creates a world of full immersion with her storytelling, one where Labrador is realized in sights, sounds, smells, and emotion. I have never been to Labrador,…
Oct 19, 2012
Lyrical prose evoking thought provoking external and internal landscapes and a challenging topic but in the end, haunting and somehow unsatisfying. Could this possibly be somewhat autobiographical?
brianreynolds
Oct 13, 2012
<i>Annabel</i> was, for me, a hay wagon ride on a very bumpy road. It was an awkward lecture by author Kathleen Winter on discrimination and fear and male chauvinism and the damage caused by lying and provincialism all told by unlikeable…
Sep 26, 2012
I spit my tea when I read Ms Winter saying that spring breakup in Labrador starts in early March...erm, I grew up in Edmonton and spring breakup never started til mebbe late April. (I checked this on the net to confirm.) And if I was in…
Aug 06, 2012
billy elliot + bridge to terabitha = a story of development and discovery, not only of the central character, but of the lives around him. maritime flavour - newfoundland at its wild and rawest.
Jul 31, 2012samdog123 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I can probably count on both hands the number of books that have affected me as emotionally as this book did. A great book leaves you with a sense of wonder and a knowledge that you have experienced something precious and rare. This is…
Jul 14, 2012lfraese rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read.
May 01, 2012uncommonreader rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Set in Labrador in 1968, this book tells the story of a child growing up. Only three people (parents and one friend) knowing that the child is a hermaphrodite. The child is raised as a boy in the masculine hunting culture of Labrador but…
Feb 03, 2012carmenweiss rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Great book! The main character is very likeable, and the author has a way of inspiring a great deal of empathy in the reader for this poor boy's life. Very readable and entertaining. Highly recommended.