Annabel by Kathleen Winter

Published 2011 · 466 pages · 116,500 words · about 13 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction

How hard is Annabel to read?

Annabel scores 45 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 35 out of 100
Clear Canadian prose with Labrador vocabulary.
Sentence structure: 38 out of 100
Controlled sentences following Wayne's consciousness.
Abstraction: 45 out of 100
Questions of gender, identity, and belonging.
Information density: 42 out of 100
Labrador setting and gender questions efficiently conveyed.
Narrative indirection: 50 out of 100
Wayne's limited understanding creates gaps.
Symbolic density: 55 out of 100
The body, the wilderness, identity carry symbolic weight.
Ironic distance: 40 out of 100
Winter writes with evident compassion.
Resolution withholding: 50 out of 100
Identity journey continues; future uncertain.
Structural complexity: 40 out of 100
Coming-of-age with gender complexity.

How Annabel is regarded

Annabel holds a literary regard score of 60 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

About the author

Kathleen Winter