This Reader's Guide brings together, in an easily accessible form, the range of review and critical material on the novels of Jeanette Winterson. The book traces the early reception of each novel on its publication and examines it alongside larger critical debates. Merja Makinen develops the controversial discussion of Winterson as a lesbian novelist and the more consensual analysis of her as a postmodern writer.

An examination of feminist writers' appropriation of a range of popular genres: detective fiction, science fiction, romance and the fairy tale. The author argues that feminists can successfully appropriate all four genres because genres, as cultural productions, have accommodated the cultural changes brought about by second-wave feminism. The book provides a history of each of the genres, reinstating women's contributions in those histories, and a comprehensive review of the feminist critical debates on each of the genres.