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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
I was so lost in the beginning that I couldn't get captured by the characters. Perhaps will try again another day.
adventurous
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A lot of people say that this book is about children with special powers when really I think it’s more a book about India told through a personal lens. The protagonist, Saleem Sinai, who has telepathy and a supernatural sense of smell, believes that he is supernaturally connected to the fortunes of India, so it was pretty interesting to see how national and personal histories intertwined as we went from the Partition to the Emergency.
I won’t lie, the book was pretty confusing at times because it digresses into many irrelevant subplots and isn’t really written in a linear, straightforward manner. I didn’t really think much about it until I read an article by Rushdie where he mentions that he was inspired by Indian oral traditions (particularly in Kerala), where digression is so central to storytelling. And yeah, that style of writing makes the book so much more entrancing, whimsical, and magnificent in scope; it does grow on you after you get used to it. Why focus so narrowly on getting from start to finish when you can take the time to smell the roses and explore the wider world around you?
This book is nothing short of a masterpiece. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a journey it was, reading this book. Because of college and that the book is so dense it took me nearly NINE MONTHS to finish. So I would say my reaction was disrupted by how fractured my reading was. But what a wild ride. I love the symmetry and how things come full circle at the end. I do think it was too long, meandering a bit in the third act but it was beautifully written and crafted. A blockbuster of a book.
challenging
dark
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes