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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
3,5/5*
EN~
Recommended to anyone who liked YOU (Caroline Kepnes), this is a similar thriller but in a vintage version.
An interesting read in general. Somewhat boring in some parts but with a suficiently captivating narrative to keep me until the end.
The story is quite simple: A butterfly collector (Frederick) falls in love with a young art student (Miranda), wins the lottery and therefore decides to capture her in the cellar of an old house thus making her a metaphorical butterfly in his collection.
The book is divided in two parts, the first one being from Fredericks point of view with a direct speech and sometimes confusing narrative which refers to an insane mind with lack of sense or morality. The second is from Miranda's point of view in a form of a diary from her first day of captivity. Here we see a narrative much more philosophical, critical and organized, many times criticizing the 1960's class society.
Definetely what captivated me the most in all of the story was the relationship between Frederick and Miranda. It was really interesting reading how Miranda tried to understand her captor in order to win her freedom not knowing that Frederick was a product of an unloving and uneducated environment. I would have liked to have more backstory about Frederick to understand what made him become the man he was.
At some point in the story both Frederick and Miranda seemed immoral to me. Frederick acted in the worse possible way as soon he had the money for it and Miranda seemed very pretentious and elitist from some of her diary pages.
I believe the book was shocking in the time it was written but in the contemporary days it lost a bit of force.
Still it's an interesting story to anyone who likes this genre :)
.
.
PT~
Para quem gostou de YOU (Caroline Kepnes) este é um thriller mistério bastante parecido mas versão Vintage.
Uma leitura interessante no geral. Um tanto aborrecida em certas partes, mas com uma narrativa suficientemente cativante para me manter ligado até ao final.
As premissas são bastante simples: Um colecionador de borboletas (Frederick) apaixona-se por uma jovem e inteligente estudante de arte (Miranda), ganha a lotaria e por isso decide capturá-la na adega de uma casa, tornando-a numa metafórica borboleta da sua coleção.
O livro está dividido maioritariamente em duas partes, a primeira num discurso corrido, direto e uma narrativa confusa do ponto de vista do Frederick que nos remente para uma mente insana e sem grande senso comum ou moralidade e a segunda do ponto de vista de Miranda na forma de um diário a partir do primeiro dia em que é capturada. Aqui sim, vemos um discurso muito mais filosófico, crítico e organizado muitas vezes criticando a sociedade de classes de 1960.
Definitivamente o que mais me cativou em toda a história foi mesmo a ligação Frederick com Miranda. Foi mesmo interessante ler como Miranda conseguiria ou não entender o que se passava na cabeça do seu captor para ganhar a sua liberdade tendo em conta que este era um produto de uma falta de amor e educação. Gostaria de ter lido mais do passado de Frederick e perceber o que criou um homem assim.
A certo ponto da história ambas as personagens me pareceram imorais. Frederick agiu de uma forma totalmente errada assim que se viu com o dinheiro suficiente para o fazer e Miranda pareceu-me uma personagem elitista e pretensiosa em várias passagens do seu diário.
Acredito que este livro terá sido chocante para a altura em que foi escrito mas na contemporaneidade a meu ver, perdeu um pouco a força.
Não deixa de ser uma história interessante para quem gosta do género :)
EN~
Recommended to anyone who liked YOU (Caroline Kepnes), this is a similar thriller but in a vintage version.
An interesting read in general. Somewhat boring in some parts but with a suficiently captivating narrative to keep me until the end.
The story is quite simple: A butterfly collector (Frederick) falls in love with a young art student (Miranda), wins the lottery and therefore decides to capture her in the cellar of an old house thus making her a metaphorical butterfly in his collection.
The book is divided in two parts, the first one being from Fredericks point of view with a direct speech and sometimes confusing narrative which refers to an insane mind with lack of sense or morality. The second is from Miranda's point of view in a form of a diary from her first day of captivity. Here we see a narrative much more philosophical, critical and organized, many times criticizing the 1960's class society.
Definetely what captivated me the most in all of the story was the relationship between Frederick and Miranda. It was really interesting reading how Miranda tried to understand her captor in order to win her freedom not knowing that Frederick was a product of an unloving and uneducated environment. I would have liked to have more backstory about Frederick to understand what made him become the man he was.
At some point in the story both Frederick and Miranda seemed immoral to me. Frederick acted in the worse possible way as soon he had the money for it and Miranda seemed very pretentious and elitist from some of her diary pages.
I believe the book was shocking in the time it was written but in the contemporary days it lost a bit of force.
Still it's an interesting story to anyone who likes this genre :)
.
.
PT~
Para quem gostou de YOU (Caroline Kepnes) este é um thriller mistério bastante parecido mas versão Vintage.
Uma leitura interessante no geral. Um tanto aborrecida em certas partes, mas com uma narrativa suficientemente cativante para me manter ligado até ao final.
As premissas são bastante simples: Um colecionador de borboletas (Frederick) apaixona-se por uma jovem e inteligente estudante de arte (Miranda), ganha a lotaria e por isso decide capturá-la na adega de uma casa, tornando-a numa metafórica borboleta da sua coleção.
O livro está dividido maioritariamente em duas partes, a primeira num discurso corrido, direto e uma narrativa confusa do ponto de vista do Frederick que nos remente para uma mente insana e sem grande senso comum ou moralidade e a segunda do ponto de vista de Miranda na forma de um diário a partir do primeiro dia em que é capturada. Aqui sim, vemos um discurso muito mais filosófico, crítico e organizado muitas vezes criticando a sociedade de classes de 1960.
Definitivamente o que mais me cativou em toda a história foi mesmo a ligação Frederick com Miranda. Foi mesmo interessante ler como Miranda conseguiria ou não entender o que se passava na cabeça do seu captor para ganhar a sua liberdade tendo em conta que este era um produto de uma falta de amor e educação. Gostaria de ter lido mais do passado de Frederick e perceber o que criou um homem assim.
A certo ponto da história ambas as personagens me pareceram imorais. Frederick agiu de uma forma totalmente errada assim que se viu com o dinheiro suficiente para o fazer e Miranda pareceu-me uma personagem elitista e pretensiosa em várias passagens do seu diário.
Acredito que este livro terá sido chocante para a altura em que foi escrito mas na contemporaneidade a meu ver, perdeu um pouco a força.
Não deixa de ser uma história interessante para quem gosta do género :)
The whole shtick that comes within the plot summary of The Collector is one that is frequently encountered nowadays when hunting for certain types of fiction novels, but I think that is because of the pretense that this book has set for many other novels with a similar plot to this John Fowles classic: it is the trendsetter and responsible for popularizing this sort of narrative, despite the fact it is very underappreciated as far as classics go.
In a narrative and writing style that I can only compare to [a:Vladimir Nabokov|5152|Vladimir Nabokov|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1651442178p2/5152.jpg]'s [b:Lolita|7604|Lolita|Vladimir Nabokov|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1377756377l/7604._SY75_.jpg|1268631], Fowles presents the reader with an entomologist named Frederick who has just recently ran into a large sum of money prior to winning the pools. Instead of doing something reasonable with the money, however, he ends up purchasing a giant house and kidnaps Miranda - an innocent girl who he has been stalking obsessively - in order to get her to fall in love with him.
The perspective choices which Fowles made were of the biggest surprise to me, and I think that they are really what made the book stand out to me so much. It really was not written nor crafted in the way that I expected, and I found myself being sucked into this book. All I wanted to do was read it to find out what happened next, but I did not want it to end.
There is so much I so want to say about the connections between Miranda and Frederick, but I will refrain as I highly recommend anyone who is a fan of Nabokov or is simply interested in reading it to go in as blind as possible. This book is such an interesting character study that really forces you to love or despise the characters depending on whose lens you're peeking through, and it makes this book even more brutal the deeper you get into it.
It's not a lot of guts and gore if that's what you're looking for, but it is certainly something psychologically stimulating that makes for an interesting character study and a frustratingly sorrowful read. Definitely one of my favorite horror novels I've read in awhile.
In a narrative and writing style that I can only compare to [a:Vladimir Nabokov|5152|Vladimir Nabokov|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1651442178p2/5152.jpg]'s [b:Lolita|7604|Lolita|Vladimir Nabokov|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1377756377l/7604._SY75_.jpg|1268631], Fowles presents the reader with an entomologist named Frederick who has just recently ran into a large sum of money prior to winning the pools. Instead of doing something reasonable with the money, however, he ends up purchasing a giant house and kidnaps Miranda - an innocent girl who he has been stalking obsessively - in order to get her to fall in love with him.
The perspective choices which Fowles made were of the biggest surprise to me, and I think that they are really what made the book stand out to me so much. It really was not written nor crafted in the way that I expected, and I found myself being sucked into this book. All I wanted to do was read it to find out what happened next, but I did not want it to end.
There is so much I so want to say about the connections between Miranda and Frederick, but I will refrain as I highly recommend anyone who is a fan of Nabokov or is simply interested in reading it to go in as blind as possible. This book is such an interesting character study that really forces you to love or despise the characters depending on whose lens you're peeking through, and it makes this book even more brutal the deeper you get into it.
It's not a lot of guts and gore if that's what you're looking for, but it is certainly something psychologically stimulating that makes for an interesting character study and a frustratingly sorrowful read. Definitely one of my favorite horror novels I've read in awhile.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not relatable I would've bagged G.P
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Stalking
Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual content
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was horrible to read, it hated every second of it. But it was also one of the best books I have read in a long time.
I cried for Miranda and any future girls he will abduct, they deserve so much better than to spend their last days in a prison cell.
It feels incredibly weird to rate this book 5 stars, but it was just so good in my opinion... Again I hated reading it, but that's the whole point. You're supposed to hate it.
I cried for Miranda and any future girls he will abduct, they deserve so much better than to spend their last days in a prison cell.
It feels incredibly weird to rate this book 5 stars, but it was just so good in my opinion... Again I hated reading it, but that's the whole point. You're supposed to hate it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexism, Excrement
Me encantó! A pesar de que es un libro bastante viejito fue muy fácil de leer, las primeras 80-100 hojas que fueron de Frederick estuvieron muy entretenidas, pero, cuando se llega al diario de Miranda todo estaba muy raro y describía muy turbio cómo era su relación con G.P. En fin, el final estuvo bastante triste y retorcido porque después de la muerte de Miranda, se encuentra con Marian, quien seguramente sería su siguiente víctima. 5/5 estrellas, muy buen libro.
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It took me forever to finish, but it’s so beautifully written. The descriptions and points of view really capture each moment in an unforgettable way.
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
You capture an almost utterly boring character on paper perfectly as you intended, but more than half of your book is from that character’s POV, so a big chunk of your book becomes more or less as boring as the character.