Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Flowers for Algernon

"It's easy to have friends if you let people laugh at you. I'm going to have a lot of friends where I go."

❇ It's incredible how the writing it's done in a way we can gradually see Charlie changing. That was a fundamental touch following the main plot;
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❇ The audiobook (narrated by Jeff Woodman) was perfect, you could see the difference in the writing and FEEL them through his voice;
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❇ One thing that pushed me back pushed was the ableism in this book; Charlie's own parents were terrible to him. His mother in denial that his son wasn't "normal", his father being neglectful and the doctors themselves were terrible too.;
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❇ In approximately 2/3 of the book it was SO tiring and monotonous that I had to stop but mostly it was really well done, the beginning and the end;
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Basically this books finished me and brought me so much pain just by thinking about it. It felt like something that could really happen. On a less serious note: there's an overdose of white people in it (the kind of think you expect for a book written in 1959).

❇ The parallels Charlie makes between what's happening in his life and his memories of his past, not to mention the dreams and the reality of them. art.;
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❇ It's truly devastating to see he navigate his life with open eyes and realize how people around him who he before hold dearly were actually AWFUL;
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❇ It's unclear but it felt like all the trauma he went through made him forgot most of his childhood and even his parents names and faces. Along with the memories that after the surgery reappear in his head.
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❇ It made me so sad to see Charlie growing and dismissing what before was his goals and becoming someone else entirely-
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❇ Guorino is a freaking scam want money and gave unnecessary trauma from unknowing people
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❇ It felt so realistic (?) the whole ideia of doing-a-surgery-to-be-smart coming from ✨trauma✨
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❇ I have SO MANY problems with his mom, for starters: she shouldn't even have kids, she just started treating her kid *even worse* when she found out she could have other children without mental disorders and before that she was terrible to him, always talking shit about him in the very room he was in and then pretending he wasn't listening and if he were that wouldn't matter too because 'he wouldn't understand anyway'
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❇ his sister's development WAS FANTASTIC but I was a little pissed because we all knew her as terrible for later she actually grow into a proper person?
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❇ His regression was so hard to read, that hurt so much, working at the bakery again and the bullying again, the workers at the bakery being his "friends" again after he became like he was before-

- Quotes:
"Charlie, you amaze me. In some ways you're so advance and yet, when it comes to making a decision you're still a child. I can't decide for you, Charlie. The answer can't be found in books or be solved by bringing it to other people, not unless you want to remain a child all your life. You've got to find the answer inside you, feel the right thing to do. Charlie, you've got to learn to trust yourself."

"There is no question about it now. I'm in love. "

"It's easy to have friends if you let people laugh at you. I'm going to have a lot of friends where I go.
PS: please if you get a chance put some flowers on Algernon's grave in the backyard"

"If you ever reed this Miss Kinnian dont be sorry for me Im glad I got
a second chanse to be smart becaus I lerned a lot of things that I never even
new were in this world and Im grateful that I saw it all for a litte! bit."

Content Warnings

locke_reads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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