Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

206 reviews

vanillaphantoms's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Long and slow book an not really my genre but I had to read it for school. Could easily be someone’s book if they’re the target audience, just don’t go in thinking it’s a romance. It’s not so much a  book about love as it is a book about imperial Russian social politics 

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bookish_bry's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Overall I enjoyed Anna Karenina. It had a lot of interesting and complex characters. I found each of them being my favorite at different points in the novel (except Vronsky whom I did not particularly like) and I found myself annoyed with them at different times. 

The foreshadowing was done great. I especially liked how
trains were constantly mentioned throughout the book foreshadowing Anna's eventual suicide. The horse metaphor was also pretty well done.
 

It did drag in some places, though really what can you expect from a book of this length, and while I understood the strategy behind the last part
after Anna's suicide, Levin's revelation wasn't particularly interesting to me. I actually disagree with the choice to not share his spiritual thoughts with Kitty and think that could have been a more satisfying ending to me personally.

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thomasdj's review against another edition

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challenging dark lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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edwardian_girl_next_door's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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celestialplant's review against another edition

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

3.25


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katybradley888's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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shellbell's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

 I really enjoyed the dialogue in this book. With reading Fyodor Dostoevsky "The Brothers Karamazov" when both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky wrote about hints of Communism and to know the history of what happened is just so interesting 

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lanaaa21's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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kateships's review against another edition

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

5.0

As soon as I was done with this book I wanted to start over. It’s very dense so it’s slow to read the first time, but once I adjusted, I ate it up. The parts that went in depth about farming and politics were a bit slow but still kind of interesting. Having a family tree handy is useful for this one too, as a the groups of characters all intersect in ways and there are repetitive names. 
This story is beautifully done, tragic, romantic, complicated. 

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cheuksin's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I fully understand why they call this book one of the best books ever written. Before reading this book, I did not realise that it was the one of the longest books ever written. It took me three months to finish. I even had to completely re-read the first part because I didn’t understand it the first time, but then after that I was basically hooked.  
However there are many characters and it’s easy to get them confused especially since there are 3 guys called Alexander. I would go in depth about each of the main characters but there are simply to many.
If you want a modern day comparison, it’s kind of like reading Bridgerton (I’ve  only  watched the show) or reign but more dramatic. I am still yet to watch the Anna Karenina movie, but I will soon just to see how they depict such a deeply complex story. 
The only part that annoyed me was
There were a few plot points that I felt weren’t fully completed. Like how did her husband and son react to her suicide???!?! This was heavily glossed over and instead replaced by Levin Constantine Dmitrich (Kostya)’s drawn out Monologue about Christianity

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