Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Anna Karenina

Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

170 reviews

madsness's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional inspiring sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

One of my favorite books I read this fall. I truly think if you are going to choose a longer Tolstoy work that this is the one to go with. It's all about love, god, and truly one of the most insane breakdowns I've ever seen in my life. While the farming parts are oh-so-slow, I have to admit they are masterfully done. Take your time and try to chunk it out!

Content Warnings

bookish_bry's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

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.

Content Warnings

thomasdj's review against another edition

4.75

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

Content Warnings

edwardian_girl_next_door's review against another edition

4.75

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

Content Warnings

rebeccadass's review against another edition

3.25

reflective 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

katybradley888's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

shellbell's review against another edition

4.25

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

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

Content Warnings

cheuksin's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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

Content Warnings