Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Frankenstein (Painted Editions) by Mary Shelley

41 reviews

ankan_tove's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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My favorite book for sure

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Incest, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Classism

Minor: Incest, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Islamophobia, Murder

elysianpoison's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence

Moderate: Classism

shaleen64's review against another edition

2.0

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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1 star for the ‘monsters’ story and 1 star for the underlying moral and philosophical themes. 

However, otherwise I’ve never found it so difficult to read so few pages and wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone especially those trying to get into classics.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Classism

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content

Minor: Death, Misogyny, Racism

trash_panda_reads's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This is a classic that heavily influences the horror and science fiction genres to this day. Within this book I truly think there is a great story about grief, responsibility, guilt, isolation, the untamable and unknowable essence of nature, and of course what makes a monster. However, there is so much distance from the reader and story that it is hard to be truly engaged in the characters and their emotional plights. The story itself is also laden with winding off shoots and tangents that are usually tied back together at some point to the story, but are so off track that the pacing and tone of the story seems uneven. The book also has a way of forgetting some it's side characters until they are necessary to the plot, or if it is just more convenient not to address them existing in the plot. Also interspersed between the well developed themes on the human condition, there is stereotypes common of the time period of Mary Shelley and the ever annoying theme of poor people are people too, as long as they were once noble.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Racism, Classism

ac_52's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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For having to read this as a school assignment, I didn't think I was going to enjoy it as much as I did. Frankenstein truly is a classic read for those wanting to question what it really means to be human. This book also dove into various different themes that were somewhat radical for the time, including the criticizing of the justice system. 

For the time period it was written in, it was very hard to read at times. There were times that I had to take breaks in reading because I couldn't handle reading the old English any more. There are also times that the story just seems to drag on and on; I would feel like I read 5 pages when I'd really only read 2. It was definitley a huge mental olympic game trying to finish that book, especially because I primarily read it at night time. 

Beyond this, I did really enjoy most of the characters. I was surprised when I reached the point in which

the Creature began speaking. Popular movie adapations seem to skip this- I enjoyed how it added more perspective to the story and explored the humanity of the Creature even though he wasn't truly a human at all

. I thought that there was some good character development from some characters throughout the story.

However, both Victor and the Creature were lacking in development to me. It seemed like they both just got worse the more I read. I'm all for morally gray characters, but this seemed a little too over the top at some times. Especially when Victor dies... The Creature did not need to do all that. There was absolutely no sympathy from me in that moment

.

TLDR; it was a really great book that explored the complexities of humanity and there were some really great characters that were generally loveable 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Abandonment, Classism

Moderate: Death, Incest, Murder

Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury

coolfoolmoon's review against another edition

5.0

mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Moral of the story? Don't have kids in your early 20s.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Incest, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

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The first time I read this book, I was a sophomore in high school, and this was one of the few assigned readings that I actually completed. This is my first reread of the novel—fifteen years later—and I can now say that it still ranks highly among my favorite classic novels! I enjoyed following the incredible/unbelievable journeys of the three narrators, and I can now much better appreciate the Romantic, Gothic, and Transcendentalist elements that Shelley uses to weave her narratives. I think I’ll always be blown away by what Shelley accomplished as a woman of her time and how much of herself she puts into her work. I don’t believe I have anything new under the sun to say about Frankenstein. All I can say is that it truly does live up to the bar against which it is set.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

ttorisaurus's review against another edition

3.75

dark medium-paced

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Stalking, Murder, Abandonment

Minor: Mental illness, Suicide, Death of parent, Classism

mhanson101's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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For over 200 years old it really holds up well as a modern story. I do think that in a modern writing, Frankenstein's failings would have been explored in a different way. Not just from a scientific hubris standpoint and the lack of human perfection from a religious viewpoint, but more explicitly his lack of guidance and care for his creation placed more centrally as the cause of the misery.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Classism

riverofhorton's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 19%

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I decided to DNF this particular version simply because I discovered this to be the heavily edited 1831 version, and I would rather read the original 1818 version.

That said, I was enjoying it up to that discovery and as such will be purchasing and reading a copy of the 1818 text at some point in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism