Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
a disgustingly concerning number of seren and emil parallels
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Pretty interesting with some informative moments, strong imagery, and insightful worldview. Probably not as good as Siddhartha but in a somewhat similar vein.
Гессе не перестает радовать. Читаю его медленно, вдумчиво, осторожно, чтобы ничего не пропустить.
Глубокая книга, мне кажется, что прочесть ее нужно еще будучи подростком. Тогда она способна оказать очень сильное влияние на становление личности.
Глубокая книга, мне кажется, что прочесть ее нужно еще будучи подростком. Тогда она способна оказать очень сильное влияние на становление личности.
challenging
reflective
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-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
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-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
Really interesting themes and beautiful prose, a very strange book!
It's hovering around a 3.5 for me but I'm feeling generous today. [Edit: I've come back to this and am no longer feeling generous so it's a 3 now.] I first picked this book up because I wanted to understand the references BTS made to this book in their "Blood Sweat & Tears" music video; I ended up finishing it simply because it felt like a disservice to the past few hours I spent reading it to not. It's strange actually. Had the book been just a smidgen longer, I would've dropped it where it ends now. Why? The book struck an interesting balance between narration and introspection- though I had to take quite a few breaks in between, I did end up finishing the book with just the littlest amount of interest left to get me through the last chapter.
I was so lost during parts of the book, and only after going back to read the Introduction, did I learn that it was a war novel and heavily religious. (I'd skipped the Introduction before because I was warned that it would spoil parts of the book.) I'd picked up on the religious sentiment (Hesse makes it hard not to) but a lot of the allusions he made were lost on me. I was not a fan of the mystical and spiritual aspects either. As a non-believer, it was interesting to see how Hesse tied together Biblical stories to his characters but when it got dense, I quickly lost interest. It was just really difficult for me to relate to something I found hard to believe in. In fact, I even saw some of it as hogwash. Sometimes it got so unbelievable that I couldn't see how this book was even helpful if it couldn't be applied to real life. The "us versus them" mentality also ruffled my feathers because it reeked of a superiority complex, which Hesse later cleared up, but it still didn't help convince me of whatever he was preaching.
That said, there were manageable parts as well. I enjoyed learning about Sinclair's journey to discovering himself and a lot of what he found, I will remember. I also did end up uncovering a lot of the references made in the music video, so the hours spent reading this weren't completely in vain. It was more-or-less a win!
I was so lost during parts of the book, and only after going back to read the Introduction, did I learn that it was a war novel and heavily religious. (I'd skipped the Introduction before because I was warned that it would spoil parts of the book.) I'd picked up on the religious sentiment (Hesse makes it hard not to) but a lot of the allusions he made were lost on me. I was not a fan of the mystical and spiritual aspects either. As a non-believer, it was interesting to see how Hesse tied together Biblical stories to his characters but when it got dense, I quickly lost interest. It was just really difficult for me to relate to something I found hard to believe in. In fact, I even saw some of it as hogwash. Sometimes it got so unbelievable that I couldn't see how this book was even helpful if it couldn't be applied to real life.
Spoiler
Are you really telling me people have dreams of the world ending and believe in it because they have some mark on their head and are "different"? Ridiculous. (In retrospect, Demian's dream was only a foreshadowing of the Great War but I lacked the context so it bothered me more than it should have.)That said, there were manageable parts as well. I enjoyed learning about Sinclair's journey to discovering himself and a lot of what he found, I will remember. I also did end up uncovering a lot of the references made in the music video, so the hours spent reading this weren't completely in vain. It was more-or-less a win!
I enjoyed the first part of the book but the ending waas so dissapointing.