Reviews

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

suhmown's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.0

The good: I learned a lot, the spy parts were really cool, the ending was pretty fantastic. 

The bad: 250 pages were irrelevant, the entire middle felt so boring, I physically could not pick it up at times because of the dread. 


If you like long winded historical war/politics based books (which I know many do), definitely check it out. Otherwise, read the Wikipedia synopsis 😘

katsugirl's review against another edition

5.0

One of my favorites.

brianhuynh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The contradictions are endless. I feel a profound morose. I would have more to say if this hadn’t stirred a flood of thoughts. 

caymoe23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

rhearne's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

juliloops's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I’ve never felt more Vietnamese 🇻🇳🇻🇳🌏🌏🫡🫡👹👹

Perhaps I missed the point somewhat, but the very graphic, very characteristically descriptive rape scene seemed very unnecessary. To what end did it serve? To emphasize the horror of war? The monsters on both sides? You’ve well proven your point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual violence

Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism

mighty_lizard_queen's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

apyzocha's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

4.75

brandolini's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

jtrogers1992's review against another edition

4.0

3.5 stars but I’ll round up. I think I was more impressed by this novel than anything else. The story is fascinating (but a little hard to follow sometimes due to the lack of quotation marks) and has a lot to say about colonialism, war and revolutions and their outcomes. Def a bit of a slog for me to get through at times but that should be viewed as a comment on the reader more than the novel itself.