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4.31 AVERAGE
4.31 AVERAGE
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
challenging
dark
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
Dostoyevsky was of course a master of his genre, and this book was a great read. However, as Crime and Punishment is one of my favorite books of all time, by comparison the Brothers fell a little short for me. While Raskolnikov's moral confusion and depth of anguish left me thinking about him for months after I finished the book, the Brothers are all very content with who they are and, while interesting characters, are not nearly as moving. My heart ached for Raskolnikov, while the Brothers were just reasonably entertaining fictional characters. Still, a captivating read that leaves you wanting to know what happened next, even after the epilogue!
challenging
dark
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
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
there are definitely a lot of concepts and conversations that are in the brothers karamazov that are still relevant today. and that has always been my favorite thing about reading books, that there are feelings we have in 2025 that have already been put to words by a russian man in the 1800s, that all our pain are shared, that we are never alone in our torment.
i love the brothers, and i love katya, and i LOVE grusha with my entire heart.
the entire first 60% of this book is just us learning to fall in love and humanizing the people we were going to follow. if you google this book's synopsis, the entire premise hangs on the parricide. and yet above all that, it is still the life and the heart of the karamazov brothers that take up more than half of this book.
i also absolutely love that it was these headstrong, intelligent, perspicacious women that surrounded our brothers.
i love that while it this almost seemed like two love triangles that might have passed off as a venn diagram, it is also about the circumstances that brought us to this, to book 12 dmitri, alyosha, ivan, and our effervescent smerdyakov.
i love that it did all come full circle, and all the stories that might have seemed so irrelevant in the first half was all to build what kind of people these characters are.
yes, we are not ending with a precise future for our brothers (except for smerdyakov i guess) and yet, isn't that life? we meet people and love them, and when they leave our lives, we don't know precisely where the future will lead them. and like alyosha said, “You often hear people speak about upbringing and education, but I feel that a beautiful holy memory preserved from early childhood can be the most important single thing in our development, and if a person succeeds, in the course of his life, in collecting many such memories, he will be saved for the rest of his life. And even if we have only one such memory, it is possible that it will be enough to save us someday."
i love the brothers, and i love katya, and i LOVE grusha with my entire heart.
the entire first 60% of this book is just us learning to fall in love and humanizing the people we were going to follow. if you google this book's synopsis, the entire premise hangs on the parricide. and yet above all that, it is still the life and the heart of the karamazov brothers that take up more than half of this book.
i also absolutely love that it was these headstrong, intelligent, perspicacious women that surrounded our brothers.
i love that while it this almost seemed like two love triangles that might have passed off as a venn diagram, it is also about the circumstances that brought us to this, to book 12 dmitri, alyosha, ivan, and our effervescent smerdyakov.
i love that it did all come full circle, and all the stories that might have seemed so irrelevant in the first half was all to build what kind of people these characters are.
yes, we are not ending with a precise future for our brothers (except for smerdyakov i guess) and yet, isn't that life? we meet people and love them, and when they leave our lives, we don't know precisely where the future will lead them. and like alyosha said, “You often hear people speak about upbringing and education, but I feel that a beautiful holy memory preserved from early childhood can be the most important single thing in our development, and if a person succeeds, in the course of his life, in collecting many such memories, he will be saved for the rest of his life. And even if we have only one such memory, it is possible that it will be enough to save us someday."
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
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
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dostoevsky is an incredible writer. His descriptions of people are vivid and concise. The first 600 pages essay were often slow; the last 300 pages were like a legal thriller alousha and his mentor present a beautiful picture of what Christianity is supposed to look like.
“I love the sticky leaves in spring, the blue sky—that's all it is. It's not a matter of intellect or logic, it's loving with one's inside, with one's stomach.” -Ivan
*
“I exist. In thousands of agonies — I exist. I’m tormented on the rack — but I exist! Though I sit alone in a pillar — I exist! I see the sun, and if I don’t see the sun, I know it’s there. And there’s a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there.” -Mitya
*
“People talk to you a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man carries many such memories with him into life, he is safe to the end of his days, and if one has only one good memory left in one's heart, even that may sometime be the means of saving us.” -Alyosha
*
“I exist. In thousands of agonies — I exist. I’m tormented on the rack — but I exist! Though I sit alone in a pillar — I exist! I see the sun, and if I don’t see the sun, I know it’s there. And there’s a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there.” -Mitya
*
“People talk to you a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man carries many such memories with him into life, he is safe to the end of his days, and if one has only one good memory left in one's heart, even that may sometime be the means of saving us.” -Alyosha