Reviews

What Is the What by Dave Eggers

aclameiras's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

leoreader94's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

babyruth510's review

5.0

An amazing first hand account of a lost boy from Sudan. I highly recommend this book.

mskiiwii's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Amazing, inspirational story. Not something I would’ve picked for myself. A friend gave me the book and I am so glad she did. 

sarahchoi's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

marielle68's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

elizabethwillett's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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? No

3.5

julieodette's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

a13xander's review against another edition

informative sad slow-paced

2.25

The story of Valentino Achak Deng is amazing and unbelievable. The way Dave Eggers told it was not. It took me almost five months to finish this book and that's even considering I had to skim through some of it, otherwise I firmly think it'd taken me six or seven months. The reason for that is merely the storytelling. 

Throughout this book I found myself thinking this was great and even recommending the book to people - but then it hit me that even though the stories in Achak's life are so incredible, full of pain and distress, and that one can't help but feel sympathy for him and all the people in Sudan -the storytelling was just not up to par, and it made the book so much less enjoyable. 

I do think this needs to be read just to learn about the implications in the story itself, but I would even say watching a documentary on it would be better and far more exciting. Overall I would say it was a poor execution. 

bry_duh's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0