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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
As much as I would like to love this book, I think I find it just okay. Jonas has a writing style and a voice that I do love and would want to hear more from but I feel like this was just a little too confused for my liking. In the beginning, I assumed I knew what would happen; a Harold and Maude type romance would bloom in the midst of marital turmoil, and there would be some dramatic confrontation that would result in victory of the new relationship and defeat of the old. Not only was I entirely wrong, but the ending was something I never could have imagined happening in a book like this. I think this is a fantastic story and the underlying themes (age, beauty, sexual desire, marriage etc.) are very interesting and well analyzed, but a more concise story would have made this book perfect.
I flew right through this. If you're not a fan of unreliable characters or overly pretentious books about writing and academia, you should probably skip this one. This was a very weird reading experience but definitely kept me drawn in the whole time. Would recommend!
Ok, it's weird, it's raw, and it's king of real. In the nicest way possible it makes elder people human and emotional and fucked up. Vladimir was just such a pinnacle character to compare the other characters to, a bit of reality, a breath of fresh air from the obsessive and strange and fantastic elder woman. Then he goes fucking wierd amd that just shows how wierd reality is and the secrets. Then she fucking kidnaps him, quick break, love how she describes books and knows how to talk to people and regurgitate what the want to hear, yeah, kidnapping, where the fuck did that come from, fuck knows, but ok. It's not ok, but then he thought it was ok kind of. It just shows academics and older people on a different and obsessive light, it's interesting and real to see those people are fucked up. The obsession isn't more obsessive, for me, its just her witty but sensitive in an obscure way self getting through life as a failed writer, wife, mother, and how that doesn't effect her
This book was very remarkable in the sense that I liked the plot, I liked the style in which it was written, but I disliked every single character and hoped a terrible fate would befall almost all of them. The author does make some cynical, amoral people very compelling. But the fact that the characters were SO selfish, SO self-obsessed (even the one supposedly obsessed with someone else).
It did juxtapose some well known concepts. I did like the selfish, image-obsessed, lustful menopausal main character who in the end, perpetrates all sorts of nonsense on the titular character.
It was good, but ultimately I didn’t find myself attracted to the characters and was rooting against them. Which, may have been exactly the point.
It did juxtapose some well known concepts. I did like the selfish, image-obsessed, lustful menopausal main character who in the end, perpetrates all sorts of nonsense on the titular character.
It was good, but ultimately I didn’t find myself attracted to the characters and was rooting against them. Which, may have been exactly the point.
“I would never have anything to say. I knew theoretically that everything was happening all the time and that I only needed to sit and look closely and I would find a story worth telling.”
Captivating book about power dynamics and obsession.
If you are looking for dark academia books for October's Uncorked Reading Challenge theme, 2022 new book release, Vladimir, would make for an interesting selection and discussion.
Dry, witty, and provocative, you want to hate this book but cannot stop reading it. A story about sex and power, age and academia, this one will blow you away.
Read our full review on The Uncorked Librarian here: https://www.theuncorkedlibrarian.com/best-dark-academia-books/
Dry, witty, and provocative, you want to hate this book but cannot stop reading it. A story about sex and power, age and academia, this one will blow you away.
Read our full review on The Uncorked Librarian here: https://www.theuncorkedlibrarian.com/best-dark-academia-books/
Well that took a turn. A dramatic finish to what was until that point a pretty ho hum bougie middle aged white lady in a troubled marriage story.
Wish it hadn't taken me as long to read this as it did, but wow, it was worth trudging through.
Loved the complexity of the characters. Snotty and self-righteous and just downright deplorable. So interesting to read.
Loved the complexity of the characters. Snotty and self-righteous and just downright deplorable. So interesting to read.