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thurs's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
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
5.0
manifeststefany's review against another edition
4.0
What an intense read. It feels like waking from a dream in another dream. Never sure what it means to actually be awake. If you like highly descriptive narration from an unreliable narrator then this is the book for you. Now finished, it feels more like a memory of times passed than just a story. I really enjoyed this book.
schwimfan's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This rating is personal to me - this very well may be worth five stars.
It wasn't what I was expecting. I read a digital copy - I do not recommend that for anyone looking to read it. You are going to want the print. You are going to want to see how it is formatted and be able to turn pages quickly. It matters.
Parts of this were gorgeous. It reads like a fever dream. There are moments I know it is doing something and I admittedly just don't know what it was. In reading reviews, things clicked, I wish I had been able to appreciate it in the moment but I just wasn't there.
It's complicated, it's long, it took me longer to read than any book in recent memory, it's hallucinatory, it's ahead of its time - it's just a lot.
I can't say I enjoyed it but I also didn't dislike it.
It wasn't what I was expecting. I read a digital copy - I do not recommend that for anyone looking to read it. You are going to want the print. You are going to want to see how it is formatted and be able to turn pages quickly. It matters.
Parts of this were gorgeous. It reads like a fever dream. There are moments I know it is doing something and I admittedly just don't know what it was. In reading reviews, things clicked, I wish I had been able to appreciate it in the moment but I just wasn't there.
It's complicated, it's long, it took me longer to read than any book in recent memory, it's hallucinatory, it's ahead of its time - it's just a lot.
I can't say I enjoyed it but I also didn't dislike it.
biblio_creep's review against another edition
3.0
Book Review | DHALGREN by SAMUEL R. DELANY
3/5 ⭐’s | PUB DATE: January 1975
Read if you're looking for:
- A classic of sci-fi & speculative fiction, written by a queer, black man
- Dreamlike, stream-of-consciousness writing style
- Ergodic literature: sections of poetry & journal entries included
- An unconventional timeline that keeps you feeling unmoored & unsure
- A post-apocalyptic setting in a midwestern U.S. city, but we don’t know what happened
Wow, this book is a lot. It’s very hard to describe, and there are a lot of parts that I did not enjoy, but it is definitely completely unique among the books that I have read.
WHAT I LIKED: The prose was very interesting in this book, and you really feel like you’re in some kind of fever dream. The nameless main character (known as the kid) arrives at a fictional midwestern city where something apocalyptic has happened. It’s unclear what occurred, or if it has affected the rest of the U.S. or the world. There are very beautiful descriptions of surrealist visions, and a ton of descriptive metaphor. However, like many others who have read this book, I didn’t feel like I was completely getting it. Many of the characters are interesting and feel like they could be real people in that situation, however I didn’t find anyone particularly likable. Delany does a great job of painting the picture of this post-apocalyptic landscape and the lengths that people go to. You really feel like you are there in the setting, in all of its disgusting, smelly glory. The timeline of the book is always shifting, and you aren’t ever really sure the order of events, giving you an uncomfortable sense of disconnection. In fact, the first line of the book is a continuation of the last line of the book.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: There are so many sex scenes in this book, and a lot of them are minor/adult relationships. I’m not sure what Delany was attempting to convey with all the sex scenes, but I felt that there were way too many, and they were way too long. Eventually, I started skipping through them after the first half of the book. There are also several situations with dubious consent, although I think that was purposeful. One positive though, is that there was a ton of queer relationships shown. I have a feeling that Delany was making a point with these scenes and I just wasn’t getting it, but I have a lot of difficulty reading about minor/adult relationships. Additionally, there are a ton of racial slurs, all over the place, so be aware of that as well.
CW: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis, Pregnancy
WHAT I LIKED: The prose was very interesting in this book, and you really feel like you’re in some kind of fever dream. The nameless main character (known as the kid) arrives at a fictional midwestern city where something apocalyptic has happened. It’s unclear what occurred, or if it has affected the rest of the U.S. or the world. There are very beautiful descriptions of surrealist visions, and a ton of descriptive metaphor. However, like many others who have read this book, I didn’t feel like I was completely getting it. Many of the characters are interesting and feel like they could be real people in that situation, however I didn’t find anyone particularly likable. Delany does a great job of painting the picture of this post-apocalyptic landscape and the lengths that people go to. You really feel like you are there in the setting, in all of its disgusting, smelly glory. The timeline of the book is always shifting, and you aren’t ever really sure the order of events, giving you an uncomfortable sense of disconnection. In fact, the first line of the book is a continuation of the last line of the book.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: There are so many sex scenes in this book, and a lot of them are minor/adult relationships. I’m not sure what Delany was attempting to convey with all the sex scenes, but I felt that there were way too many, and they were way too long. Eventually, I started skipping through them after the first half of the book. There are also several situations with dubious consent, although I think that was purposeful. One positive though, is that there was a ton of queer relationships shown. I have a feeling that Delany was making a point with these scenes and I just wasn’t getting it, but I have a lot of difficulty reading about minor/adult relationships. Additionally, there are a ton of racial slurs, all over the place, so be aware of that as well.
CW: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis, Pregnancy
mx_eyebrows's review against another edition
3.0
Book Review | DHALGREN by SAMUEL R. DELANY
3/5 ⭐’s | PUB DATE: January 1975
Read if you're looking for:
- A classic of sci-fi & speculative fiction, written by a queer, black man
- Dreamlike, stream-of-consciousness writing style
- Ergodic literature: sections of poetry & journal entries included
- An unconventional timeline that keeps you feeling unmoored & unsure
- A post-apocalyptic setting in a midwestern U.S. city, but we don’t know what happened
Wow, this book is a lot. It’s very hard to describe, and there are a lot of parts that I did not enjoy, but it is definitely completely unique among the books that I have read.
WHAT I LIKED: The prose was very interesting in this book, and you really feel like you’re in some kind of fever dream. The nameless main character (known as the kid) arrives at a fictional midwestern city where something apocalyptic has happened. It’s unclear what occurred, or if it has affected the rest of the U.S. or the world. There are very beautiful descriptions of surrealist visions, and a ton of descriptive metaphor. However, like many others who have read this book, I didn’t feel like I was completely getting it. Many of the characters are interesting and feel like they could be real people in that situation, however I didn’t find anyone particularly likable. Delany does a great job of painting the picture of this post-apocalyptic landscape and the lengths that people go to. You really feel like you are there in the setting, in all of its disgusting, smelly glory. The timeline of the book is always shifting, and you aren’t ever really sure the order of events, giving you an uncomfortable sense of disconnection. In fact, the first line of the book is a continuation of the last line of the book.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: There are so many sex scenes in this book, and a lot of them are minor/adult relationships. I’m not sure what Delany was attempting to convey with all the sex scenes, but I felt that there were way too many, and they were way too long. Eventually, I started skipping through them after the first half of the book. There are also several situations with dubious consent, although I think that was purposeful. One positive though, is that there was a ton of queer relationships shown. I have a feeling that Delany was making a point with these scenes and I just wasn’t getting it, but I have a lot of difficulty reading about minor/adult relationships. Additionally, there are a ton of racial slurs, all over the place, so be aware of that as well.
CW: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis, Pregnancy
angorarabbit's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Drug use, Rape, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Racism, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Gun violence
Children as young as 7 are living in unsanitary, unsafe conditions with no parent or guardian. The dog does not die and is not injured.lizawall's review against another edition
5.0
Free your mind! Reading this made me really feel like I felt the feeling of 1968-1972. Just like, washed-out, disorienting, thrilling, exhausting. I felt turned on, confused, a little bit nervous but even more like I wanted a nap. What a ride!
grayjay's review against another edition
5.0
A young man with a faulty memory arrives in the city of Bellona. He rembers growing up on a reservation and he remembers being treated for depression, but he doesn't know his name and he has some confusion about his past.
Bellona is a city that's gone through some kind of disaster—maybe bombing, race riots, metadimensional space-time rift??—no radio or television comes in or out of the city, it is covered in thick smoke, there are still frequent fires, the population has gone from two million to about two thousand, and the rest of the country seems to have forgotten about it.
There are discussions about sex, gender, race, society, politics, religion, art, mental health, memory, consciousness, and more.
The novel is fairly episodic, "the Kid" meeting various characters, developing friendships, having adventures, and exploring the city. In the end, the novel circles round and become the beginning again, making you question all of the answers you think you've found.
There is quite a lot of sex in the book. Kid has many partners—men, women, teenagers, sometimes more than one at a time. A lot of the novel is about his relationships, how he navigates them, how he treats people. There is definitely some problematic emotional and sexual violence. There is a very graphic (consentual) gangbang scene. Also the sex with teenagers thing bothered me.
This and several other things make this a challenging book—it's a door stopper at 800 pages, and while main register is a fairly straightforward third person omniscient, it frequently dips and swerves into a surreal, modernist stream-of-conscience. There were sections I had to re-read to understand.
I think I landed on loving it, even for it's challenges. It's not often that I find a book so challenging also to be a page turner.
Bellona is a city that's gone through some kind of disaster—maybe bombing, race riots, metadimensional space-time rift??—no radio or television comes in or out of the city, it is covered in thick smoke, there are still frequent fires, the population has gone from two million to about two thousand, and the rest of the country seems to have forgotten about it.
There are discussions about sex, gender, race, society, politics, religion, art, mental health, memory, consciousness, and more.
The novel is fairly episodic, "the Kid" meeting various characters, developing friendships, having adventures, and exploring the city. In the end, the novel circles round and become the beginning again, making you question all of the answers you think you've found.
There is quite a lot of sex in the book. Kid has many partners—men, women, teenagers, sometimes more than one at a time. A lot of the novel is about his relationships, how he navigates them, how he treats people. There is definitely some problematic emotional and sexual violence. There is a very graphic (consentual) gangbang scene. Also the sex with teenagers thing bothered me.
This and several other things make this a challenging book—it's a door stopper at 800 pages, and while main register is a fairly straightforward third person omniscient, it frequently dips and swerves into a surreal, modernist stream-of-conscience. There were sections I had to re-read to understand.
I think I landed on loving it, even for it's challenges. It's not often that I find a book so challenging also to be a page turner.