gudrqa's review against another edition

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dark sad tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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chiara_dose's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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maiahhtratchh's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

I’ve always wondered how this book got turned into a Disney movie and passed all the different layers of people to become produced… and then I read it. There is no way ANY sane person can get through and read this book. It made me feel illiterate. I don’t know what happened. Supposedly a chapter was not in the original publication and was viewed at the time to not add anything to the story… honestly that could be ANY of the chapters. I’ll stick to the Disney movie and musical from now on.

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masha__me's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0


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upthestairs's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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seullywillikers's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I'm not sure how to rate a book like this. It is obviously a classic, and for very good reason. It is funny, dark, sad, and suspenseful. But I find it very hard to enjoy something so filled with racism, sexism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and ableism. Overall, I'm glad to have read it. I'm also fairly amazed at how much the Disney movie kept from the original story-it actually follows the book pretty closely. And, as tragedies are such an important part of human story-telling, this one is true to form.

At times I wasn't sure if the author was denouncing all the above-mentioned isms, or agreeing with them. Maybe both, for different things? I'm not sure. I'll give this a star rating to reflect my enjoyment of the reading, and not so much to reflect that it is a classic. When reading stories like this I try to maintain cultural relativism-it is not my time, my culture, my society, therefore I can't judge it the same way I would my contemporary stories, even as I disagree with so much of the wrongs of that time and place.

Ultimately, I'm glad to have read it.

 

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