Reviews

Middagen by Herman Koch

marthamorgan's review against another edition

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

3.75

booksamongstfriends's review against another edition

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1.0

There’s not much for me to say about this book.

I didn’t like it. I didn’t enjoy reading it. I think it tried so hard to be good and seem interesting, but the story kind of just drags on. You could skip to 50% of this book and still be sitting at the dinner table with nobody saying anything. The incident that occurred is supposed to be shocking, but everything after that wasn’t.

This book is aimed to draw focus around the lengths parents will go to and the moral dilemmas they face when it comes to protecting their children. But I think they could’ve introduced the incident a lot earlier and had more discussion about the fallout and everything that came after these revelations. It felt like we spent so much time trying to build up what was supposed to be suspense at this dinner table that you ultimately kind of just lose interest.

valj's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

3.5

houyhnhnm64's review against another edition

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3.0

'Het diner' is vlot en modern geschreven, spannend en onderhoudend. Het leest, kortom, als een trein. Een verdienste, en dat mag zeker worden gezegd. Er wordt ook een intrigerend gegeven opgediend (om het maar even in restauranttermen te formuleren): hoever zou je als ouders gaan om je kind(eren) te beschermen? Zou je er zelfs een moord voor wegmoffelen? En sterker: een moord voor (laten) begaan? Maar het effectbejag overheerst in dit boek. Het biedt een aantal uurtjes leesplezier, maar het is een boek waar ik niet veel aan terug zal denken.

scannon3's review against another edition

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fast-paced

5.0

taaaaammy's review against another edition

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

2.5

agob187's review against another edition

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2.0

Great writing, just not my thing

fleegle's review against another edition

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

3.75

don’t let the comparison to gone girl get you, truth be told it’s not really a fair comparison! however i enjoyed reading it nonetheless, although the beginning is a bit slow and some chapters seem to stray from the main point of the book

tararutland's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

agrec1205's review against another edition

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Really slow start, I kept zoning out.