Reviews

La Porte by Magda Szabó

lavrendy's review against another edition

2.0

not a good beach read*

*Update after I’ve thought it over:

While reading this on vacation was definitely not the proper setting, I still think it would have felt like microdosing my own personal hell in any environment. I didn’t enjoy a single page. The main characters and their relationship felt unreasonable. There were way too many dog beatings and not enough realistic interactions.

Like I’ve said before, I love Nothing Books, but only if we get to really see inside a character’s head and grow to understand them and their motives, even if it is slow plot-wise. This didn’t give any proper context for why the characters were making the most shady decisions possible and I got zero payoff at the end.

Two stars for the decent prose and symbolism that probably didn’t make it past my frustration while reading.

mythili's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

jlsjourneys's review against another edition

5.0

What a fascinating, haunting book. I believe this is the first Hungarian novel I’ve read, and I can’t stop thinking about the way Szabo (and translator) uses language … the way she pushes all ten fingers inside the hearts of her characters and pulls the flesh aside so we can see the messy, raw truth. My psychology training found the main characters’ dynamic highly troubled; my creative self found the vivid detail of the dynamic fascinating.

lorees_reading_nook's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

noam's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

frustrating to read, fascinating to think about

minnieb99's review against another edition

2.0

Noioso e didascalico, non mi è piaciuto per niente.

lucyqwang's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

annemijnvk's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Ik heb deze van Nóri gekregen, wat het natuurlijk al een speciaal boek maakt en ik heb het dan ook met volle aandacht gelezen. Je ziet de relatie tussen Emerence en de (autobiografische) hoofdpersoon opbouwen en afbreken in een serie anekdotes. Het is echt heel mooi geschreven.

De laatste 100 pagina’s voelde alleen een beetje als een downward spiral. Nóri omschreef het mooi als dat je t eigenlijk allemaal mis ziet gaan maar niet kan ingrijpen, maar dat je toch nog hoopt dat alles goedkomt. Maar dat zegt wel iets over de kwaliteit van het boek.

Ik ben benieuwd of meer geopolitieke context het nog een beter boek zou maken.

aislingk7's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

3.5

samridhi's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0