Reviews

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

meghamonkey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

seoba's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring slow-paced

4.5

lydslikestea's review against another edition

4.0

a page turner despite its size. Take it on holiday, perfect for beach consumption

deereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-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

3.0

kittyluvr30's review against another edition

3.0

I’m really torn on how I feel about this book. The way the author describes Mumbai and many of the characters was vibrant and gave a lot of life to the story. Particularly with Prabaker, Vikram, Lisa, Didier, and Habib, I really felt like I knew those characters and could sympathize with them and their motives.

At over 900 pages, there are a lot of moments in the book that seemed to drag on. I feel like there are many parts that could stand to be edited out. But, there are also certain parts where the lengthy descriptions benefit the story, and made me laugh or brought me to tears.

With this also being described as a semi auto-biographical novel, it was often hard to discern what is fiction and what is the author’s actual experience. At times, the author was very self-aggrandizing and it got old to hear about how much the locals adored him and his ability to speak Hindi and Marathi lol.

chll_momchil's review against another edition

5.0

God I was so lazy about reading this thing of a book! From the start I knew it would be magnificent but my character beat my resolve. Anyway I don't regret the month it took my to read Shantaram because I think my overall expirience was better. One of the best books I've read with it's complex and diverse characters, storyline and themes. The only thing I disliked was the overuse of cliches in some parts but the final outcome made up for them.

hnist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense slow-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

katesmithfilm's review against another edition

Libby hold ended! Have to try to read the physical one instead of audio. 

agamakota's review against another edition

5.0

Po przeczytaniu tej powieści chyba w końcu wiem co odpowiedzieć kiedy ktoś mnie pyta o „książkę, która zmieniła moje życie”.

sjlg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0