Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

6 reviews

lisahopevierra's review against another edition

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

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Death, Abandonment, Murder, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry

theskyisthelimit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Overall, the writing and story were phenomenal. In fact, a certain misfortune upon a certain character made my eyes water just a little for a book (or movie, or story) for the first time. Absolutely terrific! The only things that really kept it from being five stars was the romance, as it felt rushed and unnecessary, and the slight lack of depth in Oliver’s character. I would have liked to see Oliver’s personality other than simply his morals or attitude (i.e. his interactions with Dick, the orphan boy Oliver became good friends with). I also find it worth mentioning that while some have commented on the misogyny in this book as a negative quality, I must disagree. You’ll notice the characters clearly depicted as “bad” are the misogynistic ones and those that are good or at least somewhere in the middle oppose it. Not to mention, some of the kindest and bravest characters are women, so if anything, I would say this book, while not necessarily feminist, is certainly anti-misogyny. 

Nancy’s death made me quite sad (even though I knew what was going to happen ahead of time) and the death of Sikes stood out to me as singularly grotesque save for deaths written by Poe himself, and I greatly applaud Charles Dickens for his spectacular writing in these two instances specifically.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Child death, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Abandonment, Classism, and Death

Moderate: Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Incest, Infidelity, and Alcohol

dwager's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense

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

This book is early Dickens, and wanders a bit in terms of the story line. It is a dark and melodramatic look at the underworld of Victorian England,  much darker than any adaptation I've seen. The characters are archetypes of criminals, innocent child, benevolent grandfather, etc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Bullying, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Physical abuse, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Forced institutionalization, and Deportation

dannilmp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad slow-paced

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

3.5

For my first venture into reading Dickens as an adult, I was not disappointed. Actually I am glad I have very vague or no memories of the various film adaptations (aside from Oliver and Company) so that I could read this novel with fresh eyes to the story. 

Firstly, I expected to struggle with understanding the type of language used and the way sentences are strung together in classic literature but I was pleasantly suprised when I found I was flying through the pages, only having to go back and re-read passages a few times. The addition of footnotes at the end of the book was very helpful as well. I enjoyed watching Oliver grow throughout his trials and tribulations and the occasional illustrated scene in this edition was a lovely touch. I felt the way each character's story wrapped up was the highlight of this book for me and certainly the ending has stuck with me. 

On the other hand, this edition had a section for noting changes between various editions of the novel as it was released but it was not easy to notice this while I was reading, it was something I stumbled across as I was looking for footnotes for other explanations. Additionally, it was quite a chore to keep having to flick to the back of the book every time a footnote appeared, I do prefer footnotes written at the bottom of pages but I feel this was a small price to pay for easier understanding of the novel's concepts. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Kidnapping and Violence

Minor: Blood and Injury/Injury detail

julianh's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

Minor: Kidnapping

jrjohnson1408's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, and Child abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Child death and Alcohol