Reviews with content warning for War - The Alchemist

This certainly wasn't my favorite book. And truth be told, there are two reasons I read this book.
1) It's on my Top 100 Books poster and I needed to scratch it off
2) My partner read it and hated it, so I wanted to see what was 'bad' about it.

It's a fairly simple story. Santiago receives a vision to follow omens to the Pyramids to find treasure. It's a simple story, easy to follow, and everything makes sense. However, the book relies on too much god talk(which is fine, it's the point of the book, it's just not for me). And it relies even more on the concept of "everything will be fine if you just believe" which I hate for a plethora of reasons.

As a book, it's fine for what it is. The translator did an excellent job, and the writing was really nice for the kind of story it was telling. I can see why so many people enjoy this book. It's just not for me, but I'm giving it 3 stars anyways because it was a quick read, an easy read, and overall the story was nice.

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zaraha's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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freechiken's review against another edition

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inspiring reflective relaxing 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? No

3.0

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lenni_sc's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

Die Erzählweise durch die Hauptcharaktere basiert stark auf dem Glauben an einen Gott (unabhängig der Religion) beziehungsweise einer alles erschaffenden Hand. Schafft man es über diese Tatsache hinweg zu sehen, eröffnet die Geschichte dem Lesenden lehrreiche Einblicke in die Gestaltung eines zufriedenen Lebens abseits konventioneller Vorstellungen.
Für mich persönlich hätte es den starken Glaubensbezug in dem Buch (insbesondere in der zweiten Hälfte) nicht gebraucht. Ich kann aber verstehen, dass dieser vor dem Hintergrund der Handlungsorte und auch der Hauptperson durchaus von Bedeutung ist. Auch als Person die diesen Glauben nicht unbedingt teilt, bietet die Geschichte Möglichkeiten über den persönlichen Lebensweg und Entscheidungen zu reflektieren sowie das Vertrauen in sich selbst zu stärken seinen eigenen Weg zu gehen um ein zufriedenes Leben unabhängig von der Erwartungshaltung der Gesellschaft führen zu können.

„Warum müssen wir auf die Stimme des Herzens hören ?“ „Weil dort, wo es weilt, auch dein Schatz liegen wird.“

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sophietremblay's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring reflective 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? No

2.0

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marisa_n's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

1.0

--- Warning: spoilers and rage ahead ---

To all the lovely people that recommended The Alchemist, I'm sad to say I truly hated this book. Now, before you come for me with torches and pitchforks, hear me out.

One of the biggest themes of the book ("when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”) really rubbed me the wrong way. It reminds me of the modern "manifest your life" nonsense from self-help books. This messaging is harmful. It suggests that "successful" people (the rich, powerful, fulfilled, etc) have achieved their dreams through hard work, faith, and destiny. Moreover, it suggests that unsuccessful (and therefore unhappy) people only have themselves to blame, as they clearly just didn't want their dreams badly enough. This sentiment completely ignores privilege, luck, and other obstacles. Overall I thought the messaging was problematic, over-simplistic, and about as deep as a kitty pool. Moreover, the delivery was far too heavy-handed (the phrase "to beat a dead horse" comes to mind).

Another point of frustration was the love interest, Fatima. She was written as a placeholder so the main character could say he knew what love was--which was actually lust, but I digress. She was not written with any depth or ambition, unlike all of the male characters. In some ways, she reminded me of Penelope from Odyssey; she's written as a beautiful, loyal woman who waits patiently for the hero to return from his world travels. Meanwhile, inanimate objects (copper, lead, the sun, etc.) can speak and pursue their own personal legends. If minerals get to have their own personal legends, then for Pete's sake give Fatima some ambitions of her own.

Perhaps this book would be more appealing to someone with a different view on life. If you're someone that likes to say "everything happens for a reason" and "it's all a part of god's plan," then you might like this book. However, if those words make you want to flip a table (like me) then maybe skip this book.

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bill369's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

4.0

My librarian recommended me this book and so I read it.

I didn't grow to like the characters, I don't have a favourite. They just felt so unrelatable, however, I did like many thoughts of the Alchymist, I think they are inspiring and truthful. I'll talk about them more later on though. It was nice having some portraits of them, it made the whole experience better for me personally and there were some interesting characters. For instance, the glassblower, who gave up on his dreams, reconciled with life in the glass shop. Even though things could change for him after Santiago's arrival, he chose to keep them the same way. That made me see things from a different perspective and helped me realize some people will never start truly living because it's too challenging for them. I hope I won't end up like him.

The theme of the book is finding your own path in life. It's written in a readable way and it has quite a few good thoughts. It's closely connected with alchemy, which, from what I learned, is about finding the purpose of things too. It's an interesting and edifying theme for sure and I did enjoy it. The book puts it well, however, I think a book with the same theme with a story set in the present and in some more known location, like a city, would be more understandable and enjoyable.

There were quite a few parts I liked, from all these I chose just two. First one is on page 143, it's talking about situation Fatima's in and I find these lines sad and reletable. In my opinion, they're the most tragic lines in the book. The lines are:

Fatima zašla do stanu. Za chvíli mělo vyjít slunce. Až nastane den, půjde ven a bude dělat to, co už dělá řadu let; všecko se však změnilo. Santiago už nebude v oáze a oáza nebude mít týž smysl jako ještě krátce předtím. Už to nebude místo s padesáti tisíci datlovníků a třemi sty studní, kam po dlouhé cestě přijíždějí spokojení poutníci. Oáza teď pro ni bude prázdným místem.

The other lines are right on the page 144, they are between Stantiago and Alchymist and are about the situation mentioned previously. There's a big difference though, because while the first few lines are quite sad, these are wise and enlightening. The lines are:„Jestli to, co jsi nalezl, je z čisté látky, nikdy to nepodlehne hnití. A ty se jednou budeš moci vrátit. Jestli to byl jen okamžik světla jako výbuch hvězdy, pak po návratu nenajdeš nic. Viděl jsi však výbuch světla. A už to stojí za to.“

The ending was nice, it didn't make me feel anything really, but it sure was nice. I am glad things turned out well for everyone.

The theme and the content of the book are great, however, I didn't get to love the characters and I miss that here. Having loveable characters is important for me and this book is no different. I suppose the wise words make up for it and that's why the rating is so high. In the end, I liked the book, but it's just not going to be my all-time favourite, however, it might be a book that made a change in my point of view on the world and that surely counts for something.

Content Warnings

melarareading's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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? No

4.5

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