Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

64 reviews

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I’m glad I read this because it’s always good to read the classics. That said, I was a bit disappointed because it feels as though it’s been hyped up all my life as this big Thing. Whereas it just felt neutral. It was a book. It did its job. Not bad, but perhaps overhyped.

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medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I found this a very interesting book. It's honestly a bit surprising I am 24 and haven't read it before, especially given I grew up in a family heavily focused on academics and then got an English degree. I enjoyed it, and I do think I shoud have read it earlier, but I'm glad I have gotten to it now.

I found it an interesting book to use as a touchstone when thinking about the rise of anti-intellectualism in today's modern culture. Lord Henry is someone who is not an intellectual, constantly and openly refusing to engage with anything around him on a true level, but is harrolded by many as a great philosopher, even being a main linchpin in the corruption of Dorian at the beginning. Throughout the narrative, Dorian parrots things Lord Henry has espoused, and continues to encourage a culture of beauty over intelligence or careful thought. Lord Henry is able to avoid consequence by simply not acting on any of the things he says, but Dorian, who says those things as if he does not care, seems incapable of not acting. He is actively seeking the pleasure that Lord Henry insists is there, not noticing when Henry is not doing the same.

The murder of Basil is simply the culmination of this idea that to care about something in a truthful way is wrong. Basil is insulted by both Lord Henry and Dorian in the latter half of the book for being principled. When he acts on his principles, he is acting in a way that Dorian finds tedious and even difficult to endure! Dorian acts as if he is being tortured by having to listen to Basil say that committing transgressions is immoral, and even as he regrets murdering him, he still continues to assert to himself that Basil should not have "put him through" what he was saying.


This idea that beauty is something that is earned by being good and that death is the deserved ending of those who act immorally is something that I will probably take longer to think about. I would probably identify it as the key theme of the novel, which brings up lots of questions. Why is Oscar Wilde so interested in beauty as a concept? Why does he feel inclined to write about it in this way? The idea that death is the natural end of those who are improper is not a new one, especially in the writing of Wilde's cohorts, but this fascination with beauty as emblematic of character, while a common conception at the time, is something that seems unusual.

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dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I've been experiencing the symptoms of BPD while reading this book. 

Chapter eleven was a snoozefest to get through, though afterwards I enjoyed the rest of the book a lot better than the part before it. 

I understood this book, I understood its message, but my god will you ever finish a sentence, Mr Wilde? I would start reading a sentence then forget what I even read by the end of it.

It's a 4.5 for me. If chapter 12 and onwards didn't exist, it would've been lower.

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

another classic down 💪🏼

i'm not even sure how to describe the experience of reading this book. i normally dislike classics, but this was gripping, and thrilling, and twisted and so disgustingly vile.

i felt for dorian, in the beginning. he was just a young man, led astray by the lure of hedonism. henry was enticing, and cunning, and awful. i could see how his influence warped dorian into becoming the self-absorbed man he became.

but ultimately, it was weakness, left unchecked, that ruined him. many times he wanted to run from henry, to ignore his shallow "advice," to save what was left of his soul. but he didn't. 

at the end, i saw a glimmer of hope for him. i thought, perhaps, he could change. but even his hope of self-improvement was selfish. he didn't feel true remorse.

ugh, this book. i feel like i have a million things to say about how it describes perfectly the nature of humanity, but it all sounds pretentious and wanky.

more like dorian GAY, tho, amirite? the homosexuality motifs are barely concealed. the closet is glass.

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challenging dark emotional reflective fast-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

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