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basmel's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
In general quite interesting, I loved the political setting around WWI.
The characters have a natural story arc which are mostly interesting to follow.
There's unnecessary name-calling which fully put me off, e.g. a few instances of fatshaming which don't seem to have a plot point but just seems to be Follet distastefully stressing that some person is really fat?
Follet will emphasize how millions have died in the war and yet all of the main characters seem te get away with a scratch at most. This broke the spell for me and quickly made me realise Follet wasn't about to kill any important characters.
I didn't like all the main characters coming into contact with eachother at some point, for example it seemed to coincidental for two friends to meet on the battlefield (twice!). Also I didn't feel it really added to the story.
Follet doesn't seem to know how a hymen works?
Halfway through the story I realised Follet has completely sanitised his world from capitalism. The serfs in Russia and coal miners aren't mad because of their economic exploitation, they're mad because of incompetence from the aristocracy. Seemed to me like a cheap political sellout bordering on casual falsification of history.
Overall I'm glad I read the book, but along the way I got a bit disappointed by what the story could have been.
The characters have a natural story arc which are mostly interesting to follow.
There's unnecessary name-calling which fully put me off, e.g. a few instances of fatshaming which don't seem to have a plot point but just seems to be Follet distastefully stressing that some person is really fat?
I didn't like all the main characters coming into contact with eachother at some point, for example it seemed to coincidental for two friends to meet on the battlefield (twice!). Also I didn't feel it really added to the story.
Follet doesn't seem to know how a hymen works?
Halfway through the story I realised Follet has completely sanitised his world from capitalism. The serfs in Russia and coal miners aren't mad because of their economic exploitation, they're mad because of incompetence from the aristocracy. Seemed to me like a cheap political sellout bordering on casual falsification of history.
Overall I'm glad I read the book, but along the way I got a bit disappointed by what the story could have been.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia
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