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3.19 AVERAGE
3.19 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
hark! I hath finally encountered the finish of this godforsaken heathen of a book! beware, o reader, for thine ass can write more coherently and enticingly than this pretentious old man who hath disguised himself as a romantic, but is in secret a messenger of the church! (I fucking hated this experience so much only two stars bc if someone else had written this it would’ve been good)
I somehow never read this in school, and it kind of had me gagged? Hard to get through, but I did want to keep picking it up.
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
On the one hand, you've got Hester, basically sticking it to the man in Puritan Boston, which is pretty cool. Important themes of guilt, secrets, all that jazz. On the other hand...good god, Hawthorne, brevity was not thy friend, was it? This book is DENSE. Like, need-a-nap-and-a-dictionary-after-each-chapter dense – and I read dictionaries for fun. It's slow going, and the sheer wordiness is something else. I swear some paragraphs were just showing off thesaurian skill. I found myself skimming descriptions just to find out what happened next...which often wasn't much, or pages at a time. Worth reading for the lit cred, but maybe clear your schedule.
Rating System:
2.5 Stars: Hints of Mental Beige Overlay. Okay, it wasn't complete sad mental beige. There were moments, maybe a character quirk or a plot point, that generated a hint of color. But it didn’t sustain, leaving me to think about lunch or whether my dogs understand that I speak on their behalf. Finished mostly out of spite, obligation, or because it was better than a blank stare. Vaguely irritating, like an itchy tag or an out-of-place seam on a sock.
challenging
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
A true classic. I am glad I chose to do this as an audio book. It was much easier for me to digest. It would have been much harder for me reading the Old English language. I thought I knew the story, but there was much more to the story than I thought.
A good way to teach the youth about othering and the "us v. them" perspective in society.