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bibiran's review
dark
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
knut hamsun tryna CATCH ! THIS !! FADE !!!
ok but in all seriousness, i was actually enjoying the book like i started and finished it in a few hours, it was pretty easy to follow. some warning signs should have gone off in my head about the ending when i saw that this was a Norwegian classic though lol.
the writing style was pretty straightforward, but there were moments when it sort of took a detour into these beautiful long poetic rants about love and life that i came to really enjoy. now what i did NOT enjoy was the narrative structure, i could follow it well enough until a little less than or around 2/3s into the book, then it takes to borderline soap-opera tactics to keep them apart until... you know.. the ending, which was very sudden and unsatisfying by the way.
i also thought the age gap between johannes and victoria was a bit.. strange when they were younger. it's a gap of 4 years which doesn't really matter later in life but at the ages of which he was first infatuated with her (her 10 and him 14) it was a little bit strange? so i had my reservations about that, but they managed to make me root for them as the story went on, they completely lost me after the point of the book i mentioned, after a certain HUGE turn happens during an engagement celebration hunt.. yeah.
and lastly for a book called "Victoria" they didn't focus on her side of the story enough for the ending to land as emotionally for me as it should have, in my opinion. feel like it would have been cooler if she hadn't declared her love to him at all and then after the final event in the book the whole rest of the book is the story told from her point of view, not to knock something that's over 100 years old but THAT would've gotten me writhing and screaming, just saying.
but recap, top positive was the beautiful random poetic philosophy detours, would enjoy a whole book like that from him if there is one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Death of parent
aurorasgrande's review
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Gun violence
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