Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Libro que nos incluye la historia principal más 4 relatos breves. Es una historia que me ha gustado, y donde vemos como cualquier persona tras un descubrimiento increíble siempre quiere más y a costa de todo.
I had a collection H.G. Wells major works and had read The Time Machine and the Island of Doctor Moreau first, giving both 4 stars, so was looking forward to The Invisible Man. But, it was a big disappointment for me. The social and cultural themes of the other two works were absent, when there was great potential with the central concept to say something interesting. Instead, I found it dull, wasteful of such an imaginative idea, and like Griffin, without any redeeming qualities. A big shame.
The plot is essentially the title with The Invisible Man - there's a man and he's invisible! We learn how that came to be, and the reasoning and ramifications for this development.
This is my first experience with Wells and I was enjoying it through the first half, which thrusts us into the middle of the invisible man's story. However, it begins to lag at the mid-point, where Wells uses my least favorite narrative device from the time period, which is that Person A and Person B meet halfway through Person A's story and Person A narrates his origin story to Person B. Frankenstein employed this same method, and it drove me crazy there, and still did here, despite the fact that Wells' writing style is more my speed. Once we passed through flashback city, the story picked up again, but I couldn't get back into it as ardently as I had been in the first half after losing steam.
I found Wells' writing surprisingly charming, and at times darkly funny, which I didn't anticipate. Honestly, I think he could've just as easily passed this off as a dark comedy and I'd love to see a modern film reinterpretation done in that fashion. Though the execution wasn't completely effective, the concept and writing style is enough for me to pick up more Wells down the line.
This is my first experience with Wells and I was enjoying it through the first half, which thrusts us into the middle of the invisible man's story. However, it begins to lag at the mid-point, where Wells uses my least favorite narrative device from the time period, which is that Person A and Person B meet halfway through Person A's story and Person A narrates his origin story to Person B. Frankenstein employed this same method, and it drove me crazy there, and still did here, despite the fact that Wells' writing style is more my speed. Once we passed through flashback city, the story picked up again, but I couldn't get back into it as ardently as I had been in the first half after losing steam.
I found Wells' writing surprisingly charming, and at times darkly funny, which I didn't anticipate. Honestly, I think he could've just as easily passed this off as a dark comedy and I'd love to see a modern film reinterpretation done in that fashion.
Spoiler
The plot of the story is: man thinks being invisible would be awesome, turns out he didn't totally think that through. For real, it became kind of funny how poorly thought-out this idea was.
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The beginning was a little slow paced for me, but once it got to the middle and ending and focusing on Griffin more I started to enjoy it more. Seeing Griffin's true nature was fascinating, and the descriptions of his invisibility process were grotesque.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Murder
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
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
From Chūnibyō to Nostalgia: Revisiting Wells & The Invisible Man
I first read The Invisible Man when I was in 5th grade. I had just finished my final exams and was waiting to start middle school. Back then, I used to read a children's magazine called Baalhans, which came out every fortnight. One day, during a visit to my usual bookstore near the railway station, my eyes landed on an illustrated edition of The Invisible Man. At the time, I didn’t know anything about H.G. Wells or book genres like sci-fi or whatever. I just picked up anything with an interesting title or cover (which, to be honest, is still somewhat the case, though not in the same way). Since The Invisible Man checked both boxes, I bought it instead of my usual magazine. I didn’t have enough money for both, so... yeah.
I ended up spending my entire holiday reading The Invisible Man before my results came out and the admission process began. I was around 11 or 12, and the story absolutely amazed me. I even went through a bit of a Chūnibyō phase, acting like Griffin, lol. I remember wanting to read more of Wells' works, but it was pure luck that the bookstore even had that one. The shopkeeper had no idea who the author was, and he definitely wasn’t going to track down more books just for one customer. And, of course, there was no internet back then where I could just look everything up, not that I even knew how to use it at the time. Thinking it might be impossible to get more books like The Invisible Man, I eventually moved on to other things.
Fast forward to today, I was walking through a thrift store and came across an H.G. Wells definitive collection, which includes five or six of his stories. Of course, The Invisible Man is in it, so that’s the first one I decided to revisit. Obviously, I didn’t feel the same level of amazement as I did at 12, I've seen countless movies and TV shows inspired by his works, either directly or indirectly, but the nostalgia was totally worth it. I guess I’m finally going to fulfill my childhood wish of reading more of Wells’ stories this time.
I probably won’t write reviews for all of them, since I already know the basic outlines of most through various media references, but I had to write this one for The Invisible Man’s sake and for my 12-year-old self. Just to preserve the memory in the form of this Goodreads review, haha.
I first read The Invisible Man when I was in 5th grade. I had just finished my final exams and was waiting to start middle school. Back then, I used to read a children's magazine called Baalhans, which came out every fortnight. One day, during a visit to my usual bookstore near the railway station, my eyes landed on an illustrated edition of The Invisible Man. At the time, I didn’t know anything about H.G. Wells or book genres like sci-fi or whatever. I just picked up anything with an interesting title or cover (which, to be honest, is still somewhat the case, though not in the same way). Since The Invisible Man checked both boxes, I bought it instead of my usual magazine. I didn’t have enough money for both, so... yeah.
I ended up spending my entire holiday reading The Invisible Man before my results came out and the admission process began. I was around 11 or 12, and the story absolutely amazed me. I even went through a bit of a Chūnibyō phase, acting like Griffin, lol. I remember wanting to read more of Wells' works, but it was pure luck that the bookstore even had that one. The shopkeeper had no idea who the author was, and he definitely wasn’t going to track down more books just for one customer. And, of course, there was no internet back then where I could just look everything up, not that I even knew how to use it at the time. Thinking it might be impossible to get more books like The Invisible Man, I eventually moved on to other things.
Fast forward to today, I was walking through a thrift store and came across an H.G. Wells definitive collection, which includes five or six of his stories. Of course, The Invisible Man is in it, so that’s the first one I decided to revisit. Obviously, I didn’t feel the same level of amazement as I did at 12, I've seen countless movies and TV shows inspired by his works, either directly or indirectly, but the nostalgia was totally worth it. I guess I’m finally going to fulfill my childhood wish of reading more of Wells’ stories this time.
I probably won’t write reviews for all of them, since I already know the basic outlines of most through various media references, but I had to write this one for The Invisible Man’s sake and for my 12-year-old self. Just to preserve the memory in the form of this Goodreads review, haha.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Good read. Very deep. Interesting perspective on human nature and what we would try to get away with if there was no threat of repercussions
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes