Scan barcode
felisrl's review against another edition
I don't want to rate this, I can't quite decide between 1 or 5 stars.. it isn't 3 stars either.
Very odd book. But good. But odd.
Also it bugs be so much that the protagonist is called Hans.
Very odd book. But good. But odd.
Also it bugs be so much that the protagonist is called Hans.
lauranadall's review against another edition
3.0
Il était dur. Je ne m’attendais à rien mais pas à ça.
Violence, viol, secte, et tous autres sujets du même style sont présents dans ce livre. Outre ces sujets qui m’ont été durs à lire, j’ai aimé ce livre et ce qu’il dégage.
Violence, viol, secte, et tous autres sujets du même style sont présents dans ce livre. Outre ces sujets qui m’ont été durs à lire, j’ai aimé ce livre et ce qu’il dégage.
ashleyg101's review against another edition
4.0
Mystery? Secret societies? I'M HERE FOR IT. Thanks for the ARC, Edelweiss!
Regarding this book - I'm torn. On the one hand, it was a fast read, engaging, and I really do love anything about secret societies. On the other hand, there were chapters devoted to characters and insights into their behavior that didn't seem completely relevant and didn't really go anywhere (looking at you, Josh), and I feel like a lot of the characters' motivations weren't really fleshed out. There's a particular male character that seems to have feelings for another male character that he's pretending is just friendship, but I honestly don't know because it doesn't go anywhere. The book isn't long enough to wrap up all the questions I had. I wasn't really surprised by the crime Hans was tasked with investigating, but there were twists at the end that I didn't expect. However, it was a pretty straightforward book.
It's a sparse style of writing, and I didn't really connect deeply with any of the characters (again, it could be because of the length), but I did enjoy the look into the boxing scene and the secret society aspect, though I would have loved a more in-depth look into that part of Cambridge.
Regarding this book - I'm torn. On the one hand, it was a fast read, engaging, and I really do love anything about secret societies. On the other hand, there were chapters devoted to characters and insights into their behavior that didn't seem completely relevant and didn't really go anywhere (looking at you, Josh), and I feel like a lot of the characters' motivations weren't really fleshed out. There's a particular male character that seems to have feelings for another male character that he's pretending is just friendship, but I honestly don't know because it doesn't go anywhere. The book isn't long enough to wrap up all the questions I had. I wasn't really surprised by the crime Hans was tasked with investigating, but there were twists at the end that I didn't expect. However, it was a pretty straightforward book.
It's a sparse style of writing, and I didn't really connect deeply with any of the characters (again, it could be because of the length), but I did enjoy the look into the boxing scene and the secret society aspect, though I would have loved a more in-depth look into that part of Cambridge.
perditia's review against another edition
4.0
Ein grolßes, kleines Buch über den Drang dazugehören zu wollen und die Herausdorderung trotzdem kein
Mitläufer zu werden.
Hans Stichler darf im illustren Cambridge studieren aber
nur dann wenn er den elitaren Pitt Club infiltriert und nach Geheimnissen sucht die nicht aufgedeckt werden wollen. Ausmehreren Perspektiven beschrieben und das Hörbuch eingesprochen, sehr gut gemacht!
Mitläufer zu werden.
Hans Stichler darf im illustren Cambridge studieren aber
nur dann wenn er den elitaren Pitt Club infiltriert und nach Geheimnissen sucht die nicht aufgedeckt werden wollen. Ausmehreren Perspektiven beschrieben und das Hörbuch eingesprochen, sehr gut gemacht!
lisan90's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
paceamorelibri's review against another edition
1.0
This has to be one of the most bizarrely terrible things I've ever read. So, the reason I requested this book is because its summary reminded me of a film I like, The Riot Club, which is based off a play I like, [b:Posh|9223649|Posh|Laura Wade|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328731236s/9223649.jpg|14103694] by Laura Wade. It's an ugly story, one that examines the kind of privilege and entitlement and classism and toxic masculinity inherent to elite dining clubs. These are all themes that interest me, and I suppose they must also interest Takis Wurger, but they couldn't have been presented in a more shallow or superficial way in this book if he tried. Characters are caricatures, conflict is nonexistent, the writing is dreadful and perfunctory, the point of view shifts are awkward, and the treatment of its subject matter is appalling. So, let's begin!
[b:The Club|40642329|The Club|Takis Würger|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1532466985s/40642329.jpg|54150382] follows Hans, a German orphan whose aunt Alex contacts him out of the blue when he turns 18 and promises to secure him a place at Cambridge, where she works as a professor in art history, but in return he has to investigate the Pitt Club, an all-male dining club who have committed some kind of crime. There will be some spoilers in the rest of this review, which I try to avoid but frankly I don't care because I wouldn't wish this book on anyone else, but if you don't want to spoiled, quit this review while you're ahead.
So, it's revealed about halfway through that the crime being investigated is rape, and this is handled... about as crudely as humanly possible (also, trigger warnings for the rest of this review as well as for the book). Aside from the fact that Hans' main source of internal conflict comes from whether he should betray the rapists who have become his friends (my heart goes out to you dude, must be real tough), and culminates in a positively absurd scene where Hans is debating whether or not he should allow a drugged girl to be raped in order to obtain damning evidence of the club before overcoming his moral quandary by scooping her up and running out the door with her (never mind the other girls who have been left behind at that party?!), we also have an utterly senseless relationship between Hans and Charlotte, one of the Pitt Club's former victims, which is treated with all the nuance and sensitivity that this sentence would suggest: "I couldn't stop thinking about how wounded she had seemed when she told me about being raped. I wondered what it meant for us." Yes, seriously. And even if we can look past the fact that the entire premise hinges on a man getting justice for a woman being raped, which is a narrative that just... needs to end, period, the way it's handled is so clumsy. Like, at one point, Hans grabs Charlotte's arm and she tells him off because she'd promised herself she'd never let a man touch her without her permission again... good! But then later, she apologizes to him for that?! Wurger goes to great pains to remind us that poor orphaned Hans is the real victim in all this.
And aside from all that, it's just... bad? It's mostly told from Hans' perspective, but other POVs are thrown in and not a single one of them furthers the narrative. We hear from other members of the club who talk like... well, like this: "Basically, I was living proof that money, a place at Cambridge, and a big dick don't make you happy. Fuck." We hear from Alex, who just... weirdly rehashes conversations that we'd JUST read from Hans' perspective. We hear from Charlotte, who you'd think had accidentally slammed her finger in a car door for all the impact a traumatic assault had on her. We hear from a Chinese student named Peter who's obsessed with gaining entry to the club at all costs, and I guess he was also friends with Charlotte at one point but I'm not sure why that detail was included as it's never mentioned again? None of it amounts to anything - some of these characters have arcs, others do not, but nothing is resolved except for the mystery of who raped Charlotte, which is never really a mystery at all (I'll give you a hint: he has a big dick and he's unhappy).
And even Hans is a generic non-entity of a character. This is the kind of insight that Hans would regularly treat us to: "I didn't listen to music; I jogged without music, boxed without music. There'd been music at my parents' funeral." There'd been music at his parents' funeral so he could never listen to music again????? There'd also been clothes as his parents' funeral, I'd assume?! (Also, his parents didn't die at the same time, meaning they would have had multiple funerals, but I'm hoping that was just a typo.) And also: "Charlotte fell asleep on my elbow. After my parents' death I'd thought I could never love again, because the fear of losing someone was too great. I had grown cold inside. Now here was this woman, lying on my arm." Cliche after cliche after cliche. This book just... has nothing at all to say. It wants to be edgy and groundbreaking and enlightening but it is just so painfully vapid in every conceivable way.
I mean, it's quick and readable, I'll give it that, but my god, at what cost.
Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.
[b:The Club|40642329|The Club|Takis Würger|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1532466985s/40642329.jpg|54150382] follows Hans, a German orphan whose aunt Alex contacts him out of the blue when he turns 18 and promises to secure him a place at Cambridge, where she works as a professor in art history, but in return he has to investigate the Pitt Club, an all-male dining club who have committed some kind of crime. There will be some spoilers in the rest of this review, which I try to avoid but frankly I don't care because I wouldn't wish this book on anyone else, but if you don't want to spoiled, quit this review while you're ahead.
So, it's revealed about halfway through that the crime being investigated is rape, and this is handled... about as crudely as humanly possible (also, trigger warnings for the rest of this review as well as for the book). Aside from the fact that Hans' main source of internal conflict comes from whether he should betray the rapists who have become his friends (my heart goes out to you dude, must be real tough), and culminates in a positively absurd scene where Hans is debating whether or not he should allow a drugged girl to be raped in order to obtain damning evidence of the club before overcoming his moral quandary by scooping her up and running out the door with her (never mind the other girls who have been left behind at that party?!), we also have an utterly senseless relationship between Hans and Charlotte, one of the Pitt Club's former victims, which is treated with all the nuance and sensitivity that this sentence would suggest: "I couldn't stop thinking about how wounded she had seemed when she told me about being raped. I wondered what it meant for us." Yes, seriously. And even if we can look past the fact that the entire premise hinges on a man getting justice for a woman being raped, which is a narrative that just... needs to end, period, the way it's handled is so clumsy. Like, at one point, Hans grabs Charlotte's arm and she tells him off because she'd promised herself she'd never let a man touch her without her permission again... good! But then later, she apologizes to him for that?! Wurger goes to great pains to remind us that poor orphaned Hans is the real victim in all this.
And aside from all that, it's just... bad? It's mostly told from Hans' perspective, but other POVs are thrown in and not a single one of them furthers the narrative. We hear from other members of the club who talk like... well, like this: "Basically, I was living proof that money, a place at Cambridge, and a big dick don't make you happy. Fuck." We hear from Alex, who just... weirdly rehashes conversations that we'd JUST read from Hans' perspective. We hear from Charlotte, who you'd think had accidentally slammed her finger in a car door for all the impact a traumatic assault had on her. We hear from a Chinese student named Peter who's obsessed with gaining entry to the club at all costs, and I guess he was also friends with Charlotte at one point but I'm not sure why that detail was included as it's never mentioned again? None of it amounts to anything - some of these characters have arcs, others do not, but nothing is resolved except for the mystery of who raped Charlotte, which is never really a mystery at all (I'll give you a hint: he has a big dick and he's unhappy).
And even Hans is a generic non-entity of a character. This is the kind of insight that Hans would regularly treat us to: "I didn't listen to music; I jogged without music, boxed without music. There'd been music at my parents' funeral." There'd been music at his parents' funeral so he could never listen to music again????? There'd also been clothes as his parents' funeral, I'd assume?! (Also, his parents didn't die at the same time, meaning they would have had multiple funerals, but I'm hoping that was just a typo.) And also: "Charlotte fell asleep on my elbow. After my parents' death I'd thought I could never love again, because the fear of losing someone was too great. I had grown cold inside. Now here was this woman, lying on my arm." Cliche after cliche after cliche. This book just... has nothing at all to say. It wants to be edgy and groundbreaking and enlightening but it is just so painfully vapid in every conceivable way.
I mean, it's quick and readable, I'll give it that, but my god, at what cost.
Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.
karo_221b's review against another edition
3.0
Großartige, überraschende, spannende Charaktere! Die Story war dagegen etwas langsamer als ich erwartet hatte. Die ersten paar Kapitel haben mich beeindruckt weil sie so wunderschön geschrieben sind. Ich hatte aber den Eindruck, dass dieser Zauber sich im Lauf der Geschichte etwas verlor.
kimonobooks's review against another edition
4.0
Schon ein wenig zu spät, aber besser spät als nie, komme ich nun auch im „Club“ an. Ich gestehe, ich habe mich ein wenig geziert, „schon wieder“ ein gehyptes Buch zu lesen, da ich schon des Öfteren enttäuscht wurde. Aber nicht hier und nicht von Takis Würger! „Der Club“ hat mich bereits von der ersten Seite an fesseln können und danach auch nicht mehr losgelassen. Ohne viel über die Story gelesen zu haben, bin ich in Hans‘ Geschichte hineingestolpert, so konnte ich wenigstens frei von Erwartungen lesen. So viel wusste ich: Es geht ums Boxen. Da ich jetzt aber kein Sportfan bin, habe ich den Empfehlungen vertraut und mich einfach blind ins Abenteuer gestürzt. Nun ein paar Worte zum Inhalt:
Hans ist noch jung, als er seine Eltern verliert. Da seine Tante Alex in England ihn nicht aufnimmt, fristet er seine Jahre bis zum Abitur in einem Internat. Das Boxen, mit dem er schon früh begonnen hat, hilft ihm durch die Trauer und mit seiner Einsamkeit fertig zu werden, denn Freunde hat er keine. Kurz bevor Hans sein Abitur macht, bekommt er einen Brief von seiner Tante: Er soll ihr bei einer wichtigen Ermittlung helfen. In Cambridge angekommen, erwarten Hans jedoch keine genaueren Details, sondern die Frage seiner Tante: „Du boxt doch noch, oder?“ Alex hat die junge Charlotte dazu auserkoren, Hans behilflich zu sein, Mitglied im Pitt Club zu werden, der elitäre Boxclub von Cambridge. Doch Hans kommt aus bescheidenen Verhältnissen und bringt zudem nicht den versnobbten Charakter mit, den die Mitglieder alle inne zu haben scheinen. Doch im Pitt Club scheint nicht alles mit rechten zuzugehen und es scheint, als würde Charlotte ihm auch einiges verheimlichen. Hans gelangt nicht nur in den Pitt Club und gewinnt einen Einblick in die Welt der elitären Boxer, sondern auch in die der „Schmetterlinge“ und ihren fragwürdigen Riten…
In Cambridge habe ich gelernt, wie viel Großes der Mensch leisten kann: Er kann die Grundlagen der formalen Logik errechnen und ein Medikament gegen Malaria finden. Aber in Cambridge habe ich auch gelernt, was der Mensch in seinem Kern ist: ein Raubtier.
Die vollständige Rezension findet ihr auf meinem Blog: http://killmonotony.wordpress.com
Hans ist noch jung, als er seine Eltern verliert. Da seine Tante Alex in England ihn nicht aufnimmt, fristet er seine Jahre bis zum Abitur in einem Internat. Das Boxen, mit dem er schon früh begonnen hat, hilft ihm durch die Trauer und mit seiner Einsamkeit fertig zu werden, denn Freunde hat er keine. Kurz bevor Hans sein Abitur macht, bekommt er einen Brief von seiner Tante: Er soll ihr bei einer wichtigen Ermittlung helfen. In Cambridge angekommen, erwarten Hans jedoch keine genaueren Details, sondern die Frage seiner Tante: „Du boxt doch noch, oder?“ Alex hat die junge Charlotte dazu auserkoren, Hans behilflich zu sein, Mitglied im Pitt Club zu werden, der elitäre Boxclub von Cambridge. Doch Hans kommt aus bescheidenen Verhältnissen und bringt zudem nicht den versnobbten Charakter mit, den die Mitglieder alle inne zu haben scheinen. Doch im Pitt Club scheint nicht alles mit rechten zuzugehen und es scheint, als würde Charlotte ihm auch einiges verheimlichen. Hans gelangt nicht nur in den Pitt Club und gewinnt einen Einblick in die Welt der elitären Boxer, sondern auch in die der „Schmetterlinge“ und ihren fragwürdigen Riten…
In Cambridge habe ich gelernt, wie viel Großes der Mensch leisten kann: Er kann die Grundlagen der formalen Logik errechnen und ein Medikament gegen Malaria finden. Aber in Cambridge habe ich auch gelernt, was der Mensch in seinem Kern ist: ein Raubtier.
Die vollständige Rezension findet ihr auf meinem Blog: http://killmonotony.wordpress.com
zeralda's review against another edition
4.0
Vielleicht war die Geschichte nur so gut, weil ich sie an einem Tag durchgelesen habe...
franthebooknerd's review against another edition
1.0
CN: Misogynie, Homosexuellenfeindlichkeit, Gewalt, Ernährung, Ableismus, Vergewaltigung