The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

3.54 AVERAGE

a_concannon86's review against another edition

2.5
mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
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konstanzeplica's review against another edition

3.0
i liked it but i didn’t like it?
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elizartemisbailey's review against another edition

5.0
dark funny reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

shraya42's review against another edition

2.0
slow-paced
loseely's profile picture

loseely's review against another edition

4.25
funny mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

cloudfarmer's review against another edition

3.5
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
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bookmarkz's review against another edition

3.75
challenging mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
I am not sure exactly what I was expecting from this book (influenced by stills and clips from the film) but it certainly wasn’t this. Quite dark with sharp writing but I really didn’t find any of the main characters believable. 

lagomorphous's review against another edition

3.0
The 1968 movie, with Dame Maggie Smith's superb performance as Miss Brodie, is one of my all-time favorite films. I'd never felt the need to read the original novel until recently. Maybe my expectations were too high but I was disappointed. I was surprised by the writing style which is repetitive and at times confusing. The characters of the "Brodie Set" seem poorly sketched out. One girl is "known for sex", another has "small piggy eyes", another is "stupid", and so on for all 6 girls - and these descriptions are repeated over and over throughout the novel. Was this a technique? If so, I can't figure out what it accomplished. The story also frequently goes back in forth in time, paragraph to paragraph, which felt messy to me. At times I would see a flash of brilliance, a gem, which took me back to the movie. I gave this 3 stars for these moments, and for the concept (this is not the typical teacher/student mentor movie) which launched an unforgettable movie. There are very few examples of a movie being better than the book - but this is one of them.

jlkamphaus's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced
Diverse cast of characters: No

jeverett15's review against another edition

2.5
challenging dark fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes