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mattiedancer's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Writing: 4⭐️/5
The writing falters at some points, but shines at others. I particularly loved how Brown writes about history and art in a way that blends fiction and fact seamlessly. I also enjoyed the flow of action, which was mostly easy to follow. What I liked less was the reliance on some sexist tropes of female characters. And, while the writing was functional, it definitely fell into some tropes for the favour of time and ease of reading. Not necessarily a bad thing, but definitely not the strongest writing characteristic.
Characters: 3.5⭐️/5
Alright, so I get it. Robert Langdon is very, very badass. But he doesn’t know it. It was both fun and not fun at times to follow him, but I did overall enjoy him and most of our main characters. I felt less love towards the suddenness at which Robert and Sophie found themselves romantically involved. I also didn’t buy into Sophie’s reason for essentially estranging herself from her grandfather. It felt like something that would’ve been silly to keep going for that long.
Plot: 4.25⭐️/5
Okay, so the plot is incredibly... fun? That seems like the wrong word, but here we are. I enjoyed reading the plot, despite its many ups and downs and some completely unbelievable sections. But I was okay with employing some suspension of disbelief (like the many many hours of zero sleep) to enjoy the engaging, ever-changing, ever-moving plot.
Who Should Read This Book?
- Fans of mystery novels
- Fans of thrillers
- Fans of art history who like mysteries/thrillers
Content Warnings?
- Murder, death, self-harm, gun violence, ableism, blood, death of parent, car accident, violence, stalking, gaslighting, emotional abuse, religious bigotry, torture, kidnapping, confinement
Post-Reading Rating: 4.75⭐️/5
Well, that was fun.
Final Rating: 3.75⭐️/5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Death, Gun violence, Ableism, Blood, Car accident, Violence, Stalking, Gaslighting, Murder, Emotional abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Self harm
elspethmigliore's review
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0
okay…this was fine !
it was actually very interesting and informative, but i feel like every single chapter there was an inessential lecture about a random topic that didn’t even contribute to the story. i was very pulled in the whole time, but by the end i felt like it was just a whole lot of words with a half-assed ending. overall it was like a decent read and i’m suddenly very interested in symbolism regarding religion, but i know some of this information isn’t even accurate so i’m slightly confused.
i’d probably reread. this was pretty interesting ✅
it was actually very interesting and informative, but i feel like every single chapter there was an inessential lecture about a random topic that didn’t even contribute to the story. i was very pulled in the whole time, but by the end i felt like it was just a whole lot of words with a half-assed ending. overall it was like a decent read and i’m suddenly very interested in symbolism regarding religion, but i know some of this information isn’t even accurate so i’m slightly confused.
i’d probably reread. this was pretty interesting ✅
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Torture, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Blood
Moderate: Death
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Medical content, and Death of parent
bessadams's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Violence, and Gun violence
Moderate: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Car accident, and Grief
Minor: Torture
woweewhoa's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
EDIT: Okay with time this book gets worse in my brain so I'm lowering the rating. Sorry Davinci Code Likers for lowering the overall rating some more.
Okay, so, I listened to the audiobook of this within a few days, and I gotta say, this book, while going at a rapid pace, is way too long. If I was editing this? I would take out a bunch of the lecture scenes, and honestly, made Robert a much more minor protag than he was and make Sophie more central. She is the main character, but because we start with Robert, and he's the guy!!(apparently?), we gotta go into his brain a Lot. I think this book would've been more interesting and also more compelling if it mainly focused on Sophie. Also, the lecture parts of this book were lame!
On a different note, this book is super gender essentialist, which is also partially why I put transphobia in the moderate content warning. There's a couple mentions of 'girls with dicks' said in a frankly derogatory manner as well, which, was out of left field honestly and did make me feel uncomfortable. Also, as a trans man, as this book really got into the nitty gritty of the 'Sacred Feminine' and associating that with the womb and vagina, and let me tell you, I sure started feeling really dysphoric listening to this book. Also, even though the book Does mention Da Vinci possibly being gay, it really boils down to 'men and women gotta be together for the '''''balance''''''' of the world' which. hm. Kinda saying heterosexuality is inherent to being which. Well, is wrong. Just at point blank.
When the book was Not super focusing on that stuff, its a fun romp. Very very stupid at times with how to solve the puzzles and the mysteries involved. But it was fun in the way stupid stuff goes, and honestly a lot of the stuff I was hearing would make me double take because of how dumb it was. That was great.
If your gonna read this book, I'd recommend the audiobook as narrated by Paul Michael, because he did a great job with all the accents and didn't make that aspect sound silly at all. It helped kinda place people too, and the voices of all the characters was very well realized because of that! I liked hearing conversations between the characters because you'd get an American accent, then a Brooklyn accent(? this guy shows up only a couple times but I liked hearing him when he showed up bc of this choice), British, French, Scottish... very fun!
Okay, so, I listened to the audiobook of this within a few days, and I gotta say, this book, while going at a rapid pace, is way too long. If I was editing this? I would take out a bunch of the lecture scenes, and honestly, made Robert a much more minor protag than he was and make Sophie more central. She is the main character, but because we start with Robert, and he's the guy!!(apparently?), we gotta go into his brain a Lot. I think this book would've been more interesting and also more compelling if it mainly focused on Sophie. Also, the lecture parts of this book were lame!
On a different note, this book is super gender essentialist, which is also partially why I put transphobia in the moderate content warning. There's a couple mentions of 'girls with dicks' said in a frankly derogatory manner as well, which, was out of left field honestly and did make me feel uncomfortable. Also, as a trans man, as this book really got into the nitty gritty of the 'Sacred Feminine' and associating that with the womb and vagina, and let me tell you, I sure started feeling really dysphoric listening to this book. Also, even though the book Does mention Da Vinci possibly being gay, it really boils down to 'men and women gotta be together for the '''''balance''''''' of the world' which. hm. Kinda saying heterosexuality is inherent to being which. Well, is wrong. Just at point blank.
When the book was Not super focusing on that stuff, its a fun romp. Very very stupid at times with how to solve the puzzles and the mysteries involved. But it was fun in the way stupid stuff goes, and honestly a lot of the stuff I was hearing would make me double take because of how dumb it was. That was great.
If your gonna read this book, I'd recommend the audiobook as narrated by Paul Michael, because he did a great job with all the accents and didn't make that aspect sound silly at all. It helped kinda place people too, and the voices of all the characters was very well realized because of that! I liked hearing conversations between the characters because you'd get an American accent, then a Brooklyn accent(? this guy shows up only a couple times but I liked hearing him when he showed up bc of this choice), British, French, Scottish... very fun!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Transphobia, Ableism, Sexism, Torture, and Sexual content
Minor: Fatphobia, Pedophilia, and Homophobia
cassandra72's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.5
Had a very lukewarm response to this and im honestly glad. The concept and the plot has been discussed over a million times so I'm not going to say anything about that.. I found some of the ideas appealing, like the conspiracy theory and symbolism, but the execution was not so great most of the time. Also this is a personal opinion, pet peeve if you may, but I hate reading about religion and if I could describe this book with a sentence it would be everything wrong with religion. So there is that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm
Moderate: Death and Torture
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