Take a photo of a barcode or cover
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault
Minor: Death of parent
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
definitiv spannender aber auch sehr erschöpfender read. hat mich vom gefühl manchmal ein bisschen an little life erinnert
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Felt more like a conversation than a book. Beautiful, beautiful prose, yet simplicity is maintained with pivotal moments presented as poignantly brief. While there is danger in romanticising this novel, the tortured artist-esque theme was well done, with sentiments on art running reminiscent of Wilde. I appreciated how the characterisation in the novel underlined the duality of a complex narrator, especially considering the parallels that he projects. I feel as if a lot of the negative reviews do not properly address that we are meant to dislike the narrator. It is okay to avoid this book due to its sensitive content (which I admittedly struggled with), but if we are to assess literature fairly, then it is our duty as readers to acknowledge that we are dealing with an extreme. Literature is a means of perspective and ethical distinctions are contingent on the deplorable insights that it can enable—without these conversations, how else will we induce change? I believe that this novel’s unreliability of narrative works well to recognise and challenge ongoing societal issues.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicide
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
damn, he's dramatic, huh. R rated jughead fr
also he's all like "women are a different species from men, they make no sense, they're inherently uninteresting and difficult, blah blah blah" and then "i never pay attention to what a woman's saying" ????? THAT'S WHY YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THEM
also he's all like "women are a different species from men, they make no sense, they're inherently uninteresting and difficult, blah blah blah" and then "i never pay attention to what a woman's saying" ????? THAT'S WHY YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THEM
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Suicide, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Forced institutionalization
Minor: Rape
dark
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Classism
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicide, Alcohol
Moderate: Rape
challenging
dark
emotional
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
This book honestly surprised me…in a great way. I fully expecting to hate it. To slog through it. To have a really hard time reading it. But to my surprise, I freaking loved this book. It was such an interesting perspective on life and that feeling of isolation. There were a lot of lines that hit home for me and struck me in an intense way.
What I Liked
- The autobiographical nature of it made it feel caught between a memoir and fiction.
- Having the character look at photos of the boy and then reading the journal entries, very meta, but also gave such an interesting weight to seeing yourself through someone else’s eyes and what they must see in every tiny detail of you.
- The writing — absolutely stunning.
- “I shut away my private anguish in a tiny compartment, keeping my gloom and nervousness secret and putting on a determined show of innocent cheer until, little by little, my transformation into a droll eccentric was complete.”
- Dazai so eloquently captures the feeling of being an outsider and isolation in this book that I haven’t really read or connected with anywhere else. That feeling of putting on a show everywhere you go to be liked, but never really connecting with people on that deeper level.
What I didn’t like
- More like a content warning: it is very dark — this book is not for the faint of heart, as it’s dealing with tough topics like suicide, drugs, and alcoholism.
- Don’t love that he plays such a pivotal role in another girl’s death.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Suicide attempt
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
“from then on, however, I came to hold, almost as a philosophical conviction, the belief: what is society but an individual?”
i would say the book was terribly sad but oddly funny, at times, in its absurdity. the main character seemed to run so much from the idea of “society” of what he believed a human being is like that he somehow got stuck in it. i think, at the end, through it all, his biggest enemy was himself
i would say the book was terribly sad but oddly funny, at times, in its absurdity. the main character seemed to run so much from the idea of “society” of what he believed a human being is like that he somehow got stuck in it. i think, at the end, through it all, his biggest enemy was himself
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction
Moderate: Rape