Reviews with content warning for Excrement - Flowers for Algernon

Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

32 reviews

dementis93's review

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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krystalgaia's review

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challenging emotional funny inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Very reflective, introspective, and I very much enjoyed it. I have filled this book with a lot of paper flags -- that's my own way of knowing that I enjoyed a book.

I loved the writing style: how, regardless of where Charlie was on the intellectual spectrum, it remained true to itself, always straightforward and undecorated, which provokes thought in a way that words packaged in an excess of metaphors can never do. I also loved how everything looped back to how things were in the beginning — but somehow, simultaneously, worse.

It reminds me of a passage in A Little Life, which goes, "x will always be equal to x, no matter what he does." It's just amazing that these two novels, written more than fifty years apart, were able to reflect on the human experience in almost the same way, as if proving that the only other thing constant in the world aside from change is our humanity.

I couldn't give this a full five stars, because some parts were slow and repetitive that I was tempted to put this down for another book. But after the midpoint mark, things were well-paced again and the tension was handled with great care, but it was also after the midpoint mark that I saw how poorly portrayed Alice and Fay were. It was either a goddess or a manic pixie dream girl. Rose and Norma are debatable, though; their strengths and flaws are beyond the confines of gender.

I would've given this 4.9 stars, so I'll just leave the highest rating I can give on this site.

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spookily's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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kkalicky94's review against another edition

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emotional informative sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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brenna_b's review

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.75

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mayr3adsab00k's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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sheentendo's review

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I bought a copy because Reddit said this is one of the saddest books ever and so I wanted to see why it was hyped so much.

I admire the technical aspect of Charlie's reports. Not a lot mention it in their reviews, but the development of Charlie is done seamlessly. Sometimes I feel like I am reading something too private and feel uncomfortable (but of course snap back to oh this is fiction, silly me.)

It's a heavy and disturbing read so it took me longer than usual to finish. Charlie's POV evoked a lot of emotions and thoughts about the experiment, relationships, and flowers. After finishing the book I'll probably still think about it every now and then.

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