176 reviews for:

The Magnificent Ruins

Nayantara Roy

3.89 AVERAGE

j_the_human's review

3.75

emotional hopeful reflective medium-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

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Pros: 
- this is a masterwork of the messy family, of everyone making bad choices and finding out things you wish you didn’t know 
- Biddy kicks ass and I love her 
- I also loved the broader political issues that are brought into it— literary fiction can sometimes be very insular but this did give time and weight to the setting in a way that was really satisfying 
- the messiness with the house and the inheritance was very… mmm yes 

Cons: 
- in the middle I did feel a bit like “how is this only the middle” 
- I don’t *love* how the narrative treats Seth and Adil both, but I can live with it 
- I do think this could’ve been shorter HOWEVER I will note I don’t think it would’ve been AS successful if it was. It would’ve worked, but I think the length makes you sit with it longer in a way that helps the overarching narrative 

Overall: 
I’m very torn about the rating. I liked the first and last 25% but that middle 50% was a bit rough to get through. It was a bit “just get through it” but I really did enjoy the ending and how it serves the greater narrative 

3.75/5 (I think. Subject to change.)

minkyreads's review

3.25

hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

allysonf's review

4.0

dark emotional funny hopeful slow-paced

jacquejreads's review

4.5

adventurous emotional hopeful informative tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

gwenc0423's review

4.5

emotional reflective medium-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

susiegarcia0708's review

3.25

emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

mollyulring's review

2.75

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

trisha_clay's review

3.5

emotional hopeful slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Alcohol

salmentoc's review against another edition

3.5

emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

cholderly's review

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-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