989 reviews for:

Jude the Obscure

Thomas Hardy

3.7 AVERAGE

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I read this in high school and didn't really remember any of it except that Sue and Jude were "star-crossed". Now I've just "read" it by listening to Michael Ian Black read it on his podcast "Obscure". (The podcast is still going on as of this date, but we were so close to the end, I couldn't wait so I finished reading it in book form.) I've never been one for book clubs, but this has kind of opened my eyes... reading it myself and then also hearing what someone else thinks.. new perspectives, new ways of thinking about the story, etc. It was great.
And as for the book itself, there is SO MUCH MORE to this book than what I got from it in high school. I laughed, I cried, I looked up words in the dictionary...

So sad :'(
challenging emotional sad 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: N/A

plot was eh but that one twist really caught me off guard

Children born into Thomas Hardy books may as well wear red shirts with Federation badges pinned to them. Their life spans can be measured by a stopwatch.

An angrier screed against societal mores than Tess, and I think the poorer for it. The drama seems heaped upon Jude instead of the natural outcome of chance and Jude's own actions, with Hardy pulling the strings above like an Old Testament deity in a bet with how much suffering a protagonist can take. The novel has its moments but those moments do not coalesce into as rich a concotion as Tess did.

*Read for class.

Why do I lately have to read only boring books? Especially long ones.

I had to choose two books for my banned literature class for my exam and I thought this one sounded kind of interesting, but it was dull and tideous and could've been three times shorter - wouldn't lose anything. Reading it felt like working. Ugh.

Characters were boring, love story was boring, even the shocking parts were boring! I'm just glad to be done with it.

I guess I'm not giving it a 1 star cause I saw why it was banned and that was kind of interesting to notice, just not to read about it.
challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

marriage sucks

I liked the book, but i torn... Jude was a interesting character. He struggled with a lot, even with some simple things. However i still don't know if i really liked the character of Sue. She drove me crazy with her view on things. She just didn't seem very emotional, though you could tell that Jude loved her with all of his being. I didn't like how he was just willing to give her away at the end, even though she was grieving. They both suffered the loss, Jude maybe more so. The book got more and more tragic. However, i liked it enough to keep reading it.

Damn this book is hella bleak