Reviews

The Centre of My World by Andreas Steinhöfel

sophiemoony's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

boris's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

betweendotsandletters's review against another edition

gonna come back to this some day, but reading this in November really clashed with the summer vibe of the story, plus it was a little slow for me to get into. The writing is very atmospheric but not really the type of writing I was looking for when I started it.

larsimodo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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

4.5

crows_in_a_trenchcoat's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

valentinanjo's review against another edition

5.0

WOW. Dieses Buch ist ein Meisterwerk. Es hat mich total begeistert.
Nachdem ich mir ein paar Rezensionen gelesen hatte, war ich mir eigentlich ziemlich sicher, dass ich dieses Buch nicht mögen würde. Für mich klang es einfach philosophisch, was ich meistens nicht so sher mag. Andreas Steinhöfel hat es aber geschafft, mich komplett in ihren Bann zu ziehen.
Ich denke, das Buch ist definitiv nicht für jeden was. Es ist definitiv keine Liebesgeschichte, wie der Klappentext vermuten lässt. Und die ständigen Flashbacks sind sicher auch für viele nervig. Für mich war es aber das perfekte Buch.

aniya_'s review against another edition

5.0

Despite the clichés

Spoiler

(the bi character lies, cheats and "needs both" to be happy and this is pretty bad)

this is still one of my favourite books. The mc is just such a soft boy and I want to cook soup for him, wrap him up in a blanked and tell him that everything's gonna be okay.

charleslambert's review against another edition

4.0

I liked this book a great deal and if I'd been part of its target audience - it's aimed at young adult readers and I'm depressingly far from that demographic - I'm pretty sure I would have loved it, and given it five stars and raved about it to everyone. It's a story about love and secrets, trust and betrayal, a story with as narrator a seventeen-year old boy who is gay and refreshingly free of guilt, although not of desire. It's an odd, but successful mixture of gothic romance, coming of age story and, in its way, celebration of the world. A hymn to what the world offers. At one point, the library in the house that provides the core setting for the novel is referred to as the centre of the world, and this partly explains the title - books and letters play a significant part in the novel - but if the library is the world it's also true that the world is a book or collection of books, and Phil's gradual reading of the world, as it is and as it might be, as the novel develops - perhaps not always as smoothly as it might, but always with heart and nerve - is a joy to witness.

calouma's review against another edition

2.0

I really hated this book. It absolutely ruined my autumn holidays as it was then when I was supposed to read it for school.

Nonetheless it wasn‘t that bad. I just hate it when I‘m forced into reading something I don‘t want to. And I love reading, but only when I‘m able to choose my books.

nymeria's review against another edition

3.0

das buch hat mich voll und ganz in seinen bann gezogen, aber ich bin mir noch unschlüssig, ob ich es mochte.

es war sehr verwunschen und poetisch geschrieben, konnte mir aber nicht wirklich eine tiefe vermitteln. ich glaube, ich muss die geschichte ein wenig nachwirken lassen, bis ich wirklich ein urteil fällen kann.