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edamamebean's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Wow. Klein is such an incredible writer. Her refusal to look away from difficult topics combined with her empathy and ability to present these topics with an overwhelming air of hope makes this book a must-read. I’ll absolutely be reading more from her.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and War
katrinarose's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This is a hard book to review because it covers so much ground. While she dives into many topics, I would consider her overarching themes to be about the causes and consequences of misinformation and conspiracies, and ultimately how cycles of oppression have played out in history through capitalism, fascism, and misinformation. She makes many interesting connections and observations that were insightful to me (such as the connection between anti-vaxxers and white supremacy, and the history of Asperger), as well as many I’ve heard before in circles of leftist politics. She does take on a hopeful tone and gives good advice for how leftist politics could be more effective. I think this book was an avenue for her to get a variety of topics off her chest (especially vaccine misinformation), and while I found some parts engaging, others dragged. Overall it’s a good read if you want to think about the state of politics and the internet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Death, Genocide, Antisemitism, Medical content, Colonisation, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Racism, and Police brutality
bevconrique's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This book is brilliant from start to finish! Naomi Klein (or Naomi Wolf, if you're only half-paying attention lol) begins with the simple premise that people often confuse the two of them. From there, she weaves a fascinating exploration of identity, social media, capitalism, conspiracy theories, radicalization, and fascism—blending memoir and nonfiction to dissect the fractured nature of our reality today. It felt timely and prescient in a way few nonfiction books do.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Antisemitism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Racism, Police brutality, and Colonisation
Minor: Rape, Violence, and War
alexisgarcia's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Genocide, Mental illness, Racism, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Abortion, and Classism
emilyseebold's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Slavery and Police brutality
Minor: Rape
senyook's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Genocide, Racism, Antisemitism, and Colonisation
carojust's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
"Doppelganger" is a book you read to find footing in our tumultuous world of politics, technology, war, healthcare and the permanent, pervasive ecological damage we've done in the name of capitalism.
Naomi Klein centers this book around the strange occurrence of being mistaken as Naomi Wolf, a fellow writer and feminist whose beliefs she deems harmful and flat-out wrong. But she quickly expands this idea of doppelgangers toward the two selves of a person, a religion, a country. Then brings it back to say, rather persuasively albeit incongruously, that our answer to making the world better lies in abandoning individualism and engaging in a care-based, communal society.
Throughout the book, this idea of relating the world to "doubling" felt like a reach, and overdone. I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't need the constant packaging of mirrors and shadow worlds. Yin and yang, I get it.
Also, this is a call to socialism, essentially. You'll be disappointed if you go into this expecting more of a memoir with a "Black Mirror" angle. But it's a great read for your social consciousness, and how to approach our increasingly hostile, diametrically opposed world.
Naomi Klein centers this book around the strange occurrence of being mistaken as Naomi Wolf, a fellow writer and feminist whose beliefs she deems harmful and flat-out wrong. But she quickly expands this idea of doppelgangers toward the two selves of a person, a religion, a country. Then brings it back to say, rather persuasively albeit incongruously, that our answer to making the world better lies in abandoning individualism and engaging in a care-based, communal society.
Throughout the book, this idea of relating the world to "doubling" felt like a reach, and overdone. I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't need the constant packaging of mirrors and shadow worlds. Yin and yang, I get it.
Also, this is a call to socialism, essentially. You'll be disappointed if you go into this expecting more of a memoir with a "Black Mirror" angle. But it's a great read for your social consciousness, and how to approach our increasingly hostile, diametrically opposed world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Racism, Rape, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
seventhswan's review
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.25
This was my first time reading Naomi Klein, though her work came recommended so my expectations were high. Doppelganger lived up to these expectations - I found it to be an engaging, insightful look at a range of related political and social issues, using ideas about doubling and replication as a springboard. Notably, this is the first text of any length I've read where I came away feeling like I'd actually improved my understanding of the politics surrounding Israel and Palestine.
I found the section on autism a little random - slightly strange in tone and out of step with the rest of the book, even though the changeling-as-doppelganger theory made for an obvious link to the title. Klein's denial that autism is a disability ("just a different way of being human" - well-meaning, but no!) meant she didn't engage with disability politics in that section too closely, instead critiquing the Autism Mom Community largely on their promotion of medical misinformation. None of this content was incorrect, of course, but something just felt... off.
Overall, though, this was a few pages of a largely excellent book, and I'll look to read more by Klein in future.
I found the section on autism a little random - slightly strange in tone and out of step with the rest of the book, even though the changeling-as-doppelganger theory made for an obvious link to the title. Klein's denial that autism is a disability ("just a different way of being human" - well-meaning, but no!) meant she didn't engage with disability politics in that section too closely, instead critiquing the Autism Mom Community largely on their promotion of medical misinformation. None of this content was incorrect, of course, but something just felt... off.
Overall, though, this was a few pages of a largely excellent book, and I'll look to read more by Klein in future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Antisemitism
Moderate: Ableism, Misogyny, and Violence
aileen_macalister's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
The book's main thread follows Naomi Klein and another writer Naomi Wolf, who's career path was so similar to Klein's for such a long period that the two are often confused. However, Wolf's life takes a dramatic shift to the right and Klein finds herself constantly "called out" for Wolf's views.
This leads Klein to look into the far right and conspiracy theories while also analysing references to doppelgangers throughout literature and history.
It is a fascinating window into the "mirror world" as Klein refers to it. It took me a couple of chapters to get into the book as she has to spend a good amount of time setting the scene and describing the similarities of herself and Wolf before she can get to the good stuff but once she gets into it the story takes you on an journey through this mirror world from Anti-vaxers to Palestine and everything in-between.
For me, listening to it as an audiobook made it so much easier to take in.
Overall it's an exploration into what it means to be a human in today's world and what "the self" really means.
This leads Klein to look into the far right and conspiracy theories while also analysing references to doppelgangers throughout literature and history.
It is a fascinating window into the "mirror world" as Klein refers to it. It took me a couple of chapters to get into the book as she has to spend a good amount of time setting the scene and describing the similarities of herself and Wolf before she can get to the good stuff but once she gets into it the story takes you on an journey through this mirror world from Anti-vaxers to Palestine and everything in-between.
For me, listening to it as an audiobook made it so much easier to take in.
Overall it's an exploration into what it means to be a human in today's world and what "the self" really means.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide
Moderate: Racism, Slavery, Violence, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
siebensommer's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
4.25
at times it feels like it's losing itself in so many different themes (all very important and well-researched) and then you get to the end and all comes together.. oof
in fact it makes a certain kind of sick sense that our era of peak personal branding has coincided so precisely with an unprecedented crisis point for our shared home. the vast complex planetary crisis requires coordinated collective effort on an international scale. that may be theoretically possible, but it sure is daunting. far easier to master ourselves - the brand called you.
we did [change the discourse] but we appear to have done it at the precise moment when words and ideas underwent a radical currency devaluation
what is the alternative that is being offered on this side of the glass? do we have a plan for a world without sacrificial people? and does that plan feel credible, rooted in action?
we are not, and never were, selfmade. we are made and unmade by one another
hitler [...] was not the civilised democratic west's evil other, but its shadow, its doppelganger.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Genocide, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic