Reviews with content warning for Stalking - Lolita

Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

89 reviews

jodiojolyne's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional slow-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

Content Warnings

niles_reads's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The whole review

I’ve never been more disturbed by a piece of media in my life.

I’ve read “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, the book many view “the scariest book ever written”, I’ve read books heavy on body horror like “Bunny” by Mona Awad or “Boy Parts” by Eliza Clark and felt nothing while doing so.

My stomach flipped from page one. Genuinely the worst thing that was ever written.

The writing is hard to get into at first, but once you actually begin understanding the way the main character speaks, or well, writes, the text becomes easier to consume.

The main character is so self-centered, thinks so highly of himself and the way he justifies his horrendous actions to himself made me want to punch something so badly. And not in the Irina from “Boy parts” type a way where you’re kinda enjoying her selfishness. Maybe because his actions are WAY worse than hers.

You don’t quite realize it while reading it, but his every-now-and-then mentions of his “good-looks” is kinda a critique of how beauty and conventional attractiveness can come a long way, disguised as another way of him being full of himself. I remember scoffing and rolling my eyes every time he’d repeat himself, but after finishing it I could see what Nabokov was trying to do.

The truth about this novel is terrifying; that anyone can be a horrendous monster.

From what I remember, he grew up in a normal environment and was a highly respected individual. He wasn’t some abused child or mistreated teenager. He was, what the people around him saw as, a normal person.

I’ve never really understood what “Seeing someone through the main character’s version of them” meant, until chapter 32 where we finally get a glimpse of her humanity; of her wanting a normal life, of being a child wanting someone to call “family”. Or how even when she was living in poverty and while having a child on the way at 17, she refused to live back with a man who took away her childhood and both physically and mentally broke her.

I’m really debating on what to give it. While being a book about such a disturbing topic, it is extremely well written and it clearly shows a message.

I can’t force myself to give it anything but a 4.75.

Content Warnings

brianna_the_bookworm's review against another edition

1.75

challenging dark slow-paced

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

genevieve_rice's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

mblanke's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

gabet's review against another edition

5.0

dark funny sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book took me years to read, in part because I lost it for two years, but also because the prose is so pithy, you might find yourself Googling the meanings of words or phrases, in English or otherwise, to ensure a full understanding of what's going on, and even then, some of the meaning remains hidden. This one requires a second read to understand fully, and I might undertake that once I have retired.

This is a misunderstood book; because it depicts the actions of a pedophile, though never explicitly, it has enjoyed much contentious discourse over the years. I think Nabokov perfectly embodies the thought processes of monstrous people like Humbert, people who, despite their unbelievable transgressions, are still people, and have to deal with that aspect of their being. Humbert thinks highly of himself and lowly of most of the people he comes across. He is an old-world European in tacky-ass 1940s America and throughout the book, it's clear he feels as though this place is below him. But that doesn't make it easy for him to excuse his own pedophilic behavior. Instead, he mythologizes it, as if pedophilia is actually a dignified, understandable, and rare phenomenon that occurs only when sensuous "nymphets" encourage it to. He rarely blames himself entirely for his actions, usually only once they have already taken their toll on the people around him. Meanwhile, Dolores' identity and her development of it are stymied and compacted into the reductive image Humbert has of her, until she eventually escapes. Unfortunately, as you might expect, it is a pyrrhic victory.

I have never read a book like this and I was blown away by every page. The horrible shit in this book is presented in some of the most expertly crafted and translated prose to be pressed, and I am impressed.

Content Warnings

sopphic's review against another edition

4.0

challenging slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Interesting book, it's a classic and all, but Humbert Humbert, what a freakkkkk

Content Warnings

evemlacey's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

" Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Loo-lee-ta: the tip of my tongue taking a trip for three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta."

A shiver went down my spine as I read that first sentence of the book- and I knew I was in for a bumpy ride.

I see many people misinterpreting this book.
Examples may include:

" This is a romantic love story!"
" The author is romanticizing pedophillia."
And much more

No, Nabokov, in my opinion, is not romanticising child grooming. He is exposing the darkness, the shame, the inherent immorality of the act. Humber Humbert is a very unreliable narrator. We cannot trust anything Humbert Humbert says. While he seems to potray Dolores as being happy, there are a few moments in the book when Humbert Humbert lets Dolores's true feelings slip.

A couple of times Dolores made the claim that Humbert Humbert was raping her. He was, obviously, but he did not want the reader to think that. These are moments in which he lets her true feelings slip.

He criticises people for being "pedophiles", when it is HE who is the pedophile. He projects his issues and immorality onto other people.

Another abhorrently disgusting part of the book is when he tries to rape her when she is sick. He is always thinking about sex. He has no goodness in his heart. He is pure evil.

As Oscar Wilde once said, " The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world it's own shame."

Lolita is disgusting. It is a warning to society. Lolita does not exist. She is Dolores Haze, a young girl who was groomed, raped, and manipulated. This book reminds us of the immoralities that may be going on under our very noses.

Content Warnings

atticlovebuzz's review against another edition

4.0

medium-paced

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

DONE FINALLY!! Thank god. Now I can procrastinate my way through another classic that I will only pick up once a week for months on end. PHEW!! Loved the writing style. Satirical pieces and unreliable narrators will always have my eye. I’ll look into more from Nabokov after this! This was such a difficult book to bring in public. The questions and concerns were part of the reason it took months to finish.

Content Warnings

holzzaune's review against another edition

3.0

slow-paced

yeah okay

Content Warnings

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