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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
sad
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Having read some other books by this author and not liking them, I put off reading this one. Maybe I'll watch the movie.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So intense.
This movie blew my mind when I was in college. The book was just as great. Book #26 on the NYT Top 100 list. This one wasn’t documented as banned, but it has been challenged (which is a request for removal). I love this book. I love these characters. They are so fleshed out and real, and they grapple with deep and complicated character flaws. Briony is such a loathsome little shit, but the author makes you identify with her too. I love it when they do that to the reader; it forces you to confront the same loathsome things inside of yourself. How exhilarating. We are more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. And the yearning! Top tier yearning. If you like literary fiction and WWII era stories and irreparable heartbreak, read this. So good!
Okay not really for me although I’m sure was well written. I actually was gonna give 2 stars until that twist in the end so I bumped it up to 3 stars
This is one of the best-written books I have read in a long time (other than Edith Wharton, naturally) and Ian McEwan stands as one of the best contemporary writers in the English language. The language in Atonement is seductively poetic; the story, deceptively tangible; the pathos is gripping (and other such incomplete superlatives). At the end, I found I deeply invested in the characters and story in a visceral way.
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
I read this one a whole back when I was in graduate school the second time around. I loved it and still remember much of it vividly. In the second half McEwen provides some of the most compelling writing about war that I've ever read. And of course, the book is much more capable if pulling off the contemplation of storytelling than the movie.