Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Vladimir

Loved the narration - not a very “interesting” plot in the classic sense (not a lot happens), but sti hard to put down. The narration and tone were engaging.

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_travelingpages's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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dilani's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

First character study for me. Our unnamed character claims to have an obsession with fellow tenure track professor Vladimir. This claimed obsession wasn’t all that clear. I’d rather say she loved the fantasy of him but reality couldn’t meet her expectations. Interesting book but the ending left me unsatisfied.

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looney_moons's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

When I saw that an upcoming book had the title Vladimir and that the blurb on the back was 'When I was a child, I loved old men, and I could tell that they also loved me,' I was hooked. I was sure it would give me the Nabokov-esque experience I've wanted desperately to relive since I first read Lolita in 2020. I was both weary and ecstatic when I was approved for the eArc on NetGalley. After all, I have yet to read a book with this type of subject matter that lives up to the critique that Lolita accomplished. And maybe it's the title of the book, but I was absolutely certain that this book would deal a lot more with age difference and power imbalanced relationships. What I got was wholly different from what I expected and, surprisingly to me, I kind of loved it? I've spent the last 12 hours since I finished the book trying to gather my thoughts about what it is about this story that works and what doesn't. Now, don't get me wrong - this book is absolutely about inappropriate relationships, but it is much more about a woman figuring out how to deal with her husband's affairs with younger women. It was an incredibly - I think - nuanced book on a terribly complex topic. More than anything, I was blown away at the journey the protagonist went through and how much I desperately wanted to know what would come next. Jonas managed to write an engaging story with a cast of extremely unlikable characters that still somehow got some of my sympathy. As a person who primarily connects with characters in literature, and someone who seeks out character-driven arcs it is with the highest compliment that I say that Jonas' characters is what kept me reading. A stunning debut from an author I cannot wait to read more from. I'm excited to tell you all that Vladimir gets its UK release on the 26th of May 2022. 4/5 stars.

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literarylion's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

4.25

Pros:

Impeccable character development
The pacing matched the weird twists the story took so every choice the characters made was contextualized and made sense
Definitely a unique take on a college drama

Cons:

Some of the more minor characters were caricatures
I was a bit confused about whether Jonas was critiquing rampant sexual harassment in academia or claiming the reaction to it was disproportionate. Maybe a little of both?

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srm's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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kayschwe's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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