5.75k reviews for:

The Dispossessed

Ursula K. Le Guin

4.28 AVERAGE

adventurous challenging dark reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
adventurous challenging informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging slow-paced

Me only finishing this book because I'm on a strike line feels appropriate. I wanted to like it a lot, but it...was boring, and just not for me at this time :(
Not much happens until 75% of the way thru, and that was hard for me. I really only enjoyed the flashbacks to Shevek's childhood/life on Anarres and thought that was much more interesting than the Urras chapters, although I get that you have to have both. I loved seeing how life on Anarres was structured and what the day-to-day living was like. I also liked that not everything was perfect there. The opposition to new ideas and how that was as oppressive as elements of Urrasti society was really interesting, and the worldbuilding was elaborate. 
Unfortunately, aside from Efor (goated tbh), I didn't care at all about the Urras chapters, and they were a struggle to get thru. I didn't fully understand what Shevek hoped to accomplish until...the end of the book, if that. I also skimmed thru all of his physics, because I didn't understand it at all :( but I love a man in STEM and support his endeavors
Anyway sorry for being an anti-intellectual hater about this book. I'm sorry Ms. LeGuin. It was really impressive and maybe I'll come back to it someday. Shoutout to Shevek for saying you have to keep changing, taking into account the past and dreams for the future, in order to be in the present. That was cool. He rlly said never kill yourself. What a king
hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
challenging inspiring reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Very interesting to see the different concepts discussed and to see how Le Guin imagined different societies with different ideologies. Otherwise the book doesn't really offer much in terms of a plot, it's very slow-paced, focused on discussion of ideas and ideologies, the characters act more as vessels for these ideas than they feel like real people. It was fascinating and gripped me more than I expected, but I still found it too slow and dense at times. 
Nonetheless, it gives me a lot to think about and I think I'll come back to the thoughts in it quite often.
adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
slow-paced

A great book all around Ursula just writes way ahead of her time. I read left hand of darkness a couple of years ago and think I wasn't mature enough to enjoy it fully but I really liked this book!
challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous challenging inspiring fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes