You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
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
Moderate: Bullying, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia
challenging
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:
Yes
This book is so smart and so important and offers so many interesting storylines. It also features some absolutely beautiful prose and profound sentiment (duh, it's Ben Lerner). As much as I tried, however, I just could not bring my self to be interested in the extremely detailed accounts of high school debate tournaments which unfortunately take up SO MUCH space here.
I kept vacillating between hating what I was reading and admiring an author that is clearly intelligent. I turned out to be correct on this front because the author apparently was a Fulbright scholar. This book has a million accolades—it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, a finalist for the National Book Award, one of Obama’s favorite books. But is it actually good? Ehhh debatable. There’s just so many things going on in the story and I need some kind of Sparknotes version to understand how everything connects and to be able to appreciate this book to its fullest extent
It’s basically about a very privileged, unlikeable family of three dealing with their individual issues which includes, marital transgressions, past trauma, toxic masculinity, psychological analysis, and that’s just to name a few. While there were swaths of the book I enjoyed, overall it was really overwrought, both the writing and the complex plot (if it can even be called a plot). Everything was kind of meaningless precisely because it was so complex. Like if the reader is bored or confused, what’s the point? The writing was so dense and longwinded, by the time I got to the end of the sentence, sometimes I would forget what I just read. But weirdly I guess I didn’t end up hating the book. The parts of the book I liked were really good, it’s just that those parts were few and far between.
It’s basically about a very privileged, unlikeable family of three dealing with their individual issues which includes, marital transgressions, past trauma, toxic masculinity, psychological analysis, and that’s just to name a few. While there were swaths of the book I enjoyed, overall it was really overwrought, both the writing and the complex plot (if it can even be called a plot). Everything was kind of meaningless precisely because it was so complex. Like if the reader is bored or confused, what’s the point? The writing was so dense and longwinded, by the time I got to the end of the sentence, sometimes I would forget what I just read. But weirdly I guess I didn’t end up hating the book. The parts of the book I liked were really good, it’s just that those parts were few and far between.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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:
Complicated
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
I legitimately don’t know if I could tell you what I just read.
Psychobabble
A piece of a story about a troubled teen—but idk what even happened in that story
Family stuff?
Political drama at the end
None of it pieces together, and I just really hoped it would before the end, but I was sorely mistaken.
Psychobabble
A piece of a story about a troubled teen—but idk what even happened in that story
Family stuff?
Political drama at the end
None of it pieces together, and I just really hoped it would before the end, but I was sorely mistaken.