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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
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
It was really difficult to get into this book at the beginning because the author uses a made up language a lot so you have to figure out a lot of words. Then, it gets pretty graphic with basically psychological torture. I think this book is unfortunately becoming less gut punching because violence has become so much more normalized in our society. There was a lot of violence in the book and honestly it has been the whackest book I’ve read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder
I read this book at school many years ago. A teacher said to me that I shouldn't be reading it as it is "dangerous smut." Unsurprisingly he was an IT teacher.
I finally decided to write a review for this book, despite reading it a couple months ago.
I’ll start right away by saying who I do not recommend this book to: anyone who doesn’t know at least one slavic language, though anyone who doesn’t know Russian will probably still have trouble reading it. That is, unless every line and half you want to stare at the dictionary made appositely for this book and search for a word you don’t understand.
I started the book knowing only what’s on this site about its plot, and right in the first page — no more than a few lines in there’s the word ‘malako’, Russian for ‘milk’, I noticed it’s not written in one language. Luckily, I know Russian, and most of the incomprehensible words in this book were between Russian slang and who knows what else, but still based on Russian words, so I more or less managed. Words like ‘skorry’ — a distortion of скорыи ‘quick’ — took me more time to understand though, so Russian speakers will most probably not find it too natural to read either. The other big problem, always language-wise, is this book isn’t written in two languages. It’s written in three, mostly,with words thrown in belonging to at least 5 others. The third, entirely made up and available on the previously mentioned dictionary of this book, which is easy to find on the internet, is something apparently based on ‘baby speech’. ‘Egg’ becomes ‘eggiweg’, ‘school’ somehow becomes ‘skolliwoll’, and many other such pearls.
If you want to read a book of which you are physically capable of comprehending the huge majority of words, do not read this book.
Passing on to another topic — though I could write an essay on the language matter. For instance, why is distorted Russian the language all baby gangs who didn’t bother learning English speak? Does this say anything about the author’s opinion on a certain population? —, I couldn’t stand the plot either. There was no character growth at all, even though technically 2 years passed from the beginning to the ending.
Finally, this book was bloody boring and the writing style horrible. I really can’t see why this many people have enjoyed it, for me it was a struggle to get through since there wasn’t a single page that interested me. I dragged myself forward until the ending, and the ending left me wondering why the hell this book had ever been written. I definitely won’t reread it or recommend it to anyone.
I’ll start right away by saying who I do not recommend this book to: anyone who doesn’t know at least one slavic language, though anyone who doesn’t know Russian will probably still have trouble reading it. That is, unless every line and half you want to stare at the dictionary made appositely for this book and search for a word you don’t understand.
I started the book knowing only what’s on this site about its plot, and right in the first page — no more than a few lines in there’s the word ‘malako’, Russian for ‘milk’, I noticed it’s not written in one language. Luckily, I know Russian, and most of the incomprehensible words in this book were between Russian slang and who knows what else, but still based on Russian words, so I more or less managed. Words like ‘skorry’ — a distortion of скорыи ‘quick’ — took me more time to understand though, so Russian speakers will most probably not find it too natural to read either. The other big problem, always language-wise, is this book isn’t written in two languages. It’s written in three, mostly,with words thrown in belonging to at least 5 others. The third, entirely made up and available on the previously mentioned dictionary of this book, which is easy to find on the internet, is something apparently based on ‘baby speech’. ‘Egg’ becomes ‘eggiweg’, ‘school’ somehow becomes ‘skolliwoll’, and many other such pearls.
If you want to read a book of which you are physically capable of comprehending the huge majority of words, do not read this book.
Passing on to another topic — though I could write an essay on the language matter. For instance, why is distorted Russian the language all baby gangs who didn’t bother learning English speak? Does this say anything about the author’s opinion on a certain population? —, I couldn’t stand the plot either. There was no character growth at all, even though technically 2 years passed from the beginning to the ending.
Spoiler
The main character did dumb shit, got arrested for doing the dumb shit, went through what we readers are presumably supposed to see as torture, was let out and resumed thinking about doing dumb shit right away, even though now he ‘physically’ couldn’t do it.Finally, this book was bloody boring and the writing style horrible. I really can’t see why this many people have enjoyed it, for me it was a struggle to get through since there wasn’t a single page that interested me. I dragged myself forward until the ending, and the ending left me wondering why the hell this book had ever been written. I definitely won’t reread it or recommend it to anyone.
“If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange—meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil.”
Clever writing. Nostalgic call backs to 1984 and Brave New World. Got me wishing I had kept up learning Russian. Graphically heart wrenching on a thin, artificial, cardiac biofilm that proliferates and then recedes with page-wise progress.
challenging
dark
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No