Reviews with content warning for Classism - Age of Vice

Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor

30 reviews

alittlebitnish's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

1.5

At the start this book was engaging. Elements of Ajay’s story and character have quite a journey. It’s quite sad but also laced in reality of society when the powerful control everything.
I also loved the description of the beaches of Goa. this is mainly bc i’m natively from goa so seeing canacona mentioned was nice.

But that’s where what i liked ends.

Did not care for Neda, she screamed pick-me and just lacked anything that would show her own personality. Also, the fact that this book is written by a women and she was the only female character (a terrible one at that) is so disappointing.

Sunny is an overgrown man-child who has convinced himself of his ideas of grandeur when he does nothing. He can claim it’s because of his father and all other complications but it’s just him. Atleast dinesh had more of a character and will than sunny despite coming from similar backgrounds and families.

Scenes from the jail were traumatizing to say the least. The dehumanization of Prem and the descriptiveness of it was so unnecessary. At no point did it add to the story in a sense where it all ties together.

idk why in the last 20% of the book a new character is introduced and we are given his entire story. But, nothing actually connects to the 80% of the previous part.

The ending made no sense to me. Ambiguous endings can be great if done well but this was just not it. Felt like the book was dark for the sake of it. Just not for me at all. Took me too long to finish because just did not engage me, it felt like a chore at times to get through it.

Content Warnings

massaad007's review against another edition

Go to review page

tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I feel like this should have been written by a more experienced and mature writing. It started off really well: a deep dive into India’s inequality and the systems in place that keep people in cyclical poverty. However, it very quickly spun into a badly written and cringey book that I found difficult to read.

Content Warnings

litletters's review

Go to review page

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

Content Warnings

grantsharpies's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Content Warnings

just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

“He dared to dream at the roulette wheel of life and lost his shirt every time.”

There was a bit of buzz around this one as it came out, just recently, which had it on my radar. And I also got an ALC version of it from Libro.fm, which helped keep it there. I was in the mood for something more...I don't know, entertaining, I guess? Like, I know that gangster books are not necessarily light reads, as they are likely chock full of violence and substance misuse and other tough topics, *but* they have that escapist/surreal vibe that I was looking for, so I decided to give this one a try.

Age of Vice opens with a post-car crash scene, with multiple people dead and a rich man's car (being driven by a shell-shocked servant with no memory of the night's events) found by police on the side of the road in Delhi. As the novel unfolds, the reader follows three perspectives of people connected to the influential-from-the-shadows, loved and feared and power-hungry, Wadia family. Sunny Wadia is the heir to the Wadia family dynasty, young and idealistic and a well-known host of lavish parties and patron of upcoming arts and socialites. Ajay is a young boy from a background of poverty who has found himself as Sunny's most trusted servant. And Neda is a journalist who, after being pulled into Sunny's sphere, finds herself in an ever-more-complicated relationship with both Sunny and the Wadia empire. Their stories span the breath of contemporary India, both in location and class, and highlight social issues, complicated interpersonal and romantic dynamics, the drama and violence and expectations of gangs and gang families, as well as the general greed of humanity and the constant battle to stand against corruption and for morality.

This was well-marketed. Absolutely a good old-fashioned, classic gangster style story. As indicated in the title, there is every kind of vice imaginable in these pages: money, substances, power, sex, and, of course, tons of intimidation and violence. I was really impressed with how well Kapoor combined all those vibes with (stunning) setting descriptions and full character development that stood up the the intensity of the plot. It would have been easy for those details to be lost or consigned to the background, but they weren't - it was a great balance. That being said, this book was also long. I was so glad for the audiobook, because while I really was invested, everything was quite compelling, there was also no conciseness in the language used to convey it all. Being able to listen helped keep me moving forwards through it.

I don't read a lot of books of this genre, so I am not really sure how the stories usually unfold, but I do have to say this was surprisingly emotionally a downer. Like, yes, lots of terrible things happen, violence-wise, but I had gone in expecting that. It was the character's story arcs in particular that were all honestly tragic AF. I mean even though they all ended with a sort of eye toward the future, there was nothing happy or positive about any of it. At best, one could consider some of the "fresh(ish) start" vibes as a neutral place to leave these characters. But overall, the trajectory of the individual stories for Sunny, Ajay and Neda did nothing so much as demonstrate how this type of "age of vice" lifestyle takes advantage of/screws over everyone in its quest for power and oblivion and money, no matter how you're related, inside or out of it. There is just so much naïveté and idealism and best intentions and morals squashed. It was tough to watch the slow slide into...settling.

Overall, this is an incredible combination of all the drama and violence of a true crime syndicate/corrupt affluent population/complacent government mystery-thriller plot, with the sweeping descriptions of the city and rural landscapes of an entire country, with the character development of an intergenerational family saga. Very much some quality escapist reading, with a satisfying dose of social justice commentary.

Content Warnings

alidrooler's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It’s very well written. But it’s dark and violent, and ends abruptly.

Content Warnings

morethanmylupus's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I waited a few days to process before I could write a review on this one. I read it all in one day and I couldn't put it down, so yes I'd say it's compelling. I wouldn't, however, say it's an easy read. I struggled with so much of the story. If you're not familiar with the culture or language of Northern India, you may want to keep a phone or laptop nearby to look up slang and such. Despite the length of this book, there were some characters that needed much more detailed backstories because their intentions were so vague. I'm hoping for a sequel that provides this. Please check trigger warnings.

Content Warnings