Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Lolita

Found it surprisingly engrossing and easy to submerge myself into the protagonist’s mind. Beautifully written, often had to reread passages i had skimmed over in order to fully appreciate the poetry of the descriptions. Thought it was interesting how the protagonist was simultaneously aware of the perversity of his actions and seemed convinced of his own ability to reason it away.

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nabaraditi's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.25

The rating is not for the book but represents my enjoyment thereof.

I’m in awe the way Vladimir Nobakov has depicted the mind of a human. It’s soooo shocking and mind-blowing. The first 100-150 pages were just amazing.. I was surely going to give it 4 stars. But then the book took a plunge and reading about the roadtrips and… that bored me to DNF it multiple times.

I feel this book should be seen as less to do with Humbert and more about Lolita’s sad life.

Her mother didn’t want her, didn’t treat her well. Her mother’s new husband is in lust with her. She does get raped at age 12. She is controlled by this man. Her even steals her money so that she cannot run away. Blackmails her that if she does tell about he raping her, she’ll end up in the system. He gives her gifts so that she would stay with him, even continue to have sex with him. Once he even paid her to masturbate him. Like it’s really horrible. I also feel she’s not sure what she wants.

This book also gave me an insight on what a paedophile finds attractive in young children.

This book also depicts how men or how society views women in their prime. When women are young like teenagers and in their 20’s, there are men who want to court them and marry them. And the way they are gaslighted and manipulated after or even before marriage. After a decade or two and having children, women in their 40’s and 50’s are considered old and not sexy anymore. This is what I thought of when Humbert starts to see Lolita not being a young pre-pubescent girl anymore. So, I think this book isn’t just about a paedophile who is in love with a 12 year old girl but about men and society and their portrayal of women’s sexuality and women themselves even.

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m0rdred_the_fallen's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.75

Seré honesto, leí el libro sólo para formarme mi propia opinión sobre el; por lo mismo no lo abandoné, a pesar de que llegó un momento en que pensé "Ugh, aun si estuvieras hablando de una mujer de tu edad, te pediría que pares con el lenguaje tan floreado".
Ahora que lo terminé, puedo decir que entiendo, completamente, porqué es tan controversial pero el lenguaje tan lírico y floreado realmente me molestaron al leerlo. También está el hecho de que, en mi opinión, puedes quitarle un tercio, o hasta dos, del libro y seguiría entendiendose porque HH toma para siempre para hacer cualquier cosa.

Incluso podría centrarse en uno de los viajes a los que HH obliga a Lolita a ir, o el escape de Lolita, o el asesinato de Clare Quilty

Personalmente, fue una lectura pesada, entiendo porqué es polémica, pero no empaticé ni con HH y Lolita no tiene ni voz en el libro así que tampoco me apegué mucho a ella.
El final fue bueno,

por un momento pensé que viviria el resto de sus días impune, atacando otras niñas, así que verlo ir a prisión por asesinato fue un buen giro

también es donde siento que el ritmo fue mucho más llevadero.

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