Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Sometimes a classic is just that: classic.
There is an incredible potency to those last few pages - a strange electric anticipation before the world is brought crashing down with the last paragraph. I often think about that lost generation, perhaps even specifically those soldiers from the losing nations; coming home to a country which would now be thrust into economic crisis because of reparations that needed paying. Baümer remarks a lot on how he is unable to see a future for himself after the war. Which I suppose is the point; it took his future from him - and would have continued to- in ways he couldn’t yet comprehend.
Switched editions for better translation.
challenging
dark
sad
tense
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
This book was assigned reading two times during my time in school and yet I never read more than the first 60 pages - which I now regret: This book is great (maybe not particularly in its characters, but certainly its message). It portrays the first world war from the eyes of the soldiers at the front and how hopeless and useless war is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, War
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Misogyny
It was actually not all quiet on the western front. Probably the least quiet the western front has been.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
An enjoyable, short read that puts life in perspective.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
It was my first time reading a book for fun, and finishing it, in maybe over a decade. For the first time, reading felt like watching a show or a movie, so that’s nice. Pretty sad book though.
This is certainly one of the greatest war novels ever written, by someone who was there. I'm not sure I can even do it justice in a review, so I'll keep it short. Netflix recently released a German version, which is an unbelievably great film, but does stray from the novel quiet a bit. A young man runs off to war for glory (as men often do), and discovers instead that he is trapped in a hellscape of
rat-infested trenches that few soldiers have ever experienced before in human history, featuring the debut of poison gas, the tank, fighter planes and huge artillery guns. It's not long before he becomes disillusioned and bitter at the futility of it all, and that he is fighting young men who are basically the same as he is, so that old politicians and officers can have their glory.
rat-infested trenches that few soldiers have ever experienced before in human history, featuring the debut of poison gas, the tank, fighter planes and huge artillery guns. It's not long before he becomes disillusioned and bitter at the futility of it all, and that he is fighting young men who are basically the same as he is, so that old politicians and officers can have their glory.