Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Dinner

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Dinner by Herman Koch

89 reviews

gibetal's review against another edition

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3.0

Content Warnings

ebsnewts's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

2.75

I was really excited to read this book, but I have to say I was disappointed. Maybe it loses something of the original with translation, but I found it dragging and pretentious. It felt like the author’s main focus was trying to convince how smart this book was. I usually love an unreliable narrator, but here found it jarring and somewhat silly. Not for me.

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whitneyrobson's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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rosa96's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

domenicar's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

The main characters are obviously despicable, but that is intended and the point of the book. If it is done well, I don't need loveable characters to enjoy a book. I am not sure if it was the case here.

First of all, I have never seen more racial slurs in one book. I am not sure whether it was to highlight the awfulness of the characters or the author's edginess. All in all, I feel like the point could have been made without them and they made me enjoy the book less.

I also briefly considered DNF'ing this book, because it was painfully slow-paced. It was meandering for ages to finally arrive at reveals that were mostly fairly easy to guess and/or anti-climactic, especially towards the end.

This is the first book I've read from Herman Koch and despite everything, I generally liked his writing style and would probably try another book of his in the future.

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jazsever's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

sarahbliss's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

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

0.75

Content Warnings

nenaveenstra's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

Ik zag op het internet ineens een boel mensen de Engelse vertaling van dit boek lezen, dus ik raakte geïntrigeerd. Hoezo is dit boek zo populair dat het in zoveel talen vertaald is?

Ik heb daar na het luisteren van dit boek nog steeds geen antwoord op. Het boek is namelijk erg Nederlands. De 'tolerante' houding van deze mensen jegens allerlei minderheidsgroepen is zo typisch, en de manier waarop alles eindigt zou best als racistisch kunnen worden beschouwd.

Maar goed, ik was wel geëntertaind. Als je begint aan dit boek, heb je geen idee wat je te wachten staat, en de manier waarop alles zich uitvouwde had ik - tot op de laatste kwart, denk ik - niet zien aankomen. Als je eenmaal weet wat er speelt, wordt het boek wel een beetje voorspelbaar. Het was prima.

Overigens; ik zie veel mensen zeggen dat dit een boek is over hoever ouders gaan om hun kinderen te beschermen. Maar in mijn ogen proberen ze alleen maar zichzelf te beschermen. Michel is een kopie van zijn vader. Als Michel door de mand valt, doet Paul dat ook. En hetzelfde geldt voor Serge.

het is niet voor niks dat hij zijn presidentschap wil opofferen. Niet om zijn zoon, maar om zijn eigen reputatie.

(Zoals altijd bij luisterboeken vraag ik me af of ik er meer van had genoten als ik het met mijn eigen ogen had gelezen, maar we zullen het nooit weten.)

Content Warnings

3eggomelet's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-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

2.75

Content Warnings

jkulla's review

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dark medium-paced

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

2.5

Actually closer to 2.5 stars. I really wanted to like this book, the concept sounded very interesting to me but the execution kind of fell flat. For starters, nothing on the book prepared me for how fucked up some of the plot was? <Spoiler>Once I got to the part where the boys end up killing the homeless woman I had to put the book down and take a break. Not only was that horrible, the main characters were truly insufferable to read about. <Spoiler> I could not stand Paul, which is perhaps the point, but it made me not even want to finish the book. I can see why this is a New York Times best seller but it did not live up to my expectations. Perhaps I’m sick of the “I’m a man and everyone is out to get me” trope because I cannot stand how much of that was in this book.

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