Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Dinner by Herman Koch

36 reviews

beklovesbooks's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

3.75

Well done. Dark, creepy, sometimes hard to relate to. I like that it all takes place over one long dinner with flashbacks.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, War, Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Pregnancy, Violence, Alcohol, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual content, Blood, Death, Torture, and Cursing

domenicar's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, and Murder

Moderate: Racism

3eggomelet's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Murder, and Xenophobia

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Racism

h0lland's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Death, and Physical abuse

marykendrick666_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Ableism, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

chlorai's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Gun violence, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Torture

laurenleigh's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

This novel takes place over the course of a dinner between two brothers and their wives. The structure was quite interesting, and I thought Koch did a great job of putting us in the mindset of our narrator, one of the brothers. As the night progresses and as items or actions trigger the narrator’s memory, we get insights into the past and the events leading up to this dinner. As the story unfolds, the plot was almost like a thriller, even though the current action happening is just a dinner out. It was well executed, and Koch is a great writer. But I really dislike almost all of these characters. I was constantly shocked by their selfishness and lack of morals. I think it would probably make a good book club pick though, with lots of opportunities for questioning what you’d do in these situations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Xenophobia, Physical abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

gabgeh's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

2.75

An interesting concept; peculiar execution. Slow at times, but creative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Torture

clemrain's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

4.5

Where do you begin with The Dinner? I suppose it would be with the dinner.

This book takes course through one dinner. An important dinner and discussion between difficult characters that are strong in their beliefs and will act on them. That is a threat. 

The narrator, Paul, is astonishingly written. A wild ride of inner dialogues and anecdotes that are placed in just the right places. Koch uses great pacing and placements of Paul’s recounts. Paul is of the best unreliable narrator’s I’ve read. 

The Dinner is such a real depiction of racism, prejudice and privilege. That doesn’t catch on until it does and then it just settles. I can’t explain it. Koch does such a good job. You really get put into the disillusionment of these people. It’s astonishing. These are some well written and realistic characters though majority of them, I really don't like.

I wish I could read this book in its original language. I wonder how much it would’ve differed. The pacing the wording. Either way, I do think this translation is effective.

The ending

is five stars to me. Of course it ended like that. There is no consequence for people like Paul. It was realistic. Though I wonder a lot what “disease” Paul left unmentioned. I wonder our conclusions as readers are meant to be us facing our own prejudice.

This book is frustrating and for most of it I was just trying to understand what the point was. But there is a point and I wonder if it’ll ever be understood by the people this book is about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Medical content, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Racism, Death, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Infidelity and Body horror

hannakutlu's review

dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, and Murder