Reviews - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

1.97k reviews for:

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

John le Carré

3.99 AVERAGE

darthhall's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This book clearly established some motifs for the genre. It’s so thoughtful and engaging. The dialogue is superb.

j0s1eg's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

A very interesting spine of them. I read this because I know that it is a very famous Cold War thriller, but I will say that I didn't really connect with the characters. Perhaps it's a little bit too old-fashioned for me? At times the plot was a bit confusing; I think I needed to brush up on my history before reading this. As it was, I just looked up the plot on Wikipedia in order to understand what was going on. I enjoyed the writing and the pace felt good. The version that I read on Kindle was riddled with typos. And that's my review.

marmoo's review against another edition

5.0

dark tense

Bleak and engrossing, this slim novel is more interested in the psychological toll of its morally comprised Cold War intelligence environ than in the blow-by-blow of the spycraft involved—though Le Carré certainly presents a convincing portrait of both.