A review by missdragon
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Wow! This book was way better and much more engaging than I was expecting. My only other dip into Russian literature was reading a bit of war and peace, and this book was much more fast paced and digestable, and I enjoyed it about as much as Dracula, which is another one of my favourite classics book. I ended up mostly listening to this as an audiobook and finished most of it within two days. It was a really interesting look into the psychology of a murderer, and contained some really interesting philsophical discussions, some of which were interesting, and some of which were clearly the main character deluding himself. Also crazy to see a positive portrayal of a sex worker in a book from 1866, there is also a fair amount of going to people's houses and talking, and most of the book is waiting for the inevitable. I really liked this.

I saw a review that said "too much crime and not enough punishment" and I would agree this is more an exploration of crime than an exploration of the punishment of crime society does.