A review by sandaru
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Took me 8 months to finish, with reading slumps in between. 
The story and the translation's language are very easy to understand and stay with the flow of the story. Big books like this, usually scare me off, or I get bored in the middle. Even if I took 8 months to finish this, the story and the flow never bothered me. It was relatable and interesting. 
Some parts dragged way too much, but the story was good overall. The characters' names were a bit confusing since the Russian names's full names and the short names are different, but you get used to it as you read. I liked how the author portrayed the crime and its punishment in so many layers.

Why must Rodion Raskolnikov commit the crime, thinking he has the authority to have a judgment and the right to punish the old pawnbroker woman over her crimes which resulted in Rodion having to go through his own share of crime and punishment? And how he was already being punished before the actual punishment by law. The emotional torment leads him to confess his crime, only to not repent about it later since that was given. And how the rest of the people around him who did not commit any crimes were punished even before the crime happened. It's a crazy book but very real to its core and relatable.
 
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