A review by dreklogar
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.5

This book was incredibly, offensively bad. The main character was unbearable, judgemental and arrogant and the narrative treated him with undeserved kindness. Sure, it's his story, told by him: usually, I'd just leave it at "this story is boring", but there is also the framing device. The story behind the story, which isn't narrated by Kvothe, and, well... We see the same there. He is so amazing that Chronicler wants to write about him at any cost, despite the aggression, bad temper and unfair treatment he gets at his hands. 

Random people tell stories about him, Bast adores him despite constantly acting like an abuse victim (the fear of Kvothe, being so incredibly keyed into his every slight mood shift, going as far as to constantly "teach" Chronicler how he should act), he does actually learn Chronicler's super complex short-hand very quickly. All of this is outside of the framing device and tells us that no, Kvothe isn't just full of himself. 

Add to that the casual sexism of the story, how it took over half the book for a female character to show up, only for her to be put on a pedestal (Fela did show up at some point, but really, what's Fela like except "beautiful" and "into Kvothe"). Add the incredibly disgusting scene where one teacher just sexually harrasses a female student and it's all just taken in stride. Comments on how all women hate Denna, because she's so beautiful, or how Denna is compared to a natural disaster as an excuse for her hurting people. Who needs agency, right?

Also, oh, the way the poverty was handled. The way Kvothe
managed to leave the streets
was ridiculous and frankly insulting.
Of course, showering 5-6 times removes all visible traces of poverty! When I told friends of mine how his hair was perfectly fine after he slept on the streets for two years, they were impressed anyone would be so uninformed as to write something this bad
.

This would all be more forgivable if not for the fact that the narrative keeps acting as if it's brilliant and has something to say about the human condition and experience. I lost count of how many times I read "If you haven't been X, you wouldn't know", and it is so clear that the author has not, in fact, been X, and has no idea either. The book was very insulting, very condescending and very, very unpleasant to read.
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