A review by arielmagicesi
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

3.0

Uggggghhh fine. It was fine. I probably would've hated it if I'd read it in English class as a teenager, but I read it by choice as an adult just in case I ever have to teach it in English class to teenagers, so I'm fine with it. Like... Hawthorne is undoubtedly a good writer, and there are plenty of passages that stand out as incredibly well-written, and some parts intrigued and entertained me (the fucking part where Hester gets invited to dance with the devil and she's like "omg I TOTALLY would but I just got my soul saved, so sorry to miss, rain check?" cracked me up) (also the bit where they're in the woods and the A falls on the ground when Hester and the reverend actually fucking TALK to each other) but for the most part it was just SUCH A BORING STORY. Like we GET it, Puritanism, symbolism, guilt, adultery, five billion ways to repeat these points, bleh. Hester was not at all an interesting character. I wish we'd seen more of her and the reverend's feelings for each other and her lust and guilt rather than her masquerading as a good little martyr for like 85% of the book. Idk. If I had been Hawthorne's editor I would've been ruthless with the red pen.