A review by lynna_love
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It was good, there where some things that didn’t play in its favor like it feels like a travel novel which would have been fantastic If I had been traveling while reading, which was not the case😭(and I don’t quite like travel novels). But anyways the most interesting thing about this novel is Tom Ripley and to what lenght he would go to live the live that he wanted, even if he had to kill. What disturb me was how easily he posed as the person he killed, it was just chilling, but very interesting to read. 

I just love how Patricia Highsmith wrote Tom. He is a complex character, he feels worthless being himself, but when he kills Dickie he finds an out and impersonates him so easily like he was waiting for that moment all his life. And  he is living the moment of his life being Dickie until he has to return to his original self which he loathes because returning to be the boring, uninteresting Tom Ripley is painful for him. He is just a brilliant character, and we could go on analyzing him for hours, that’s how intriguing he is.

But overall, it was a rather solid book with a brilliant main character, maybe to much movement for my liking, but pretty great.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings