You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
notesofacrocodile's Reviews (257)
3.5☆ — the writing was fun and of the page-turning sort, but i felt like the action occurred way too late + wrapped up too soon and that the characters also lacked proper depth. the premise was interesting though, i will give it that
3.5☆ — i didn't feel any particular sense of attachment to most of the characters and this bothers me because i think this book was about its characters. the story itself picked up better after the introduction of esther. a warm story, nevertheless!
5☆ — it has been a bit since i finished this book and the story is still humming within me. alice walker wrote some brilliant women characters in this novel, each growing into their own and having their own journeys, each strong and determined in their own way. another thing i loved is how blackness, womanhood, and queerness has been intertwined so intricately and masterfully- i can fully understand why this classic has been revered and loved and accorded with the kind of status that it has been given even today. particularly loved the way she explored themes of god and religion through diverse perspectives.
this book got better for me in the second half. sally rooney is one of my favourite writers and the comparisons that were drawn between her and the writing of coco mellors was what bought me here in the first place, and now that i have finished this book, i just have to say that i personally don't entirely agree with this comparison. however, coco mellors herself is in no way a bad writer and there were some observations and lines that i found artful and enjoyable. some perspectives bought out the colour of the story, while others gradually became stale and irrelevant. all in all, i would put this author up as one to watch and will be checking out her other works in the future.
certainly had its moments, but ultimately led me to feel a bit dissatisfied after i was done
// "I felt every level, graphemic, morphological, and semantic, and they all hurt."
a novel marked by the ruminations of a potentially autistic woman who is majoring in linguistics at harvard, the idiot gave me the gift of a protagonist who i deeply related with. elif batuman has a wonderful way with words, especially when it came to providing us with the perspective of selin (the protagonist). i had read that this novel was in small part autobiographical, which makes sense because of how personal and intimate selin's contemplative inner monologues seemed. i also thought that selin's sentiments during the first year at university was highly reflective of my own similar experience of winding up at a highly competitive college and not being able to cement many close connections, resorting to writing and navel-gazing.
i do, however, feel that this novel is for a certain type of reader- specifically the kind who don't mind a plot that doesn't have events of epic proportions, as the main focus is on the inner contemplations of the protagonist and the pensive (and sometimes lighthearted) conversations she has with the other characters.
a novel marked by the ruminations of a potentially autistic woman who is majoring in linguistics at harvard, the idiot gave me the gift of a protagonist who i deeply related with. elif batuman has a wonderful way with words, especially when it came to providing us with the perspective of selin (the protagonist). i had read that this novel was in small part autobiographical, which makes sense because of how personal and intimate selin's contemplative inner monologues seemed. i also thought that selin's sentiments during the first year at university was highly reflective of my own similar experience of winding up at a highly competitive college and not being able to cement many close connections, resorting to writing and navel-gazing.
i do, however, feel that this novel is for a certain type of reader- specifically the kind who don't mind a plot that doesn't have events of epic proportions, as the main focus is on the inner contemplations of the protagonist and the pensive (and sometimes lighthearted) conversations she has with the other characters.
amongst the many contributions to society that jane austen gave us with the writing of this novel, the most notable one has to be the introduction of arguably the most historically iconic autistic-coded character in fiction
5☆ — short but stunning collection of lyrical poetry surrounding themes such as war, the immigrant condition, womanhood, and sexuality. will most definitely return to warsan shire's work in the near future because i need more !
