Review: Lolita

Title: Lolita

Author: Vladimir Nabokov 

Pages: 361

My Rating: 4.5/5

“Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece”

"Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, fastidious college professor. He also likes little girls. And none more so than Lolita, whom he'll do anything to possess. Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster? ...Or is he all of these?" 
I had, as I assume most people do throughout their lifetime, heard many things about this novel. I had heard it was brilliant, but more prominently, I had heard people talk about how terribly appalling it was. The latter, I could not quite comprehend: it is only a novel, merely a made-up story - how could such a thing ever be so horrifying? 
Even though Nabokov's writing style is flawless, and the story is over all incredibly fascinating, I somehow felt it was at times repetitive. Also, towards the ending I got rather confused, but I will not spoil that on here, assuming some of you may not yet have read the novel.  Therefore, along with the fact that I could not read it in one go and had to take a reading pause of about a week, I 'only' rate it 4.5 stars, rather than 5. 
I have never before read a novel like Lolita, and believe I never will again. 


Now, I do not feel like I should be saying too much about this novel, because so much has already been written, but I do want to get some things off my chest.


This was the first novel that I ever had to put down because the writing was too brilliant. Let me explain this. The perspective this novel takes on, is that of the pedophile Humbert Humbert. The novel is written as a kind of plead to the jury who are about to decide whether he is guilty or not. Therefore, the narrator tries to justify his actions. He does this by explaining how beautiful Lolita is in his eyes, and how she supposedly seduced him - He couldn't help himself, it was her fault. Readers will at this point understand that Humbert is not a reliable narrator at all, and that he truly is a pervert. Despite his effort to defend himself, he will never mislead the audience. However, because of Humbert's excellent command of the English language (as it is not his first language, and nor Nabokov's), and impeccable description of feelings, we will understand exactly what he is feeling, and we will believe it is real. This is, I then started to understand, why so many people had a hard time reading this novel, and I must admit, I did too. Because of Humbert's grusome imagination and Nabokov's brilliant writing, I had to quit reading for about a week - just to cut myself loose from this mesmerising pedophile. 

Review: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Title: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Pages: 359

My Rating: 5/5

This novel tells the story of Ari - an angry boy who has never really had any friends. Until he meets Dante, who tries his best to teach him how to be a friend and how to get rid of his anger.

This is probably the most beautiful novel I ever read about a basically normal boy, dealing with everyday problems. Ari as well as Dante are such real characters: they are amazing but also have quite significant flaws. This makes it easy to empathise with both of the characters, even though Ari may seem like an unlikable person at first.
Benjamin Alire Sáenz is a poet, and that is evident when looking at the writing in this novel: it's gorgeous. Every sentence is well thought through, there are so many interesting quotes in there, and there is a lot of imagery: it's not just a simple Young Adult novel - there are events one has to think about, but also sentences, words even.
Mostly, the story made me feel so calm when reading it, but at one point I did get truly angry. When reading other peoples' reviews, however, I felt like they did not feel the same way. I would like to know, if you've read the book, did you feel angry at some point? I do not want to spoil anything but I think that if you felt the same way I did, you would know what I am talking about.

I find it difficult to properly review books I really like: I think it's important to consider both positive and negative points in a good review. However, I can really not think of any negative aspects to this novel - so I am sorry I cannot provide you with an adequate review.

Anyway, if you  have not yet gathered this from what I wrote: I just loved this book and I think everyone should read it. It's not a difficult read (I read most of it within a day), yet it has so much depth to it. It's just beautiful.

Review: Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Title: Hollow City 

Author: Ransom Riggs

Pages: 396

My Rating: 4/5 stars

Hollow City is the sequel to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and takes off right where the first one ended. Jacob and the other peculiars go to London to try and save their headmistress.

One of the aspects I was bothered with in the first novel, was its slow pace, and Hollow City definitely makes up for that. It is a lot more action-packed, and therefore much more exciting - it makes you want to keep on reading. Also, the first novel was rather predictable, in my opinion. Even though some events in Hollow City were too, the were much more twists and turns, making it impossible to truly know where the story was headed.
Character development is another feature which I thought was really well done in this one. While the first novel is really getting to know Jacob and generally exloring the world of the peculiars, in the sequel we learn some new things about these peculiars, as well as getting to know so many more new characters. I felt the characters were all so well explored and I loved their back-stories.
Another thing I'd call an improvement is the way in which the pictures are inserted. In the first novel, I was sometimes annoyed by the interruption as at times the pictures did not necessarily belong at that point in the story. I also felt it withheld my own imagination in the way that the pictures provided me with how I should imagine certain people or places. Even the latter problem is present in the second novel as well, this bothered me much less. This may have to do with the fact that I was used to it and expecting it as it was not too long ago that I had read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, but it was also because the pictures were always added in the proper place in the story -  you knew what they were supposed to depict.
Now, I only awarded this book .25 more stars than Miss Peregrine's. This is mainly because after I read the first one I felt overwhelmed by the world. It was so new to me and its originality was one of the reasons why I felt it earned 3.75 stars. After having read Hollow City I obviously did not feel the same - I already knew all about the world. However, I felt in this aspect the story lacked - the author could have explored the possibilities of the world he created some more.

Over all though, I truly love this novel and cannot wait for the third one to come out. Ransom Riggs has created such an interesting world and such intriguing characters - there are so many more things to find out.

Review: The Third Man by Graham Greene

Title: The Third Man

Author: Graham Greene

Pages: 124

My Rating: 4/5 stars

In 1948 the film The Third Man premiered. The director Carol Reed had asked Graham Greene to write the screenplay, and he agreed to do so. He quickly found out he could not write a film without first writing a novel. Although the concept (thus the book) was never meant to be published, it later was. This should be kept in mind when reviewing this novel. Greene knew he would be able to edit it when turning it into a script and thus may not have focussed too much on writing the perfect novel. I have to admit I've never read another novel by Greene, so I cannot agree nor disagree, but many other people think the novel can pass as a concept, but canot compare to Greene's other works which are said to be more complex and much better written. As I thought The Third Man was a very well-written and well developed novel, I am quite excited to be reading more by this author. 

The Third Man follows Rollo Martins, an author of Westerns, who goes to Vienna to visit his old friend Harry Lime. Upon arrival, Rollo discovers Harry has been killed in an accident. The protagonist is suspicious about this, and tries to find out what really happened. 

The narrator of the story is detective Calloway, who recounts the story Rollo told him. Although this is sometimes confusing, it also adds depth to the story in the sense that credibility is almost completely gone. Rollo probably was already biased telling the story to Calloway, who in his turn gave his own twist to it when informing us. Our job as a reader is to figure out to what extend the plot is to be believed. 

Although a significant part of the novel is rather predictable, it does remain compelling until the very end. The characters are complex and we become interested in their fates. Greene elaborately shows how our characters end up. This may, however, be one of the flaws of the novel: it has such a closed ending that there's no space for interpretation for the reader (which is solved nicely in the film version). 

An interesting feature of Greene's writing is the way in which he inserts humour. Everything is slightly exaggerated which makes the characters caricatures and the story less serious - which is positive in this case. The humour is also highlighted by the voice. The language used is simple yet highly entertaining, although at this point I cannot quite pinpoint exact quotes. 

In short, I'd say go and read the novel. It's just over a hundred pages, and you will not regret having spent time on it. I'd also recommend seeing the film by Carol Reed, which is, in a very interesting way quite different from the novel. 

Review: Beatrix Potter Collection

Title: Beatrix Potter Collection volume 1

Author: Beatrix Potter

Pages: 350

My Rating: 4/5 stars

This new collection by Wordsworth contains 11 stories by the children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. Honestly, there's not too much to say about this, other than that the stories and drawings are absolutely adorable. Once in a while there's a drawing which is not in that style we're used from Potter which is all too bad, but over all, it truly is a fun read.

Review: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

"My love for Linton is like foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff" 

Title: Wuthering Heights

Author: Emily Brontë

Pages: 245

My Rating: 5/5 stars

Wuthering Heights is a gothic novel which tells the story of Catherine Earnshaw and her passionate relationship with Heathcliff. While this may sound like your ordinary love story of doomed, starcrossed lovers, it is not. This novel has so many more layers to it, and it's worth reading the book as often as needed to explore all those layers thoroughly. Now, I must admit I've personally only read it twic, and the first time I was a young ignorant teenager of 16. Some of you may argue that I'm still young, but having read quite a lot more and, if I may say so myself, having become slightly more intelligent, I feel the second time I actually understood the novel. I would lvoe to read it again to clsoe read certain scenes, and I'm pretty sure that after that I'd want to read it again to analyse other aspects and so on. Unfortunately, I do not -yet- have time to do so, but I hope the rest of this review will give you a sense of my initial feelings.
I tried writing a spoiler free review, but I think I've failed. However, I don't think I gave much more away than the basic knowledge, so if you've not yet read the book I don't think it would do much harm to read on. However, it is at your own risk. To summerise for those who decide to not read on: The novel is awesome, go and read it. Now for a more intelligeble comment on this beautiful piece of fiction:

Wuthering Heights is most definitely not the most liked novel of all time. The story is not fun and light, and the characters are not at all likeable. Even though at least the latter may seem like a crucial aspect - liking at least a few characters - this is in fact what makes this novel interesting.
Cathy and Heathcliff are introduced as young and innocent children, and although clearly scarred by previous events, they seem to be coping with it well. It soon becomes obvious the two are falling in love, and as a reader you've already started loving them. Gradually these obviously loving characters acquire traits which makes them more and more despiseful. Eventually they are both extremely narcisistic and cruel. This is not only the case with the two main characters as the nurse, Nelly Dean, also turns out to be a lot less caring than initially thought. This is one of the great things about Brontë's style of writing. By making us, readers, truly love characters before she shows us how they really are, forces us to care about them, despite all their flaws. You will probably dislike them greatly, but you could never hate them because of the way Brontë introduced them to us.
Not only the characters turn bleaker after a while, so does the story. What was first called love between Heathcliff and Cathy turns out to be a relationship built on hartred and obsession. The passionate dialogue and the most eloquent writing is what in fact makes this novel bearable. The plot line may be interesting, but the fact that it keeps on going down hill makes you want to stop reading - just to have a somewhat happy ending. But please, do not. Every word Brontë writes in this novel should be read.
What should be kept in mind, and is not known by many people who have not read the books - and perhaps have only seen adaptations - is that the plot of the story is not confined to Heathcliff and Catherine's story. There is a second part, and perhaps this part is even more interesting. However, I wish to not go into too much detail on the grounds of not spoiling too much. Moreover, I think the aspects I mention are applicable to both parts, in their own ways.
One negative aspect of the story is credibility. I do not mean the fact that the story may be far fetched, but the way in which it is narrated. Most parts are told by Mr Lockwood, using Miss Dean's perspective. This means, Lockwood is reproducing a story which Miss Dean has told him. The fact that Miss Dean would already remember the story in so much detail is, to me, already doubtful - but Lockwood repeating those exact words then, is rather strange. You could look at this as an unreliable narrator, and Brontë is likely to have done so on pupose, but at the times that I realised how complex the origin of the story was, it did bother me. However, for the greater part of the novel I was able to ignore this and it did by no means affect my reading experience enough to rate it down a star.
I have run out of things to say about this novel, just because I love it so much - I'd just be repeating myself. Maybe after a while, or perhaps a third read, I'd be able to talk about it with greater distance and perhaps more critical.

"I love my murderer - but yours! How can I?"

Review: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

I had mentioned before that I am currently extremely busy with uni. That's why I have not been putting up any reviews. I have read a few books, mostly for courses, and reviews of those will be written, but I'm afraid they won't be too elaborate. I am going to be writing them in the order in which I read them, and I've decided that today I can spend a little time writing the first one.

Title: Manfield Park

Author: Jane Austen

Pages: 472

My Rating: 2/5 stars

As an English student, disliking Jane Austen's writing is a very unpopular opinion. Everybody seems to love her writing style and the character she creates. That's why I, at first, felt ashamed not liking this novel, or others I've read. Thinking about it though, and discussing it with a friend who didn't like it either, reminded me that I am allowed to have my own views. I hoped that the lecture in which we discussed Mansfield Park would help me appreciate it more, but honestly, it only made it worse.
     First of all, I found the novel confusing. This was probably due to my inability to concentrate long enough to even remember some characters. When Austen writes a great amount of pages about why someone may or may not have a headache, I get bored and tend to skip parts or just stop reading. This results in me reading the same passage over and over again, which means I will only get more bored and confused.
     Now, there is our heroine, Fanny. Can we even call her a heroine? She is the most submissive character I've ever read about. Besides, she's very predictable and therefore boring.
     In order for a book to get a two star rating, there must be some things it did do right, I hear you think. Of course, there were some parts which I truly enjoyed, and some bits of writing which I found very interesting. Unfortunately, often in the middle of a beautiful scene, either a character does something annoying, or it just gets weird, and that's why this novel is, to me, not worth any more than two stars.