Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Talented Mr Ripley

It was an interesting and well-written book but ultimately the unlikeable main character made it a little hard for me to be invested in the book. If you like crime novels, it is worth a read because it is different than others in the genre.

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eyesofcrows's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was a fun book. Just loads of fun. Ripley’s journey of being a conman and a bit of a psychopath was something to witness. His relationship with Dickie was also odd, and I had the thought of “he either wants to with Dickie or be him” to which I received the answer to.

A little bit of both. It’s clear he wanted to travel the world with Dickie but also he liked pretending to be him

While I wish there were more hiccups in the story to drive up the drama, I think the present paranoia of Ripley and all the dangers he faced were pretty good. His thought patterns were certainly something I enjoyed about the book, especially with how vivid his imagination is. The traveling was nice too.

It’s actually a little disturbing how far he goes to live the life he wants. Nothing gets in his way and he’s completely willing to kill people, but also he manages to convince himself that he’s not a murderer until he needs to murder again. Man he is crazy. Absolutely adore it.

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narzibenoucdel's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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lynna_love's review against another edition

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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.

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themoonsbacchanal's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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ashleyjewell's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I finally read my first Patricia Highsmith and loved it!

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amberck's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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elilametta's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Absolut fesselnd und faszinierend! Jetzt habe ich große Lust Urlaub in Italien zu machen und la dolce vita zu leben. Nur Tom Ripley möchte ich dort lieber nicht begegnen..

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