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lotta_8's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Mit Vorsicht zu genießen. Das Buch liest sich gemütlich und wie ein Freizeitroman, ist aber schwer mit Inhalten gefüllt, die nicht so leichtfertig gelesen und überlesen werden sollten, wie es das Buch erstmal vorzuschlagen scheint.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Car accident, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic
_inge's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
So glad I finally got around to reading this. It’s absurdistic yet weirdly realistic (and modern) at the same time, which is right up my alley. And I managed to shape my thoughts on combatting racism a bit more.
I’ve seen people criticising this book by saying Gothe gets away with too much and Dora doesn’t do anything to stop him. Whenever he rants about ‘foreigners needing to stay in their own country’ Dora tries expressing her disapproval, but you can tell she doesn’t quite know how to deal with it. Which is exactly the point of this entire book. It confronts us with our behaviour when faced with racism. Our neighbour might be an actual Nazi who’s done horrible things, we might feel sickened by racist murders happening today, but we still don’t dare to speak up. One passage in this book describes being ‘stunned by racism’. When someone says something racist, we tend to fall into silence. We come up with excuses for not speaking up; maybe there’s no use telling a racist that they’re being racist, surely a left-wing person couldn’t convince them to be less racist? But when we don’t say anything, we wish in hindsight that we would’ve told them off. We feel as if we’ve failed. Eventually, we just avoid racists altogether, as to not risk having an awkward conversation with this person, or feeling worse about ourselves again. I found this passage so relevant and so relatable. Is it the right way to act? Absolutely not. But I think most people act exactly this way. Juli Zeh was able to put this into words perfectly.
The central message in this book is that we’re all human. A neo-Nazi, Covid-conspiracy theorist or left-wing person… at the end of the day, we aren’t just defined by these things alone. Making nazis more human did make me uncomfortable, but I do get the need to do this. If we really get to know people who we fundamentally disagree with, by going into conversations without judgement but instead with empathy and humanity, we might learn more about them and ourselves. If Gothe hadn’t met Dora, I think he genuinely would’ve done worse things. He’s obviously an awful person, which this book acknowledges constantly. But because he’s left alone he becomes even worse. I therefore don’t agree with people saying the book overall is too ‘feel-good’; I just think it’s a call for empathy and humanity, but without sacrificing your own beliefs.
This book is a brilliant exploration on how we deal with racists/nazis. It’s not always pretty or right, but it is realistic. If Dora had acted morally just at every turn, I wouldn’t have been encouraged to think about my own actions and the book as a whole wouldn’t have felt this realistic. Unfortunately, we often don’t know what to do when confronted with racism. I think literature is there to confront us with this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic
laraleest's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Homophobia, Violence, and Xenophobia
tims99's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, and Pandemic/Epidemic
hennie's review against another edition
fast-paced
1.0
erschreckend undifferenziert. nazis sind doch eigentlich ganz gute menschen, schließlich helfen sie ihren nachbarinnen und vernachlässigen ihre kinder nur ein bisschen. dora, die protagonistin, kann sehr gut darüber hinwegsehen, wenn gote linke, schwule und nichtweiße menschen verbal und physisch angreift, weil er doch krank ist und irgendwie ein gutes herz hat (anscheinend).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Hate crime and Suicide
zarlynsnook's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
2.0
To be perfectly honest,reading this book was a little struggle for me,so as writing this review. I didn't hate the book but I didn't like or love it either. As a reader from Southeast Asia, I might not be the target audience of this book or maybe, some things got lost in translation that it failed to capture and engaged me as much as I expected it to. I got particularly fond of reading translated works this past year and the premise of this novel really intrigued me.
The plot of this book might be more complex than how I understood it because at the end, it just felt like reading a cozy small town novel with some political undertones. I hated that it felt that way for me because I believe this book has a message or a statement that I did not fully understand. Is it really about covid? or the political demographic of Germany?
I wish I had a clear answer for that,but I don't. If anything, this book nudged me and has me thinking of reading more about the country it was from.
The plot of this book might be more complex than how I understood it because at the end, it just felt like reading a cozy small town novel with some political undertones. I hated that it felt that way for me because I believe this book has a message or a statement that I did not fully understand. Is it really about covid? or the political demographic of Germany?
I wish I had a clear answer for that,but I don't. If anything, this book nudged me and has me thinking of reading more about the country it was from.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Terminal illness, Stalking, and Pandemic/Epidemic
neaaen's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Car accident, and Pandemic/Epidemic