Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - The Catcher in the Rye

Reviews tagging Pedophilia

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

27 reviews

burymeatmakeoutcreek's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I read this book once for high school and I remember loving it. Despite Holden's unreliability as a narrator and some dated language, I was enthralled by his mark as a storyteller. However, reading this again made me realize he really is just a teenager and this book is mostly his ramblings on anything and everything. It is also about the messed up life of a privileged kid who's trying to survive his own mind. I know most people now aren't into first-person narration and this book especially hinges on going through the mind of this teenage boy. However, I still think it's valuable for being able to present the life of a single person through a stream-of-consciousness style and showing the character's motives through their words and actions.

Unlike the book, this review is going nowhere. I just loved it, despite everything wrong with it. I cannot get over how much despair Holden goes through and I'll always remember the red hunting hat.

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sara_berlin's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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

3.0

In one word: overrated.
I can admit that it wasn’t as terrible as I thought at the start, but it’s definitely not a masterpiece or one of the best books ever. Honestly I considered dnfing it but I wanted to finish it so I could a) say I’ve read it and b) properly trash it.

If this was released today and critiqued as a piece of literature, I don’t think it would get good reviews. I will never understand how this is some people’s favorite book.
The actual process of reading it was not fun and not worth what little I got out of it. Sure, there’s some interesting (although in my opinion pretty basic) reflections, and Holden is a somewhat interesting character, but beyond that, there wasn’t much substance.
I feel like if it was at least fun to read I would’ve given it a pass for not have any like “lesson” or “deep meaning”, although I would still not consider it one of the best books of all time. I probably just have very high standards for classics, I mean something had to make it so popular and everlasting. but this was not that good. Honestly I only actually liked the last part, but the rest of the book was quite a bore. I dunno, I kind of get the point of it, but it wasn’t for me.

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evawertz's review

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

5.0

This book is one of the few books where I felt like mental illness was shown from the perspective of the person experiencing the mental illness in a very accurate way. Holden's superiority complex is precisely how it is to have one in real life, you feel justified to point out everything you find wrong in people while excusing your even worse faults. You act rashly because everything seems to lack value and time zooms by or stretches on forever in your mind. Unlike most books, there's not a final destination or moment in someone's life that completes the book. The book is a snippet of the plain but complex days in someone's life. There is no happy or sad ending just a pause and let's see what happens. It portrays how life isn't a story with a perfect beginning to end and how you never know what's next.

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azrealia's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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nomatophobia's review

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dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

1.0

You know that game where somebody gives you a prompt and you have to rant about it as if you had years worth of bottled up anger on the subject? That's how this book was written. In the end they try to make it seem like MainCharacter will stop being so pessimistic but it was said in a way that was so unsatisfying to me.

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