Reviews

One of the best - and now favourite - books of my life. I won’t lie and say it’s an easy read because it isn’t. The time jumps can be confusing to some readers. To me, most of all, it was a culture shock as I hadn’t read any books set in India, ever. But if we are talking about quality of prose, not many books come even close to how beautiful The God of Small Things is. It can feel disjointed to more matter-of-fact people, but I loved how the writer portrayed the thoughts of children versus the thoughts of adults using stylistic techniques like repetition, metaphors, etc. This book is simply a literary masterpiece, in my opinion.

dishita's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense

4.5

alicew's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

sminismoni's review against another edition

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1.0

Arghhh, it's been a long time since I read a book with so much anticipation, and was so disappointed. First let's start with the plot, which was slow and meandering. It was Boring. And it was written in such an affected style, full of Creative Writing 101 overwrought metaphors and imagery that were repeated with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer. Why use three words when ten will do? I felt like pulling my hair out the seventeenth time I heard about the sickly sweet smell of old roses, or the painted silver jet in the blue church sky, or the sourmetal smell of a steel bus-rails. My God it was annoying. Admittedly the characters were well rounded, but I couldn't bring myself to like or care about any of them. The adults all seemed self-righteous and narcissistic, and the twins apparent "one-soul" connection never convinced me as all that meaningful. The only one I cared about was the Untouchable Valutha, and it was predictable what would happen to him. In the end, I just Didn't Care and felt resentment that the book was so poor.

vino's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

bookishmillennial's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

Has this turned into a movie yet? Gorgeously written! A bit slow at times, because I’m a “get to the point” plot girly, but I thoroughly enjoyed this and can see why it’s deemed a “classic”. I appreciated the commentary on class structures & am so grateful this was recommended to me.

sankalpdasmohapatra's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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