Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Serotonin

This is just a book about a sad, middle aged french dude. I couldn’t tell if the author was a misogynist or he was taking creative liberties with the characters. There was also an intense focus on sec which I found to be unnecessary, but was a main focus of the book. It was fine. Nothing more. Nothing less.

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pauli_alarcon's review against another edition

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sad slow-paced

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

2.5

Well written. But I could not stand the character and the plot. Just wanted to end it.

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tizi_reads's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense slow-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

1.5

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tserriednich's review against another edition

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dark sad 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? It's complicated

1.5

Underwhelming is an understatement. A sorry attempt at describing the life of a man morbidly depressed, Houellebecq allows much of his prejudices to bleed into his work. Both overtly and implicitly misogynistic, racist and unnecessarily homophobic, the attempt to demonstrate what Labrouste actually feels and how it has affected his life as well as his outlook on it does little by way of making the reader sympathetic to his situation. All the agriculture lingo is tedious at best. At worst, it’s completely irrelevant and only detracts from what little substance the story had in the first place. While I tried my best to remain impartial, the racism and misogyny in the text makes it difficult to focus on any underlying thematic elements and it detracts from the flow and over all body of the text. Not to mention, it takes away from any sort of immersion the reader might achieve.

Overall, an incredibly disappointing read I hoped I would like but ended up struggling to get through. It quickly became a chore and any enthusiasm there might have been in the first 5 pages was quickly dispelled.

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