Reviews

Deception by Roald Dahl

somelatenightreading's review

4.0

 Read in 2023: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

-My Lady Love, My Dove: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Mildenhall Treasure: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
-Parson's Pleasure: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Umbrella Man: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Bookseller: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-Vengeance is Mine, Inc.: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-Lamb to the Slaughter: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-Mr Botibol: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
-Man from the South: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

varvara's review against another edition

5.0

Another wonderful collection of short stories, my second favourite after "Madness".

ilsesuzanne's review

4.0

Really lovely collection of short stories. Some left me in agony, some left me laughing and one was just simply beautiful. Personal favorites are "Parson's Pleasure" and "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar".

marleneayumi's review

I slowly made my way through each short story sporadically; I read lamb to the slaughter back in year 8, and still remember my sister reading me the umbrella man when I was younger sitting on the counter in my Oma’s kitchen. But I never read all the stories & I finally decided to work my way through them when I saw the book standing up in my sisters bookshelf. My favourite stories were- lamb to the slaughter (I’ve remembered this story since year 8 and won’t forget it) man from the south & the wonderful story of Henry sugar. All fantastically clever, succinct (in the right way) and emanated some form of nostalgia from my childhood!

two_octopuses's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

3.75

It took me a while to get into the flow of short stories. I think I am desensitized to violence and crazy plot twists in media these days, but I think these stories were really interesting when you consider the age. 
Roahl Dahl is a strange mfer, but these stories had me so on edge I could barely bring myself to read some of the lines.

kitty_kat21's review

3.0

A collection of Roald Dahl’s short stories, all connected to the theme of deception. The stories in this collection aren’t as disturbing and interesting compared to the Cruelty collection, a lot of the stories were average or worse. My ratings of all the stories individually are as follows:

‘My Lady, My Dove’ - 3 stars.
‘The Mildenhall Treasure’ - 3 stars.
‘Parson’s Pleasure’ - 3.5 stars.
‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’ - 4 stars.
‘The Umbrella Man’ - 3 stars.
‘The Bookseller’ - 3.5 stars.
‘Vengeance is Mine Inc.’ - 2 stars.
‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ - 4 stars.
‘Mr Botibol’ - 2 stars.
‘Man from the South’ - 3.5 stars.

The stand out stories were: ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’, which I read as a child and it has always stuck with me, it was great reading it again; and ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ was also pretty good.

Although this collection didn’t blow me away, Roald Dahl has such an impressive talent for story telling, I’m always in awe of his stories. He really does deserve the title of the greatest storyteller of all time, and I would recommend his short story collections to everyone.

amalia1985's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

An indecent joke from a wealthy middle-aged housewife at the expense of a young couple becomes very... educational. A farmer discovers a treasure and the owner attempts to deceive him, only to discover that the joke was on him. A pastor believes he can deceive the 'naive' villagers, but forgets that their kindness will not work to his benefit. A gentle old man offers his umbrella to a young mother on a rainy day, and her curiosity uncovers a sad story of addiction. A librarian, who is in fact a crook, has the time of his life until he goes after the wrong victim. A man convinces himself to be a great composer and is assisted by a strange young woman in his grand plan for glory. Two friends in New York become revenge -entrepreneurs, and a boy becomes involved in an eerie bet while on holiday. In the best story of the collection, a wronged wife commits THE perfect crime.

Ten stories of deceit, obsession, folly and retaliation from a master of the genre.

loverkiller16's review

3.0

This is the first adult Roald Dahl book I've read and I sadly found it pretty beige. It may be other people's cup of tea, but I found the subject matter and "twist" in each story, while clever in a sense, honestly kind of dull. Not a bad read because he's a wonderful writer, but after the 2nd or 3rd story, I couldn't be bothered continuing.

mbod's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

archeve's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I liked Lamb to the Slaughter (still iconic after five years) and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, but the rest were kind of forgettable to me. Well, I’m not sure what this says about me, but in my opinion, the most memorable parts other than these two stories were probably the pettiness in Vengeance Is Mine, Inc. and the delusional tendency in Mr. Botibol. I sort of expected more from Roald Dahl since I’ve only read his middle-grade books before, and his writing was very witty in those books, yet the writing in this book felt flat in comparison.