Reviews with content warning for Death - El Corazón de las Tinieblas

Reviews tagging 'Death'

El Corazón de las Tinieblas by Joseph Conrad

48 reviews

werewolfacct's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

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librarymouse's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.0

I'm rating this higher than I did last time around, but not by much. It's not my favorite book by a long shot, but after learning more about Joseph Conrad and writing about textile manufacturing practices contemporary to Conrad's writing of the book in how they relate to its content, I got a lot more out of it this time around.
It's a slow paced book, but time moves quickly for the characters.

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saraaaa's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective fast-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A very mild read, whose status as a classic is surely upheld by its relevance as a historical document. Conrad harshly criticizes colonialism, but does so from within the racist framework of his times.
I liked that the reader is constantly reminded that the story is being told by a specific character with specific views on life, and therefore is only one of many different perspectives on the narrated events.
Conrad paints the colonial environment and the Congolese forest as engulfed in a haunting, menacing spell that gives an air of magic realism to the novella – when it did not have the tones of exoticism, it painted a beautiful picture.

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jade_smith's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

4.0

This was me revisiting this book for the first time since studying it in high school. I still find it to be such an incredibly interesting novel. To say I "enjoy" this book doesn't feel right -- but to say it enthralls me as a historical object is definitely true.

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oliviatheron's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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duarshe's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.0

So... I can safely say I didn't enjoy this. I felt like there was nothing happening and even the climactic moment of the story was extremely bland and underwhelming. I appreciate the theme and topic of the novella, the playing with the light and dark... But this was not for me.

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phantomgecko's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.0

idk why so many older novels take the premise of a guy telling a story. I cannot take it seriously. Their narrator goes into more detail than anyone has ever actually said in a story they told aloud. It takes me out of it a bit.

As for the actual story... There's so much detail about things that don't matter and vagaries about things that do. Marlow seemed to like Kurtz at some times, and I'm not sure why? idk, I don't feel qualified to give this book and actual meaningful review.

"The horror, the horror" should have been such a banger line, but it fell flat for me.

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