Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Alchemist

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

14 reviews

maresuju's review against another edition

Pretty early in the book, the MC has an interaction with a woman who might be Romani (he says that she reminds him of stories of Romani people). This section is filled with racial slurs and harmful stereotypes. The MC is immediately afraid of this woman and accuses her of tricking/cheating him, with no real explanation to the reader. His internal dialogue is pretty gross during this part, too, as he clearly doesn’t think this woman has any knowledge or understanding of the world. This might be a way for him to learn about his own prejudices, I don’t know. But there was nothing in the section indicating that, and what’s portrayed is a harmful and dangerous view of Romani people. This immediately made the book a DNF for me.

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_gabi_'s review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring reflective medium-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? No

5.0

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poirot's review against another edition

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reflective medium-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? No

3.0

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melodyseestrees's review

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adventurous challenging reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

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meganpbennett's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious 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? It's complicated

1.0

After seeing this book pop up multiple times in a short period of time, I decided to give it a try, as I needed a short book to read, one that I could finish before a book list reading challenge started at my library on September 01st.

It was difficult to follow, and the main characters having no names did not help matters. The boy isn't a particularly lovable main character, and he's naive enough that it stops being a good thing and becomes a slog. For such a short book with so much travel, nothing really happens. The boy learns a lot of things, but I felt like I was missing half of the story.

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