Reviews

The Idiot, by Elif Batuman

vi_readsbooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective 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

kcmichelle's review against another edition

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It was due back toand had the library and had holds. I will probably go back and finish some day. It can only be read in short periods. It is sometimes funny but often very tedious details. Definitely NOT a page turner for me. That said some observations and commentary are interesting enough to pick it up again

madscha's review against another edition

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challenging reflective medium-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

flavia's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

emmauppelschoten's review against another edition

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

3.75

beautifully written, a little more advanced than i can usually tolerate but once i slowed down everything made more sense. very unsatisfying ending but honestly that was to be expected. definitely will read again sometime.

glissoway's review against another edition

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challenging funny reflective medium-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

4.75

amyyes's review against another edition

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

4.0

artist_lace's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I mistakenly started with the second book in this series, “Either/Or.” It was interesting to gain some perspective on the happenings of “Either/Or” and enjoyable knowing how certain aspects of the story turn out.

Much like “Either/Or” I enjoy the author’s unconventional way of describing things:

“…trying to determine whether any of the rectangles in my peripheral vision was a box of tissues.”

"They were good nouns. Calendar, dictionary, briefcase, bear."

"The adjunct instructor also said stupid things, but they were in Spanish, so you learned more."

notmckinzie's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted reflective relaxing sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Extremely relatable and yet opaque at the same time. I often felt that Selin might be autistic, which is to say that reading her often felt as if I was encountering things without a trace of the usual, liminal thought processing or understanding of others intentions with which I would usually process the information granted to me by my neurotypical (at least in that regard) brain. This is a positive thing. It forced me to live in a world in which I do not understand, because she doesn’t understand, which then led me to conclude that I genuinely still don’t understand the world we live in. Being 18/19 years old is so fun and so scary. It is life magnified. I loved this book.

talltalereads's review against another edition

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3.0

there were a lot of individual scenes/lines in this that really struck hard.. but as a whole I think I'm too dumb to be the target audience for this book