Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - Heart of Darkness

this is by far the most boring book that i have ever read, so boring and awful i didn’t even bother to finish it because it’s simply just so BAD. it’s just so lackluster to the point where i almost fell asleep while reading, like go girl give us nothing. it’s so bad that i don’t even want to continue reading it to try to find some “dEePeR mEaNiNg” behind it or the overall “message” of the book because whatever “meaning” this book might’ve had is completely overshadowed by the massive amount of racism that’s just sprinkled throughout the book, so i don’t even care to try to find what the meaning of this could possibly be because there’s just so much racism and bad writing in this that it’s too difficult for me to pay attention to what joseph conrad might be trying to say in this novella, like how in the world am i supposed to enjoy this book and figure out the meaning of it when almost every page has the n word in it. life’s way too short to read bad books so i’m not gonna finish it and i surely don’t plan on doing so like ever.

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mattgroot1980's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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jesterbrooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

This is my own opinion of the book. If you're reading this you may very well enjoy it more or less. For me, it was so dense and at the same time scattered in its narrative that when I finished it, I was hard-pressed to even recount the actual events. There is some good commentary in here on the nature of humanity, especially in the context of colonialism and exploitation, but it was too buried in the story (and perhaps unintentional, as there are racial slurs throughout).
If you intend to read this, be ready for a challenge, both narratively, morally, and in lexicon.

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startjpw23's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This book was difficult to read at points because of the racist attitudes and actions of many of the characters. I recognize it was a product of its time. But I am not of that time. The language was very evocative. The book is wonderfully written.

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ragna_'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is really fascinatingly written; a very evocative portrayal of a man journeying both into the barbarity of his own culture and the psychological darkness of his on mind. The elliptic narration that grows more and more unsure of its own truthfulness is genuinely frightening and unsettling and had me at the edge of my seat. What does of course not work anymore is the use of local Congolese (for lack of a better discriptor) cultures as a "prehistoric mirror" the "savagery" of which reveals the darkness also lurking within European culture, I don't need to tell anyone that this is racist. But it's also a story with a distinctly anti-colonialist position, depicting and denouncing the mindless hypocrotical violence inflicted onto Africans under Colonialism, published in a mostly pro-Colonialism magazine, no less. So I think this is an interesting study in how anti-colonialist writing in Europe developed and how rascist rhetoric was still very much a part of that, which we can use to reflect on our current political rhetoric, especially progressive ones which are nonetheless undoubtedly still marked by rascist bias. I would recommend this both for quality of writing and relevance to contemporary discourse.

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jemappellecat's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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