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mikolaszko's reviews
37 reviews
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
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
5.0
What a fantastic book. I almost did not finish around the 10% mark because the story was quite slow and made me nervous for Hassan. The beginning has the most drastic descriptions of SA and I was just furious at Amir. Overall his young self is the most hateble character I've ever read about After getting through the initial stage of the book I read it in 1 go, I've read something like 90% cuz it just became very captivating, 5/5 I'm glad I've read it
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
hated this fucking book to the point I created a yt video about it. it was just painful to read even though the writing is very good, but the main character of my fucking god. Maybe I am overreacting but just a sheer amount of disgust that went through my body after the last part.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
dark
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I have never thought I would actually enjoy a story about working at a gulag. Very funny, made me think about all the things that I take for granted right now and of me in the past, of the unjust sentences, the struggles of whole families while the main character is living his "normal", common day. Took me two days and it's the first book I might actually reread in the future. Try and see it for yourself but I think you will love it. (even though its extremely sad and makes you wanna cry)
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Well this book inspired me to create a youtube account so I can start doing booktube. Witty, dark and very slow-paced. Disclaimer: If English isn't your native language you might want to stick to the translation in your mother tongue because holy shit this took me so long to read because the language that is used is just archaic. Although I found the book enjoyable I found it even more enjoyable after I read the letters that Gogol wrote to his friends about the creation of Dead Souls. The writing is very weird because he constantly uses defamiliarization (I dont know if you use it, but for sure he does) so it makes everything seems very unnatural from characters to descriptions and pretty much every aspect of the book. Well I loved it even if it took me two weeks to get it done.
These Ghosts are Family by Maisy Card
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
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
This is a heavy book. I picked it up knowing nothing about it and I was not expecting such a rollercoaster. Finished it quickly because I was in a mental space for that but if you are down or just having a rough time I would reconsider taking up this book. I am white and it still was hard to get through all the violence and just the sheer amount of cruelty, but I think this stuff is important and it sparked my interest in learning more about slavery to better understand not-white-washed history. I already knew some stuff like alligator bait, cannibalism upon black people etc. so I didn't learn anything new per se but definitely, it materialized how truly awful it was and how there were close to 0 people held accountable. Read it, but be prepared to stop and take some time to just think about how fucked up what you read actually was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Drug abuse, Genocide, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Abortion, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Vomit
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I would like to start this review by saying that everyone will rate this book differently. It depends on the type of character of the reader, how much luck they had in life, how they want to perceive the world around them. Many people said that they would enjoy this book in their late teens, early 20's but throughout the years they became more sceptical. It isn't a wrong take, obviously no judgement here. I will be 20 soon and I had chosen to immigrate from my home country in pursuit of a better, more fulfilling life, but also just because I wanted to. I started reading this book when I was doing extremely badly and it didn't look like I would be able to live happily with myself. Through realising that none of it truly matters and I'm attracting not chasing (and a lot of self-reflection and a shit ton of luck) I was able to pull myself a little bit. But life is exceptionally hard to most people and I think it's unfair to those who had miserable lives to just follow blindly this book. It's a well-written story about mindfulness, spirituality, the universe, god etc. Some people just don't think that there's such a thing as destiny and it definitely just sounds silly to them. I am somewhere in the middle and I really think that through your personal approach a lot of things can change, but many won't. This book would be better if it was like 2000 pages longs. It starts so many very diverse and broad topics but doesn't fully develop them. It's just small pieces and yeah everything works out extremely well at the end. Everyone is aware that it's fiction but I just can't get over how oversimplified the plot of this story is. I must say I enjoyed it and it definitely showed me something a little bit different. I don't want to make this review too long, but I must mention Fatima, cmon, I know it was like 1974 but it's a woman written by a man and it shows. Because women are mysterious and loyal and they are supposed to be emotional and yeah, you know the drill. I was really surprised about how the camel rider was just full-on mindfulness and he based his whole life around it, I wish I started sooner too, but I am just happy it didn't take me longer. Read it and develop your own opinion, because I really think everyone will get a different result. There are just so many variables.
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
4.0
I read this book last year or even in 2019 Im not sure. The whole chinese upbringing was a huge shocker for me back then, because I had no prior knowledge around the subject. It reminded me a little about people around me who were brought up in this kind of environment and how it affected them and their relations with their parents. Worth reading! :)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
4.0
Enjoyed it, it was really fast to read. The book is short, so it doesn't take much time to read it all thoroughly. I would recommend to anyone who loves unconventional murder books.