I really liked that Griffin wasn't an intelligent, logical mad scientist type, though he definitely was convinced of his own superiority. He was impulsive, rude, had a nasty temper, and was prone to making spur-of-the-moment decisions that often included unnecessary violence.

The book did a very effective job of showing just how awful truly being invisible would be. Having to be either naked or so covered up that none of your skin was visible to accomplish anything sounds incredibly frustrating and inconvenient. There was also some arresting imagery, such as visible smoke being inhaled by invisible lungs and showing the pattern of the lungs and trachea. The actual scenes when Griffin was hunting/being hunted were quite tense as well. I thought it was clever the strategies they used to hunt him down (dogs, working in groups, not letting him rest by constant patrols, crushed glass on the roads).

I also thought that this book shows, once again, that humans are pretty much humans everywhere and time, what with the range of reactions to the invisible man - distrust, fear, thinking the whole thing is made up, etc.

The 'science' was ridiculous nonsense, so I'm glad Wells didn't spend an overly long time on it. I also had to laugh at the American who showed up at a bar with a revolver, immediately fired all its bullets at Griffin, and then was never in the book again.

Lastly, I didn't expect the humor of the book - particularly in conversations between Griffin and the man he coerces to be his servant of sorts, there is a fair amount of dry, dark humor and clever turns of phrase.

Overall I had a pretty good time with the book, though it had a fairly thin plot.

wasn't quite my cup of tea. it reminded me of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, but the 'monster' was not a sympathetic character. if you read Frankenstein for the Sci-Fi, it was probably comparable, but if you read it for the humanity, it was quite lacking. the first part was interesting, when all the people are trying to figure out why he keeps his face hidden, but also a bit lackluster because you already know why from the title of the book.

A great classic

I'll start by saying that this is clearly a very influential story, and it is by no means bad. The main reasons I'm only giving this 3☆ is stiffness of the characters and the mediocre motivations.

This is an old book, so I expected the stiff characters that accompany that, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Many of the characters come off very prim and unlikable; although I'm not sure any of the characters are supposed to be likable, now that I think about it. Regardless, this led me to be severely uninterested in anything beyond the premise and theme of the story, which is arguably the main point, anyway.

Unfortunately, this only compounds with the poor character motivation. I use the singular there, because it seems the Invisible Man's only goal by the end is chaos. He's easily angered, and when he gets mad he jumps straight to violence. At the end of the book, he's just planning to become a serial killer. It's really not very well executed.

Where this book really shines is premise and themes, which have been discussed to death in literature classes around the world, so I won't get into them here. This is where all 3☆ came from.

IMO you should read this book if you're interested in old sci-fi, but don't go into it expecting anything transcendent. If you like classics you probably won't have an issue with this book, I'm just not a fan of the characters in classics.