Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

11 reviews

simo72's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-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

3.5

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puppygirl_cryptid's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I am very compelled by Heart of Darkness, not for it itself, but for the discourse around it. It’s truly fascinating.
Although I can’t denied, the story is masterfully written and well narrated in the audiobook I listened to. It wasn’t this particular one, but the one I found on Spotify had absolutely no voice actor credits and I couldn’t be bothered to search for another hour to find whoever narrated that version. (For anyone interested, it’s the one with a black-and white cover uploaded during the July of 2023.
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ekgranstro's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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saraaaa's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective fast-paced
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A very mild read, whose status as a classic is surely upheld by its relevance as a historical document. Conrad harshly criticizes colonialism, but does so from within the racist framework of his times.
I liked that the reader is constantly reminded that the story is being told by a specific character with specific views on life, and therefore is only one of many different perspectives on the narrated events.
Conrad paints the colonial environment and the Congolese forest as engulfed in a haunting, menacing spell that gives an air of magic realism to the novella – when it did not have the tones of exoticism, it painted a beautiful picture.
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ednam0dewannabe's review against another edition

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adventurous informative reflective 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? Yes

3.75

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scorpi07's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

2.0

I listened to this one to fulfill the prompt: A book I should have read in high school.
I’m not sure why they were teaching this in high school. I guess the storytelling style (a narrator retelling Marlow’s narration) is interesting and the prose itself is well written and artfully packed with metaphors. However, with all of the options out there, this is a poor book choice to critique colonialism, or to suggest imperialism is bad. Marlow is racist and doesn’t grow much, and the objectification of black people is pervasive throughout the book. Gross.
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maricasement's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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? No

2.25

I picked this audiobook up because it was one of the shortest one in my Mother's library. Kenneth Branagh is amazing, as is to be expected, but the contents weren't as enjoyable as his performance. Conrad's descriptions are captivating and definitely set the scene for the story, which was something I really enjoyed. But this book is still a product of it's time and uses a lot of racist language and is very colonialist in its messages. It might be an interesting study, but I wouldn't read it again or particularly recommend it to people.
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ladybugwrites's review against another edition

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

1.0

I honestly only read this book because I have to for uni, and wasn't even sure I'd bother with a review.

And I won't give a good one, just say that this book had be almost fall asleep countless times and it's probably the most problematic book I've ever read. It's not worth it.
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librarymouse's review against another edition

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

1.5

I don't know if I want to rate this. I'm reading it for a class. There's some interesting parts to it, and a lot to write about, but it would be a stretch to say that this is an enjoyable book. I'm glad I'm reading it in grad school, rather than in highschool like a lot of my peers were required to.
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luis0n7i's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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