2.5

here's the thing. reading and listening to this sucked. i don't feel like i retained much information from either source at all. the writing wasn't all that awful (especially compared to other russian authors at this time). with that said, i think the overall story is significantly better than some of the other novels I've read. it's not groundbreaking but when you break it down to its bare bones, it's fairly entertaining and interesting.

if you pick this up for a pleasure read.. don't. just look it up on shmoop or something.