gosh okay so this was an incredibly hard read to stomach, but I at the same time, I can't deny that literarily, this book was incredibly clever. It's a great read if you're looking for something to pick apart and dissect. I wasn't expecting the "dark comedy" aspects at all?! which ultimately had me intrigued and invested. It's very obvious that our narrator who is a nightmare of a person, outside of being a pedophile, he's a huge jerk (that i had to laugh at throughout the book). It's absolutely impossible for the reader to not laugh at someone who breaks narration to tell the reader how handsome he is, or how we, "the jury" should already feel about something that he will reveal in a few pages... (like girl.. cmon now). He hypes himself and his looks up in paragraphs, talking about how much people love him, and then goes into how he wants to choke someone out, like WOAH, HOW DID WE GET HERE.
I can't believe I'm giving it 5 stars but after sitting on it, I would feel so odd for not giving this book it's flowers for having the most unreliable, deranged narrator and Nabakov for tapping into that kind of sick, narcissistic, but also stupid and self absorbed monster. I think most of all, I appreciated and admired Nabakov's rhythm and flow throughout the book. He has this flowery and rhythmic pose that almost sucks you in, or hypnotizes you. He could be describing the most straightforward action or scene, but somehow his words and descriptions sounds almost like a song? Incredible.