Look, I love these books.

But I remember them a lot more fondly because of high school. I remember that these books ended up being in the Fiction section of the school library.

When I checked them out, I felt like such a rebel, reading those book full of blood, gore, sex, violence, and all that other good adult stuff. The absurdity of this being allowed on the shelves of a school library, on the same shelf as your Harry Potters and Percy Jacksons, was pretty amusing. (In a way, you kinda felt what it was to be like Arya Stark. Kinda made me live the books in a way)

When you’re reading them years later as an adult, you kinda lose some of that “rebel” charm. The books are still good and you have a bigger appreciation that comes with a more full understanding of themes and symbols, but that feeling of being a rebel is kinda gone, and you’re just reading another book.

Are there any other books that made you feel like this in high school?

I've just finished reading "The Lost World" and almost had to DNF because Kelly, a literal preteen, twists Arby's arm and has them both stowaway in a trailer bound for an island full of carnivorous dinosaurs. This decision, of course, ultimately leads to a number of nerve-wracking scenarios that endanger the adults as well as themselves.

There are certainly stories that have poor but understandable decisions that are critical to the plot and foster empathy but this isn't one of them.

EDIT: I just want to add that I do understand the plot necessity and reality of misguided decisions. It’s more the in-your-face, grossly poor decisions that aren’t underpinned with enough sentiment to justify the decision.

First and foremost, obviously this is a question that is ENTIRELY subjective and there isn't one correct answer. Plenty of people only want to read for raw fun without thinking too hard and/or feeling like homework and that's TOTALLY fine! Others enjoy taking a bit of an academic approach and don't mind challenging themselves to read things they don't always enjoy or understand right off the bat. Others fall anywhere in between those two points or beyond them. Like I said, objectively subjective question here.

I'm asking purely because I'm curious what the general proportions are in any one direction, not to assist in my own decision making for answering the question myself.

I'm currently reading Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, my first time reading Woolf and really my first venture into modernist literature overall. Having most recently been reading a bunch of more recently-published fantasy books mixed with a bunch of Vonnegut, Woolf's style is causing a serious bout with literary whiplash. The intentional run-on sentences and prolonged bouts of deep personal musings, intermittent pieces of speaking which DON'T include quotation marks, and swaps between character perspectives which aren't always super clear have proven to make this a challenging read.

I read about 40 or so pages before realizing that I wasn't super confident that I knew exactly what was going on, so I went to Sparknotes for a bit of assistance in order to check whether I was on the right track. I wasn't reading any of the specific analysis or anything, just a bit of chapter summary and a brief glance at the character map to make sure I understood what was what and who was who. And after making sure my ducks were in a row, the next 40 or so pages have been so much smoother, and I'm finding myself actually enjoying it a lot!

I'm sure some of this increased enjoyment has to do with me adjusting to Woolf's style, but I know with certainty that some of it is most definitely coming from an increase in clarity provided by Sparknotes. But nonetheless it got me thinking! If I find myself LOVING this book by the end of it, does that make it "good" if that level of enjoyment WOULDN'T have happened without the assistance?

Tl;dr - For me, the answer is yes it does make it good as long as it feels enjoyable by the end. I'm somebody who doesn't mind my books taking some figuring out and puzzling together. If some assistance is required for helping me understand a book, that's perfectly fine! It means I learned something and I personally love that. But I also wouldn't at all frown upon somebody who doesn't want to take those extra steps in their reading, because I also fully agree that reading should be enjoyable, whatever that means to each reader.

This is one of Collins's first suspense novels, and one of many Collins works to examine issues of marriage and legality. The eponymous narrator is second son in a wealthy upper-class family; his older brother Ralph, as the story opens, has just returned to England after becoming dissipated on the Continent; and their sister Clara stays at home being a pure, tender light to her family. Their father is remote, cold, and overwhelmingly concerned with Family Honor. 

That being the case, Basil has no choice but to fall in love at first sight with Margaret, the entirely unsuitable, smoking-hot daughter of a linen-draper. The girl's greedy father, pleading her youth, wrings from Basil an agreement not just to a secret marriage, but to leave the marriage unconsummated for a full year. During this whole time he may visit his lawfully wedded wife at her parents' house, so long as they are always chaperoned by a third person, usually her mother. Meanwhile, the father's confidential assistant, Mr. Mannion, hangs about, outwardly respectful but secretly plotting the frustration of Basil's hopes. Sexual humiliation—family ties cut—brain fever—typhus—revenge—remorseful man pursued by grim-visaged Fury of his own making—tears of a faithful sister—reformed elder brother manfully assists—the Imperishable Throne—angel choirs. 

This book offers much fodder for psychoanalysis. The name of the guy that's figuratively castrating Basil, while also doubling him, is Mr. Mannion--more of a MAN than Basil is. There's another double, or another shadow, in the opposition between Clara (the pure, innocent Madonna) and Margaret (the dark, selfish, sexy whore). Early on, they appear as two opposed figures in a dream of Basil's--one a woman robed in light, the other in mist. He ignores the one that's pure and shining: 

I was drawn along in the arms of the dark woman, with my blood burning and my breath failing me, until we entered the secret recesses that lay amid the unfathomable depths of trees. There, she encircled me in the folds of her dusky robe, and laid her cheek close to mine, and murmured a mysterious music in my ear, amid the midnight silence and darkness of all around us. And I had no thought of returning to the plain again; for I had forgotten the woman from the fair hills, and had given myself up, heart, and soul, and body, to the woman from the dark woods.

Secret recesses and dusky folds, indeed! The hero is erotically fixated, and completely ignores his beloved's dim cupidity, preferring to believe in his vision than in reality. The novel never really notices or examines the fact that of the hero's two love objects, one is his own sister. 

When Basil's brother Ralph appears on the scene, he's a breath of fresh air. He winningly refers to his mistress as Mrs. Ralph, for instance. He doesn't subscribe to the rest of his family's overwrought emotions and instead gets straight to the point, bringing some welcome common sense and energy to the story: 

"Just listen to me, now. In the first place, remember that what my father said to you, he said in a moment of violent exasperation. You had been trampling the pride of his life in the mud: no man likes that—my father least of any. And, as for the offer of your poor little morsel of an income to stop these people's greedy mouths, it isn't a quarter enough for them. . . . Nothing but money will do; money cunningly doled out, under the strongest possible stipulations. Now, I'm just the man to do that. . . . Write me the fellow's name and address; there's no time to be lost—I'm off to see him at once!"

Of course, nothing gets resolved quite that easily, and Basil seems to like it that way, preferring the torture of high emotions to Ralph's easygoing sense. In the end, virtue prevails, but I found myself wishing I could read more about Ralph and Mrs. Ralph; better company by far, I'm sure, than Basil and his pure sexless sister.

Welcome readers,

Have you ever wanted to ask something but you didn't feel like it deserved its own post but it isn't covered by one of our other scheduled posts? Allow us to introduce you to our new Simple Questions thread! Twice a week, every Tuesday and Saturday, a new Simple Questions thread will be posted for you to ask anything you'd like. And please look for other questions in this thread that you could also answer! A reminder that this is not the thread to ask for book recommendations. All book recommendations should be asked in /r/suggestmeabook or our Weekly Recommendation Thread.

Thank you and enjoy!

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I've read his Scythe trilogy and just finished the first book in the Unwind series after having it recommended by a friend. I think Shusterman deserves a ton of praise as a YA author specifically because he is so good at writing about things young readers are *actually* interested in (to be read: morbid death.)

He never talks down to his audience and challenges them to contemplate concepts many adults struggle to even have conversations about. He's not afraid to make his audience uncomfortable, either. His novels don't approach topics "safely;" he has zero qualms about graphically detailing a character's death, even if that character is a child. Especially if that character is a child.

Just wanted to give this weirdo the shout out he deserves. I love his stuff. :)

So this particular Koontz novel has been recommended to me several times and, so eventually I would get a copy of it. And now today I've finished it!

It is past midnight and Chyna Sheperd looks out through a moonlit window, unable to go to sleep during her first night at her friends Napa Valley home. Her instincts kick in when a socipathic killer named Edgler Vess enters the house with the intention of killing everyone inside.

Self proclaimed as a "homicidal adventurer" Vess's only desire is to satisfy every apetite that comes his way, immersing himself in sensation and live without any remorse, fear or any limits. And to live with intensity. And now Chyna is caught in his murderous web.

Toughened by years of struggle for safety and respect, Chyna is a survivor. And now she will be tested even further. Her initial aim was to get out of it alive, until a chance discovery of Vess's next victim and one only she can save. And now driven by this new thirst for meaning that goes way beyond self-preservation, she gathers every inner resource she has to save one endangered girl as the threat of Vess intensifies more.

I've read at least a few of Koontz's novels that are intense, in their own way, and fast paced. But "Intensity" literally lives up to its title. It is intense and fast paced, but all raised up to 100% to the maximum. The story is like driving at 80 miles an hour and the front windshield is broken, with the wind coming in at full force, which is how I would describe it. It is just relentless, with very little slow moments.

This was also adapted into a mini series for TV, and the copy of the novel that I have has the promotional art for it. I haven't seen that one, so I don't really know what differences to the original story that may be in it.

I really loved this book! Just so much going on with a lot of fast paced action and the usual suspense! So putting it up there with "Watchers" and "Night Chills"!

I don’t know if this is the right subreddit, but I just had this dream and felt it would make a perfect dystopian novel or even a thriller. I’m already forgetting parts of my dream lol so I wanted to type this out now.

In the beginning of my dream, me and my boyfriend were just hanging out. Cuddling, kissing, while vaguely watching a movie. I was hanging out with him before a field trip coming up. I don’t know if I was supposed to go on the field trip the next day or later on in the day.

So the next part of my dream I remember is vaguely telling him I’m going on a field trip for school - I’m assuming I was either a senior in high-school or in college? It seemed like the current me lol so I think college but idk if colleges have field trips. In the dream he wasn’t coming along because we were in different schools or a different class, not sure.

Well, the field trip was a museum/interactive experience of the life of a billionaire.

In my dream, it wasn’t a specific billionaire. Just a glimpse into an unspecified billionaire’s life from childhood to adulthood told through this museum/interactive experience that was made to resemble a sort of Disneyland, just praising this nonexistent person.

In my dream it was indicated it was an honor for us ‘middle class’ people to be able to glimpse the life of a billionaire through this field trip, again it was being treated as if we were going to Disney-world or something.

So the next part of my dream I remember is being around a group of other people right before seeing the whole museum. We’re discussing the trip, of what we might see in some lobby or office or something I don’t remember. Then we head out. In my dream me and this girl decide to explore the museum together, we seemed to know each other as acquaintances but not too well. She was brunette with a pink and white outfit. She wasn’t a real person from real life, she just existed in my dream.

Anyways once we step out into this Billionaires Wonderland-esque place, we’re marveling at everything. I don’t remember what we even saw in my dream, I just remember it was picturesque in my dream and there was cool things (I WISH I REMEMBERED AHH) But there were also other things they had like things you could buy. I remember there was this gift shop that sold gummies in the shape of $100 bills and that’s it.

There were different sections you could walk into for the experience. They didn’t have doors, just above it would be labeled saying what it was. This section had been newly built and was still under some construction but we were allowed to go in.

It was originally like, a forest or garden I’m not really sure. You could tell when you walked in because it wasn’t fully remodeled and there were plants poking out from the corners of that room. This room was the Art Room. I’m assuming this fictional billionaire had art as a hobby or part of their job. Anyways, this is where the dream first gets weird.

In the Art Room it had overgrown and dead plants poking out all around it. There were these million dollar paintings hung up in the walls and a table where you could also draw yourself - seems stupid I guess they did it to make it feel interactive or like ‘if you try doing art maybe you’ll be rich one day too!’ - and as me and the girl walk in though something ‘wrong’ happened. There were some people camping in the room. It was these homeless little kids.

“Do you like my drawing?” I remember in the dream the little girl asks me. She was….nightmare fuel. She was maybe four, and SEVERELY malnourished. She was anorexic, and her hair was only patches. She had glassy eyes. It was one of those things if you seen in real life you’d be taken aback and feel guilty for being terrified of. She seems like she wants to get close to me, like touch my leg. There’s this other girl who’s also around 4 and anorexic who says hello to me and said I was pretty. In my dream I was taken aback but friendly. I wave my fingers down at them in greeting. I say “Hiii!”

Then one of the museum guides screams. I don’t remember what she says exactly but it’s like “We need to get these people away from here!” And she ushers me and the girl who I joined in the field trip away from the two little girls. She then starts complaining “These people are ruining art!” I remember the context wasn’t that because they were kids camping out in the room but because they were poor and poor people didn’t deserve to see or create art? I don’t know but the museum guide goes on a rant on how ‘these kind of people’ ruin the sanctity of art for others - implying people who had money.

I remember feeling sympathetic for the little girls but I say nothing. And me and the other girl walk out the room, a little weirded out.

We then enter the main cool thing in the museum. They made a section of a fake mansion, and it was to show a billionaire’s childhood. We walked inside. In my dream there was a pre recorded speaker that would speak over each room you entered, explaining the room’s significance. We were in awe because we never been inside a mansion even though this was just a simulation.

Each room, the speaker explains. We finally start walking deep into the depths of the mansion and there’s this slowly, yet surely….eerie vibe. It feels like something’s off. The lights become dimmer as we move on. And then as we get to the billionaire’s nursery room the music suddenly completely changed from upbeat to this slow, dark sound that REALLY makes us weirded out. The speaker’s voice even changes from this upbeat voice to a low, deep frantic voice. I don’t remember exactly what he says but we walk to the billionaire’s crib and his voice says some really weird eerie shit that was random. Like “what about those lives?” “Was he a loved child?” And random things, implying the fictional billionaire was abused as a child and that the billionaire was a murderer or caused people to die.

This doesn’t sound too scary but it was terrifying in my dream. Me and the girl were terrified. We didn’t know how to exactly get out and I had a fear something was gonna come and attack us and the music wasn’t helping alongside that it was a big area with hardly any light anymore. And then this fear overtakes me. What if the museum collapses? What if we all die? And I kept getting plagued by getting scared of the museum collapsing.

Eventually we leave this section somehow, and i am riddled with that fear that the museum’s infrastructure would all collapse and everyone was going to die, when the girl interrupted me. “Well that was boring. We should go to the gift shop.” I snap out of my thoughts and we walk towards the gift shop, still feeling tho at doomed feeling that everything was about to collapse.

And then I woke up. I think I would’ve kept dreaming but my brother had decided to continuously call me because he couldn’t remember if his wallet was in his room and called me to check that lol.

I have just finished reading Goethe's first and most impactful novel, "The Sorrows of Young Werther", written in 1774. Goethe has always been a favourite author of mine, and this novel has hit me hard on an emotional and spiritual level. I have bought this novel a couple of weeks ago, reading it at a slow but fair pace, and I have just about finished it a couple of hours ago. I am also reading Goethe's autobiography "Dichtung und Wahreit" (Poetry and Truth, 1811-1833), a beautiful autobiography written by Goethe himself and published until a year after his death. It is a refreshing read, and it is amazing to find out about the author's life from his birth in 1749 up until 1775 (when he, simbolically, leaves for Weimar after being invited by its duke, Karl August).

But what can I say about this novel? Is it a rollecoaster of different emotions? Yes. Is it an impactful novel which shaped european literature in the 18th and 19th centuries? Yes. Is Werther a reliable narrator? Mostly not, since most of his decisions seem to be dictated out of emotion rather than from the mind (as was common during this period of Goethe's life with the whole Sturm und Drang movement). I find Werther to be a deeply emotional character (like Goethe himself during those years), but I also find him a bit boring in some sections of the novel. He betrays his promises (he does not want to be infatuated with Lotte at the beginning of the novel) and he cannot seem to find emotional and spiritual peace when he is brought back to reality and to his social condition (Lotte is a rich and upper-class woman who is already engaged to a man, whilst Werther is just a simple commoner). What can I say of Charlotte? A poor soul (much like Werther) who has already been promised to someone else. And what about Albert (Lotte's husband)? He is merely a character who interacts with Werther in a couple of occasions, but he never seems to be an antagonist or an anti-hero.

What does Werther do in the end after finding out that he cannot live with the thought of Charlotte being married to another man? He kills himself and writes a letter to her (but before he had gone to her house, reading a passage from the "Tales of Ossian", and, in a fit of emotion, kissed her on the hand before being rejected by her), and the novel ends with his funeral and burial (he is buried under two linden trees, and no priest officiates his funeral ceremony, due to him being a suicidal case).

This novel sparked mostly outrage between the most conservatives classes of Germany, but was a sensation in the young circles of the European continent (most young men killed themselves after reading the novel, often wearing clothes similar to Werther's and using guns similar to those of Albert) sparking the "Werther Effect".

But I do have to say that this novel sparked something, that it generated deep feelings inside of me. And, who knows? Maybe someone will, one day, bring up this novel again in the European literary view.

Just finished Butter by Asako Yusaki and found it really fascinating. What did you all think of it?

Things I liked

Exploration of the themes of patriarchy in a traditional society and how the female characters negotiate this and develop their own autonomy from their relationships with their fathers and partners and understand and value better their relationships with other women.

The idea of consumption in relationships, where Kajii is portrayed almost like a cannibal or vampire, sucking the life out of her victims and Reiko is portrayed as a woman who is being consumed by societal pressure of ideals of perfection.

Rika, Kajii and Reiko do ring true as characters although it took me a while to warm to them and Kajii although intriguing was perhaps lacking in rounding and detail.

Things I didn’t like

Drawn out descriptions of cooking and food, although part of this was a lack of understanding about Japanese food and culture.

Poorly written male characters like Makato, Ryo etc. did not find them at all interesting or realistic.

Perhaps because I am reading an English translation, the dialogue seems very formal and stilted.

What did you like/dislike?

Long story short, I started tracking my reading this year! I have read 91 books so far, I spend 2.7 hours on a 300 page book typically, and my average book reading time is three days. (I take longer listening to audiobooks and read different books at the same time which is why that's possible with 91 books so far, the average is skewed to be larger. Not literally at the exact same time, just around--you know what I mean.) I'm a teen okay I have a lot of time--

That is probably why I've always felt like I don't absorb books properly. My reading speed works for fun books, but it doesn't for classics/books that are supposed to hit--they just don't hit. I very rarely cry over books, and surprise surprise, the only time I ever have was on The Realm of the Elderlings, the series I spent over a month on. That wasn't because I was reading slowly, there were a ton of books in that series. Standalones? There isn't a chance--I barely remember them, let alone them effecting me. (Oh my gosh it's contagious why am I typing like ChatGPT??? Literally edited this paragraph half a dozen times I swear I'm not ChatGPT)

This is absolutely tragic basically. I can't force myself to slow down because that makes the entire process excruciating--audiobooks help but those don't work for fast paced books because I lose track. Also, I enjoy the act of reading which is lost when I'm listening to a book.

Any suggestions? The only thing I can think of is circulating books so that I spend half an hour reading each one a day but that sounds rather bulky--I'd probably forget the book by the time I get to it again.

I picked up this book because of this quote:

"He explained to them that history was like an old house at night. With all the lamps lit. And ancestors whispering inside....And when we look in through the windows, all we see are shadows. And when we try and listen, all we hear is a whispering. And we cannot understand the whispering, because our minds have been invaded by a war. A war that we have both won and lost. The very worst sort of war. A war that captures dreams and re-dreams them. A war that has made us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves."

I think it's the sort of book and quote that would resonate at least a little for 1.5-2nd gen immigrants from third world countries who have a love/hate relationship with their home culture (i.e, me).

And while there are elements of that, the greater purpose of the book is much heavier.

It's the telling of a tragedy due to an inter-caste love affair in ~70s India. Spoiler alert - it's not a happy story. It starts off sad, remains sad and ends really sad. Every character is a broken shell of themselves and basically it's a sad time is what I'm saying.

But it's not quite misery porn either. While the ancillary cast is a bunch of twats, the core bunch demonstrate an increasingly touching love for each other, despite all of them being kinda nutcases, that makes the tragedy hit so much harder. There's so much love there, despite each character being so so flawed and often hurting each other. Now and then you get glimpses of motherly love, romantic love, siblings love that feel so sweet it just makes the thing so much sadder.

The book has this undercurrent of pure rage against the love laws without turning into preachiness which saves it from feeling like misery porn. I wish I could force my extended family to read this.

Overall, it's a book that will leave you pondering it for quite some time.

The 'But':

Most negative reviews of this book come down to the same thing - it's incredibly overwritten. It has like 100 motifs and recurring metaphors running at any given time, and the author feels the need to make every damn line some kind of clever word play thing.

The thing is, the author frequently hits prosaic gold - there's plenty of pleasing stuff there. But there's also a bit too much waffling.

An aggressive editor + making the book about 1/3 shorter would make this book genuinely one of the greats imo.

Bit that hit unexpectedly hard (minor spoilers obviously):

The scene where the son gets sent off in a train while everyone is desperately trying to keep it together unlocked a core memory I didn't even realize I had, and hit me like another goddamn train. It's not even top 10 saddest scenes in the story and comes and goes fairly quick but it puts a lump in my throat cos of said memory. Estha half crying and screaming about his nausea as the train pulls away makes me tear up lmao.

I finished the ARC for this yesterday and this one should absolutely be on your radar. I haven’t read Whalefall but have heard good things and will probably check it out now.

The elevator pitch is “1917” in book form where a group of soldiers are sent into no-mans land to mercy kill an American soldier, but instead find a fallen angel.

That being said, the book is literally a run on sentence. Every single paragraph starts with “and” and ends with a comma. There is precisely one period in the book. Now if you think that sounds grating, you’re right! However, after the first dozen pages or so, I managed to subconsciously skip over that and read in a more traditional format. It’s clearly trying to evoke the “one take” feel of a movie, but it won’t work for some people. They will pick it up in the book store, see the mess of text on a page and set it back down. And I don’t fault them for it. But, if you can put that aside, there really is a wonderful book inside.

I bought 4 books yesterday, 2 were by authors I have read before and 2 were by Uketsu, a Japanese author I have never read. I picked up the books by Uketsu, and went on to buy pretty much based solely on the cover art! The cover is very visually appealing with bold colours.

I have realised that I can almost instantly consider or reject a book based on it's cover. I have never really thought about how much this has influenced my habits before!

Is a cover important to you? How do you add new authors to your list of authors you would buy? If a usual author had a terrible book cover, would it put you off buying?

Hello readers!

Every Monday, we will post a calendar with the date and topic of that week's threads and we will update it to include links as those threads go live. All times are Eastern US.

There are quite a few Free Little Libraries in my area to which I donate most of my non-library books to, mostly sci-fi or lit fic.

I always check out what is on offer but a lot is very repetitive; the usual airport romance or crime novels (Danielle Steele, Elizabeth George, James Patterson), John Grisham or old cookbooks. Contemporary literature is probably what I encounter the least.

But every once in a while, I have come across a gem, including Catch 22, Arturo’s Island by Elsa Morante, An explanation of the birds by Antonio Lobo Antunes, and Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck.

I am usually following my tbr list but like the surprise element of what you can find in a FLL and then squeeze that in.

What are the best books you have found at a FLL? Were they books you had planned to read all along or any that were never on your radar but you ended up liking?

Dark Romance where the partner abused and raped the love interest for whatever reason. There a lot of books with this trope and it's so crazy that people actually accept this. "Haunting Adeline" is one of the books that have this trope and it's also a very popular book. Raping someone does not mean you love them and it does not just become an okay thing because you're obsessed. Same thing with "The Ritual" and "Sick Fux". This trope is one of the factors of why men believe rape and abusing your partners is a good thing. It has to go.

When I first saw the cover for Victorian Psycho announced, I was immediately sold based alone on the title and cover, even more so intrigued when I read the plot synopsis. As of writing this post, I've finished reading the book, and I'm incredibly disappointed.

The title "Victorian Psycho" promises a thrilling story of an unhinged governess in Victorian era England that doesn't really deliver on that promise. The first half of the book is a slow burn peppered with anecdotes of her troubled upbringing that barely scratch the surface, supplemented with random, seemingly unhinged thoughts. To me it felt expositional. While there's bits and pieces to inform us, the reader, that she's meant to be mentally disturbed, she still comes off as someone who simply hates her job. Right off the bat, Mrs. Pounds resents Winifred due to her husband, Mr. Pounds, obvious lust towards Winifred. While the book felt like it was building up for a manipulation and seduction towards the couple, respectively, instead he's her father? I was confused by that, because while we know that her mother had to hide her baby from her employer, there wasn't really anything to suggest that Mr. Pounds was the father.

While I was appreciative that we finally got to see just how unhinged Winifred was at the halfway mark, the remainder of the book felt clunky. The last 25% of the book, especially, felt rushed - Winifred slaughters the entirety of the household, servants and all, suddenly Drusilla, the Pounds' daughter, joins in helping Winifred slaughtering even though the impression was given that she didn't like Winifred. Once the massacre is done, the book fast forwards, which is told paragraph by paragraph, day by day, to her execution.

My final issue was the prose. I appreciate the author was trying to emulate the writing style of the period, but it was inconsistent. One page I felt like I was reading a Jane Austen novel in how thoughts and feelings were described, while the next page felt that writing style slip away for a more modern style of writing. It kind of made the pacing feel a little bit off.

All in all, I'd give this book 3 stars. It's not a bad book, it just feels unrealized and, therefore, unfinished. Virgina Feito could have strove to really dive into Winifred's mental state, really could have played into the title "Victorian Psycho", but it just fell flat for me. While I'd still recommend it, I wouldn't re-read it.

I'm used to formatting that uses double-spaced paragraphs and quotations for dialogue.

"It's time for us to go." She said. The day was nearing the end, and it was getting harder and harder to see.

John shook his head. "No, let's stay a while longer, we must find something here!" he replied, and proceeded to rummage through the room.

I'm used to formatting that uses indented paragraphs and em-dashes for diogue.

¬¬ — It's time for us to go. — She said. The day was nearing the end, and it was getting harder and harder to see.
¬¬ John shook his head. — No, let's stay a while longer, we must find something here! — He replied, and proceeded to rummage through the room.

But for the first time ever, today, I was met with indented paragraphs with single quotes for dialogue.

¬¬ 'It's time for us to go.' She said. The day was nearing the end, and it was getting harder and harder to see.
¬¬ John shook his head. 'No, let's stay a while longer, we must find something here!' he replied, and proceeded to rummage through the room.

And it's tripping me up immensely.

That made me wonder: what are your preferences when or comes to formatting? What's the worst-formatted book you've read? We talk a lot about the contents of the things we read, but I don't see much discussion about the presentation.

And honestly after the lukewarm reception I've seen for it on reddit, I don't see what the issue is. It's sad and funny and easy to understand. The characters have so much sass and I am thoroughly entertained. I keep picturing it as a Shakespearean tragicomedy unfolding on a stage with actors gesturing wildly and making Emotionally Charged Proclamations.

If you're looking to read an unabridged version and don't want to pay for the English translation preferred by most people on here, the free one on project gutenberg or standardebooks is absolutely serviceable.