Books

Madame Bovary

Bored, grasping, delusional wife acts out in various ways.

Not good. Not fun. Not interesting. 

Emma Bovary is supposed to be complicated and unsympathetic, I suppose. I often enjoy stories with characters like that. But I need some compensations in the form of morally ambiguous scenes, or compelling plot twists that result from the character’s choices, or consequences for sympathetic characters. Not much of that showed up here. 

I couldn’t get invested in anyone there’s no plot to speak of. You’re just passing time in the company of unpleasant people. 

Not recommended.

And Then There Were None

Ten strangers come together on an island and drop like flies in mysterious fashion. 

I lack the mystery novel gene, but I decided to read this because it’s one of the best selling books of all time.

It was pretty much what I expected. “… then the murderer must be one of us!” is such a familiar trope that you pretty much know how things are going to play out from the start. The minutiae of ordering and mechanisms felt tedious to me. 

But there’s a market of 100 million buyers out there who clearly get off on it. 

Probably better to take their word for it, but if you’re taking mine, skip it. You already know the destination and the journey is not rewarding. 

Not recommended.

I agree, the predictable plot and tedious pacing can make it a tough read. But classics for a reason – maybe revisit with fresh eyes later?