cru • read

withlovenaomi • to read

jakewelch • read

12/30/2024–1/24/2025 – (Spoilers) Such a fun read, it scratched an itch I've been having for beautiful flowery writing, a Victorian setting, and supernatural mystery. There's something about reading a book over 100 years after it was written without knowing much about it and finding myself gasping at the twists in the plot, just like people probably did when it was written. Sybil Vane's suicide, James Vane's accidental death, Basil Hallward's graphic murder. I didn't see them coming. My only critiques, or qualms I should say, were the time jump in the middle of the book, and the abrupt end. I'm not usually a fan of time jumps because I want to see the plot unravel in real time, and this jump left some of the developments I was craving unsatisfied. As for the abrupt ending, similarly I could have read 200 more pages of Dorian's struggle with morality and vain (just now noticing the name Vane as maybe an intentional choice of symbolizing Dorian's own vain, hm...). An insane spiral could have made the story all the more impactful when Dorian drives the knife into his portrait killing himself on accident. Anyways, these are small critiques but I still give the book a 5/5. It was just so good.