The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde - UPDATED REVIEW

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde  Genre : Classics Blurb (on back of book) : Oscar Wilde’s only novel is the dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind. UPDATED REVIEW MY OPINION : ****** I would like to start out this review by stating that this is undoubtedly m...
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Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Genre: YA Classic

See the source imageBlurb (on back of book): From Harper Lee comes a landmark new novel set two decades after her beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch--"Scout"--returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past--a journey that can be guided only by one's conscience. Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor and effortless precision--a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context and new meaning to an American classic.

MY OPINION: **

I had such HIGH expectations for this book and obviously, they fell short. I think a lot of the big readers such as booktubers or bookstagrammars haven't read this book because they also know that their expectations are not going to be met. And it's honestly to be expected. To try to write a follow-up story to a book that is so wide-renowned and talked about that has won awards and did very well is definitely not an easy task and I'm sorry to say that it's almost impossible, as this book so surely proves.

This book is set quite a few years after To Kill a Mockingbird and we learn a ton: Jean Louise is 26 but still very "color-blind" and Jem is dead. That really surprised (and saddened) me. Um, Dill is basically non-existent, sadly, and we meet this boy named Henry which I cannot remember if he was actually in the first book or not.

This book felt very bland. To Kill a Mockingbird was interesting and almost exciting, dare I say, at times. However, this book felt like a sharp contrast to the first book. I get that it was written a long time ago but if it was rejected the first time, why publish it now?

The perspectives switched from first person to third person often and I don't understand why that happened. Also, the writing was really succinct and any sentence variation was rare. Jean Louise did not feel like she was a 26-year-old because of her opinions and perspectives on life and the way she thinks. She felt really young.

I have no idea where this book was trying to go. I get that we're supposed to learn something about racism and why it happens but the whole book didn't seem to have any plotline or actual quality to it. Instead, we get a novel full of anecdotes about Jean Louise's childhood which were not needed. The characters in general were not well-developed and instead felt 2D. Henry/Hank definitely did not feel real to me and I wanted to know more about him and his past and who he was as a person. Instead, we just get a guy who wants to marry Jean Louise despite multiple rejections.

Atticus felt like a completely different character, save for his name. In the first book, I don't think he was ever as blatantly racist as he was. His explanation did nothing to help that and instead put him into an even darker light, calling "black people children" who aren't fit to run the government or anything. I can understand how Jean Louise felt about her father but I think the whole thing was really unneeded.

I think I would much rather have had a sequel to the first book that's not set as far into the future as this one was. I would recommend this book to readers looking for a shorter classic novel.

 Main Character: Jean Louise
Sidekick(s): Henry, Alexandra, etc
Villain(s): Racism, color-blind, etc
Classic Elements: This book is considered a classic despite being published more recently (it was written a while ago)

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