Lou

I read this series as a kid and absolutely devoured it. I couldn't believe it wasn't more popular! Definitely too old for it now, but perfect for younger readers.

I'm a huge Neil Gaiman fan, but this one just didn't do it for me. Maybe because I just can't get into classic fantasy. The main character was fairly two-dimensional and unlikable, with hardly any redeeming qualities, the female characters were treated so badly and were so flat and stereotypical, and the plot just wasn't that interesting. I also found the setting pretty weird and wasn't really able to buy into it. This isn't a critique of Neil Gaiman generally, since I absolutely adore some of his other works, but this one wasn't for me.

I'm not usually into dystopian books, but I couldn't put this book down! That being said, the rest of the series really isn't as good so I would just read this one and save your time.

At first I didn't like the writing style and felt like it was trying too hard to be cryptic and mysterious, but then the mystery hooked me. I read the entire thing over the course of a transatlantic flight.

I really wanted to like it. The themes appeal to me and after fishing it, I read some interpretations that really tempted me to give it an extra star. It might be interesting to analyse for a university class, but none of that changes that I did not enjoy myself at all while reading this book. The way Kafka writes women makes me uncomfortable. I know all the characters are absurd, but he didn't have to make them ALL desperate to fuck the protagonist. Also, Joseph K is completely unrelatable, which may be the point, but it still made reading this quite frustrating, since he never responds to his situation how you think he should. Maybe I'd have liked it more if Kafka had actually finished the book, but as it stands it's unfortunately 2 stars.