Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Swimming in the Dark

Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

33 reviews

megelizabeth's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

This is beautifully written, poignant, and utterly heart-shattering. I adored our main character, Ludwik, and absolutely ached for him throughout, and the relationships he has with some of the other characters completely broke me. This has so much to say about love, politics, poverty, family, and what the right way is to live or be, and it's definitely one that will stay with me. That being said, I think it would have had even more of an impact - and potentially been a 5* read - had it been a bit longer. It grapples with two very key central themes (the tragic love story and the brutal homophobia that goes along with this, and then the social commentary around Soviet socialism), and at times it felt to me a bit rushed and as if it would have really benefitted from being that bit longer and developing both strands more fully.

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samdalefox's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I tend to stuggle with books written in second person. I haven't come across one yet where I feel it adds to the story in a meaningful way. Anyway, this is a solid coming of age queer story largely set in 1980s Poland, but references many points of 20th Century Polish political and cultural history. I'm sure someone with more knowledge of these events would pick up on much more than I did. The main themes I caught were the traditional questioning and stained acceptance of Ludwik's queerness, and the exploration of pros and cons living underneath socialism vs capitalism (shout out to the common experience of nepotism). I enjoyed the deliberate references to 'Giovanni's room', but that also reminded me of how much superior James Baldwin's work is compared to this novel unfortantely. Mostly I found the book rather meek.

Other community members' review's I largely agree with:

danielctr's review - "...I simply could not get myself to care very much about the main relationship between Ludwik and Janusz. Also I feel that the main focus of the book is quite unclear...."
randomheart's review - "...I think my main problem with this novel was that, other than the physical magnetic pull that Ludwik and Janusz had for one another, I didn't really see why they would fall in love with each other on a deeper level. I needed more depth and substance to their relationship. If I had been more invested in their relationship, the politics driving them apart would have hit me in a more substantial manner too. I really wanted to FEEL the angst and conflict between them, but it all just felt a little too anticlimactic to me in the end. Janusz kind of felt too mysterious to me throughout for me to fully connect with as well. I just needed more overall..."

Quotes:

"It felt as if the words and the thoughts of the narrator—despite their agony, despite their pain—healed some of my agony and my pain, simply by existing."

"You can't make people love you the way you want them to"

"Because you were right when you said that people can’t always give us what we want from them; that you can’t ask them to love you the way you want"

“No matter what happens in the world, however brutal or dystopian a thing, not all is lost if there are people out there risking themselves to document it. Little sparks cause fires, too.”

"We are just queuing for a possibility. Queuing for something. Maybe queuing for nothing." ...
"But it will pass, even the longest queue dissolves eventually"

"To my own surprise, I was unable to accept the shame he wanted me to feel. It was too familiar to be imposed. I had produced it for myself for such a long time that right then I found I had no space left for it anymore."

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kal517's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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hxcpanda's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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zsuzsireads's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

A gripping, gorgeously lyrical story of gay love set against the backdrop of revolution in 1980s Poland. Hard-hitting and impossible to put down. I wish I could give the main character a big hug. The writing was filled to the brim with metaphors and imagery, which made for a beautiful prose (though it did verge on over-the-top at times). I also found some of the plot a bit hard to believe but maybe that's just my own cynicism.

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rieviolet's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I appreciated the setting because it focused on a time and place (Poland in the 1980s) that I am almost completely unfamiliar with and it was very interesting to be immersed in it, even if briefly.
I quite liked the narrator's voice and I think that the author was very good at handling Ludwik's emotional journey, the final chapters especially hit me right in the feels, harder than I thought they would.

However, there were some plot points that I found a little bit weird

for example, the drugged soup and the hallucinated stroll in the woods, okay I guess?!

.
Also, I think that at times the language was a tad overwritten and going a bit too heavy on metaphors and similes.

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itsredandread's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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natashamountney's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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floatinthevoid's review

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

I really don't have any expectation, and i don't receive any unexpected impression either tbh. I think the writing style is beautiful and deliberate in the way that it unfolds a story. There are specks of thoughts that show the traits of the characters, they are scattered in the right place, which i think is very neat. Not to mention how tender and melancholic this love story is. It's just that i feel everything is too good in the flow? Well personally i like it more if something or any of the characters messed up a bit too much. Nonetheless, this book is well written.

Also, I hope Ludwik is happy.

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noveltay's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Very well written, heartbreaking story about two gay men during a war. This broke me. Better than CMBYN.

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