Reviews

Oracle Night by Paul Auster

hameatery6's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

emmaahlerup's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

This book was utterly pointless. The main idea wasn’t bad, but the execusion was terrible. The characters, especially the women, were so flat, unrealistic and unrelatable. There are several ”stories within the story”, where the reader is only given some  fragments, thus being confusing and making no sense. The most interesting meta story never gets an ending. So the only thing that kept me reading was undisclosed. Very annoying and makes you feel like the author either lost all ideas and just gave up on continuing writing, or really has no respect for the reader’s time invested in reading the book. Felt robbed of my time by the end of it. Terrible book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Miscarriage

patuso's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

3.0

paintedsowl's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

liamkeith's review against another edition

challenging mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

jess_mango's review against another edition

4.0

"Oracle Night" is a book within a book within a book. I really enjoyed this novel and its dreamlike quality reminded me of books by one of my favorite authors, Haruki Murakami. The story is well-crafted with many interconnections between the subplots being revealed as the book goes on. Unfortunately, the ending wasn't quite as strong as the rest of the book, in my opinion.

thebookist's review

medium-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 liked the book. The feeling of it lingers for a while after reading. 

It is an odd story, which I like. 

Not the most memorable one, but a good in-betweener.

theonlymg's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

3.5

ambientcrows's review

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

jimbonothing64's review

challenging dark emotional funny 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