Reviews

The Lessons by Naomi Alderman

mariebrunelm's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This elegant dark academia novel steeped with nostalgia follows the pattern of a young person from a middle-class background who gets to university and discovers the world of elite students. Here, the scene is set in Oxford for half of the novel, which was a third of the reason why I wanted to read it, the two other thirds being dark academia & queer rep. And as it turned out I was a little frustrated with those.
The first one I blame entirely on the discourse around this book and not the book itself. To me, dark academia should include a near or fully obsessive search for knowledge. Or some sort of hidden knowledge that is of primary importance to the characters. In The Lessons, our main character is studying physics, but he could be studying anything else and it wouldn’t change anything to the plot because the learning is never part of the plot. The exams are, for a significant part of the novel, but there is no thirst for knowledge.
As for the queer rep, no one in this novel seemed to have heard about bisexuality. They all seemed to think that it was a fault in their very character if they happened to fall in love with people of different genders. A large part of that was because of monogamy and the character’s deep-seated belief that people should only love one person at the time, which is an opinion I respect. Yet some passages made it very clear that it was strange for them to fall in love with someone of a gender different from all the persons they’d had relationships with before. The word bisexual was written only once in all the book, and it qualified a very secondary character. It felt like such a missed opportunity to represent queer people that aren’t just a cis white gay man (who happens to be the “““villain””” with all the quotation marks possible).
All in all, The Lessons is an excellent nostalgic character study told in elegant, beautiful prose, that suffers from the way it’s being talked about. It made me think of Brideshead Revisited.
Rep: queer characters who think they are straight and gay but in fact are bisexual. Sorry not sorry.
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lillywing's review against another edition

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4.0

3.75

oldenglishrose's review against another edition

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

2.0

readwithsophsx's review against another edition

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

4.0

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ever_unread's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

jason_pym's review against another edition

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1.0

If she'd stuck to the Mark / Jess / James relationship I think it would have been great, and I like how she writes.

But... I was enjoying this until the Italian mother came along, that was when it stopped feeling like a serious book. Then the kid falling in the river read like it was bolted on just to show another side of Mark's personality. But the bit that really got me was Mark (probably) murdering his own child, something that was covered in three paragraphs and seemed to have no repercussions at all. Very tacky, and really no need. I think she's a strong enough writer as is, no need for the gonzo stuff.

karentipsy's review against another edition

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3.0

Alexa, file this under 'books that don't really have a point'.
This is one of those ones where you are waiting for something to happen, then it ends. So frustrating. I really liked the writing style and the characters and feel there could have been a lot more to say, except the main character was two dimensional and a bit boring. Shame really.

karlijntje_mandarijntje's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-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

3.0

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Note to self- do NOT get a rich, unstable oxford sugar daddy it WILL NOT end well

‘Theres no disgrace in falling, everyone falls.’

‘He had never been forced to learn how to mend.’

‘It is so hard sometimes to tell the difference between the bindings that trap, and those which secure.’

’We don’t have to clothe ourselves in imaginary woe, each of us if we live long enough will have material for our own suit of sorrow.’
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kingarooski's review against another edition

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2.0

This was not my favourite Naomi Alderman book. It was, in places, a bit slow but did remind me of A Secret History.