Book 19/30.
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I try to read a “difficult” novel every 10th book of my reading challenge to get me out of my comfort zone and build stronger reading muscle. But, ngl, even as a seasoned reader I was verrrryyy nervous about Mrs. Dalloway 😅
Classics can be quite challenging to read, and what unnerved me even more about this one (that was published 100 years ago!!!) is that it inspired The Hours and I fucking HATED that book 🥴 In fact, I joined Goodreads in April 2015 and it was my first-ever 1-star read, so that should tell you just how much I fucking hated it! I mean, just look at my review 😂😭
I really did not like this book at all. The whole stream of consciousness narrative device is not for me. I find it rambling, just way too many words. Speaking of words, I hated the way the author uses all those big words. It came across to me as entirely pompous. Like “hey look at me. I’m a writer and I’m going to use all these really big words coz I’m really sharp”
And then the characters, I hated all of them. They were all these bitter, insincere, spiteful, depressed people I would never want near me in real life.
This was my first introduction to a Pulitzer Prize winning book, and it was a bad one
I should have known better than to fuck with Mrs. Dalloway as it ended up being the third 1-star read of my 2025 reading challenge 😫 I ABHOR stream-of-consciousness, so much so that I say so in my Goodreads profile, and because of that I had no business giving this Virginia Woolf classic a chance, seeing as she is a key figure in popularising that narrative technique. Which was my biggest problem with The Hours in the first place 🤦♀️
View all my reviews
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing
Lwile the Leo 