Book reviews :

Welcome to the book page! (pinned)

Welcome to the book page! In here, i'd like to slowly update you on what i'm reading and share book reviews. I don't always have time to read tho, so this'll be slow.

Updates will be posted on the Blog, so wait for that.


Anyways, that's all for now so see y'all soon !

A review of : The Trial (Franz Kafka, published 1925, written 1915)

Building a world from scratch is an incredibly tenuous thing to do. Trying to imagine how every character ties in together, everything leading to the conclusion, and describing that in a simultaneously horrifying and impressive display of treachery, of anxiety, all within procedures is an incredibly tenuous task. One that Kafka masters.

Kafka's books are often centered around how one views the world turning in on itself, collapsing around them, until the tragedy strikes the main character, or until death ensues. The world engulfsthe protagonist in his entirety, his world starts to revolve around one single event that consumes him, until there is nothing left. The trial is exactly like that.


From the beginning, the author builds an environnement hostile to the reader, only protected by the main character's stoicism and pragmatism. But one guesses what anxiety lies under the stillness of his expression and the calm under which he hides. The greatness of the matter at hand is only understood to a surface level, a surface scratched and yet maintained by the calm of everything. But things start to creep, one feels the very pressure of the trial inching ever closer, slowly closing into the main character. As wierd events happen, as relationships falls, the Leviathan's head shows its true colors.

Apart from the story, making this book a classic, even within Kafka's bibliography (The Trial is much more interesting than the Metamorphosis imo), the writing and style is absolutely fantastic. I read a French translation most recently, but the English translations are also absolutely fantastic, a feat ony accomplished by sublime writing. Without being a thriller, the book catches you, reels you in ever closer up until the end.


Everything in this book shows the true mastery of anxiety, worldbuilding, description in litterature. I heavily reccomend it : it has not aged a day. 8.9/10 , great read.

A review of: Vernon Subutex (Virginie Despentes, 2015 - 2017)

Very few books perfectly encapsulate what it's like to be French. More than that, this trilogy represents "Frenchness" throughout an odyssey, letting the reader feel related to the most eccentric and out-there characters you'd imagine. Everyone Virginie Despentes describes, as well as their experiences, feels uncannily real, and yet always close to you. Peeling back the layers of your personnality, pulling every string there is, the book makes you question politics, culture, society itself.

At the heart of all this style lies a wonderfully simple, and yet perfectly imagined story. The execution is absolutely flawless. Never have I felt lost, bored or betraed by the storytelling nor the intrigue. Paragraph after paragraph, line after line, every interaction is natural, yet unexpected. Despentes is a reference in how to make your stories both credible and flowy at the same time, and she demonstrates it here.


All in all this books reeks of the 2010's and still feels young, introduces you to disgusting characters and makes you love them, and is always an easy read when handling difficult themes. Loved this book, 9/10, go read it !