I enjoyed this much more than I was expecting to. I found the main characters to be absolutely nasty but also very human and relatable.

I was worried I wouldn’t be able to follow it since I hadn’t read a classic since school. I’ve never seen any of the adaptations, so I didn’t really know the plot except for what I had read in some reviews. To figure out what was going on, I consulted chapter summaries and character maps while reading. I normally just do audiobooks but found that reading along with the ebook while listening helped me understand. It was slow going at first, but about 30-40% in, I no longer needed the character maps and at about 60% I discovered that I was acclimating to the language more and could drop the ebook and speed up the audiobook a bit more than before without losing comprehension.

I was also worried this book would be difficult for me because of the number and type of trigger / content warnings. Overall, the physical violence was not nearly as triggering for me as I was expecting. It’s completely abusive and inappropriate, but the moments are usually brief and not very gory or particularly grotesque or detailed. Significantly less bothersome/gratuitous to me compared to a lot of newer stuff. Personally I found the negative portrayal of disabilities (and just the unfettered power dynamics and general degradation / verbal abuse all around) to be much more explicit/hurtful/triggering.

I wouldn’t have read this outside of the winter readalong and currently have no desire to read it again, but it served its purpose as a heartwarming story that is easy to read with lots of cozy winter / holiday imagery. I enjoyed Dadu, the family dynamics, and the representation of Ramadan/Eid and Hanukah. There were ample inconsistencies and anachronisms, but I’m not sure I even would’ve noticed most of them on my own if I hadn’t been reading forum posts. They didn’t decrease my enjoyment of the book nearly as much as how unrealistic everything was (which I gather is common in this genre?)