What do you think?
Rate this book
728 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 28, 2020
“The mind is a malleable thing. Soil, if you’re feeling poetic. Depending on the seed, anything will grow in it, from graceful gardens to idyllic meadows, from weedy forests to foggy swamps. Harmonious or chaotic, peaceful or perilous, healthy or ill—it’s all a matter of seeds.
“Our minds shape reality ... that is why superstitious peasants burn witches, jealous lovers murder their beloved, and lonely veterans put nooses around their necks.”
“Be realistic, Lysia, the only time a running system ever changes is in response to a crisis. As long as life is all right for the majority, nothing’s gonna happen… And when things do go south, people will always resort to violence. It’s just human nature.”
“If you fight injustice with injustice, no matter how deserved it may feel, you’ll always end up as just another turn of the wheel.”
“People were so quick to point at all those inspiring stories of catharsis, completely ignoring the fact that the vast majority of the broken never beat their demons, that the drunkard’s son stayed with the bottle, the war widow never conquered her loneliness, and the defiled child never wiped that imagined black stain from their soul. Because in a world that worshipped the victorious, who the hell wanted to hear about the defeated?”
“Life is an arena, and even if you’re the champion, one second of weakness is all it takes for the lions to pounce. Always remember that.”
“Change isn’t a flash but a long and rocky road.”
“Once the mind commits to a story, the facts become secondary. Truth bows to bias.”
“You won’t find out if you give up.”
The mind is a malleable thing. Soil, if you’re feeling poetic. Depending on the seed, anything will grow in it, from graceful gardens to idyllic meadows, from weedy forests to foggy swamps. Harmonious or chaotic, peaceful or perilous, healthy or ill—it’s all a matter of seeds.
🖤
Apparently, the dark places of your mind are filled with social commentary. Loads and loads of social commentary. Who knew, right?
Anyways, I finally did it. I Jumped on the hype train aaaaannnnnd *deep sigh* i feel like i'm almost always riding against the current when it comes to popular books.
🖤🖤
A lot of the reviews for this book praise the social commentary. Personally, while it definitely gives a plethora of amazing quotes, at some point it just began to feel like meaninless rhetoric that people spout because well, that's what you're supposed to say🤷🏾♀️. The characters really began to feel like they were just parroting all these, albeit cool points on how really fucked up capitalism and the American Dream sorry Great Dream is without any heart to it.
Was everything connecting with me at first? Sure.. But with 700+ pages, it kinda gets old when you halt the story just to go on some long sociology lesson on Class systems. It felt trite and honestly this book would have fared a lot better if it were shorter but hey you have to get the message across somehow. Bet Karl Marx would get an orgasm from this book though.
🖤🖤🖤
Now, the story itself though, was chef kiss. The intrigue was solid. The build up to the reveal stunning. If anything, this was what made me keep going with this book. I definitely think Lietzau was smart to keep readers dangling for so long because honest to God if that had gotten resolved earlier, i would have given this book the middle finger and dumped it fast.
I have to say i immensely disliked the speech pattern the author decided to go with for this book but i seem to be in the minority with this opinion here i guess.
Finally, this book touches on depression. and *deep sigh* guys i'm not going to lie, I really for real thought, there was some sort of puzzle he had to solve to get rid of it.
At least in the context of this book. I suppose the book succeeds in showing how totally overwhelming depression is. To be honest, i didn't really make this connection until the end + I kinda got tired of the whole thing.. I'm sorry.
It kind of, might, maybe, seem like i didn't care about this very important theme but honestly in the context of this book it just got unbelievably tiring at some point.
🖤
Told between bouts of melachonia and lessons on the evils of rich people and society in general, Dreams of the Dying is certainly an ambitious book. I cannot in all honesty say i hated it because the story does shine through in some parts.
Social commentary been used to death aside, i have to say, i equal parts like and dislike this book. Really have no strong feelings for it tbh. Probably going to dress up the quotes all cute with Canva app cos hey that's what they're there for right?
p.s: The last couple of chapters felt needlessly dragged on. I wonder if that is some sort of light on how mundane life is. Oh well.
"Monsters exist, and you’re one of them.
The girl had been wrong. He isn’t just a monster; he is the father of monsters, the architect of the arena, the god of suffering. The thought he had in the temple had been right after all: there were a million marks on his soul, and they had festered into a cancerous growth. Tears trail down his cheeks. He lets them come, wishing they were acid.
Absolution?
The forgiveness the priest offered was more than he deserved. There is no clearing his name; there is no fixing this."
"A comatose magnate, insurgent terrorists, furious commoners. Enkshi was right: This country was a wildfire waiting to happen."
"Help her. Say something.
'You wanna know a secret?'
Her sobs fade and her eyes meet his. Slowly they move, fragile little windows turning on rusted hinges.
'It’ll get better. It always does.'
He sticks out his pinkie.
'I promise.'"
"If you fight injustice with injustice, no matter how deserved it may feel, you’ll always end up as just another turn of the wheel."
"Tae ite nū’iwilo, tae hūnā ‘o. ‘You won’t find out if you give up.’"