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- cwis moderatesFT(B)CUA new choice every month. Come join the party š„³š¤45Last activity 2d ago
- johnsonsliterarydepot moderatesAppalachia Bookclub | JLDRooted in the mountains and the stories they hold.4Last activity 21w ago
- Sharayah Rowat moderatesAll About AgathaIt's time to tackle my TBR one Christie novel at a time!2Last activity 18w ago
- staticskYY moderatesSmall Slices of SciFiReading through the monthly Clarkesworld collections! Maybe other collections as well? Who knows????10Last activity 2d ago
- mackenzie moderatesHobb PackRotE readers šŗšš20Last activity 5d ago
- Bindiya Dharwani moderatesBibliophagesYour comfort space... explore, inspire,admire āØ2Last activity 12w ago
- HiLeFavoredTee moderatesThe She Woman Man Haters ClubJust a bunch of women who love reading!!3Last activity 4d ago
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4.8
205 clubs
Annie Zearadjou45w ago
White Nights ā A Review by Me, Who Read One Paragraph and Said āOh No, Heās Meā
So apparently, my first completed classic decided to slap me with emotional damage in under an hour. Love that. Truly.
I picked it up because it was short.
Jokeās on me, it was short and soul shattering.
I expected old-timey fluff, maybe some slow plot and fancy words. What I got? A 58 page emotional mugging.
Dostoevsky said, āLetās clown every introvertā and I felt that in my spine.
The Dreamer
My lonely little monologue machine.
He saw a girl, got two seconds of human interaction, and immediately wrote her name in cursive on his heart. This man turned a single āHeyā into a full-blown love story. He was so soft, Iām convinced life bullied him into poetry.
As an introvert myself, I saw parts of me in him like his longing, his overthinking, his daydreaming.
People assume lonely folks are quiet. But give us a moment of attention? We rap.
And oh, he did. Yapper in chief. Too good for this world.
But letās be real, he didnāt love her.
He loved the feeling of being seen.
He loved. He lost. He hoped. He thanked the night for letting him feel.
And here I am lowkey crying over a man who only lived for 60 pages.
Nastenka
At first? Understandable.
Sheās stuck under Grandma Surveillance, scared and desperate for connection.
So when someone finally helps her, she clings. I get it. Naive? Yes.
Girl, you donāt sit there comparing the guy whoās baring his soul to youā¦ to the man who ghosted you for a year.
They planned a future together. He dreamed it out loud.
And she switched tracks in under a minute.
No hesitation. No second thought. Just boom betrayal with a smile.
I will never recover.
The Lodger
Ah yes. Him.
Promised crumbs, vanished and then showed up exactly at the most convenient plot-ruining time.
Bro didnāt even speak to her when he lived in the same house, but now heās ready to be her soulmate?
Make it make sense.
Honestly? I believe Dreamer and Nastenka couldāve had something real.
They had a connection. A chance.
But Dostoevsky said, āLet me teach you pain.ā And so he did. Yet I rooted for the Dreamer. I read somewhere that he never even revealed his name tho he mentioned hers on every page like a prayer. And ladies and germs, that hurts.
The Truth?
Nobodyāand I mean nobodyāwas actually in love.
They were in love with being noticed.
With being needed.
With not being alone for five minutes.
And that? Thatās the most painfully real thing Iāve read in a long time.
Final thoughts
If this book taught me anything, itās this:
Being alone is bearable.
But being almost loved, then left?
Thatās the kind of ache that deserves a trigger warning.
P.S.
On reread, I realized I needed Nastenka as a villain the first time. This time... I didnāt
1.0
205 clubs
Anagha Jadhav50w ago
Day 1:
Him: "Iām so lonely I talk to buildings."
Her: "Same! Letās trauma bond at 10PM sharp."
Day 2:
Him: Starts catching feelings
Her: "You're like... the brother I trauma dump on."
Day 3:
Him: Sends her love-letter energy via monologue
Her: Laughs like he's a stand-up comic instead of a heartbroken poet
Day 4:
Her: "OMG he's here! Bye bestie!"
Him: "Iām happy for you. No, really. These tears? Just allergies."
Epilogue:
Narrator: "Anyway, one minute of bliss was worth a lifetime of loneliness."
White Nights is a stupid story for several reasons. Both of them have NO emotional boundaries just infinite delusion.Itās not love- itās a case study in PROJECTING your needs onto strangers. Honestly, White Nights is what happens when two Low EQ people trauma-bond and confuse it for destiny.
Nastenka's decision to marry someone who clearly isnāt emotionally invested in her or considerate of her feelings is baffling. It seems like the ultimate act of settling for less, and it makes the reader want to scream in frustration. The protagonist, on the other hand, his inability to see beyond his own emotional idealization of Nastenka is frustrating. He basically builds a fantasy world around her and refuses to acknowledge her reality, leading to a lot of emotional turmoil and unnecessary heartache. This one-sided obsession doesn't make him a byronic hero, but rather a guy trapped inside his own imagination.
That said the book does an excellent job exploring the protagonist's inner world. You get to feel the confusion, the longing, the emotional highs and lows that come with unrequited love. His thoughts are raw and vulnerable, and you can almost feel the weight of his heartache.The way the author captures Nastenkaās conflicting emotions: hope, doubt, excitement, and the ultimate disappointment is powerful. You can feel her desperation, the tension between her idealized love and the reality of her choices. It highlights the complexity of love and attachment, especially when expectations don't align with reality.Dostoevsky is great at setting a tone, and the gloomy, rainy backdrop adds an extra layer of melancholy to the story, mirroring the emotional state of the characters.
3.5
Rose47w ago
This isn't the usual short story you might come across. Itās a short read, makes you think, and if you are a writer, helps you with ideation.
As a storytelling coach, I trained many writers to project the same story in different pov. I thought about those exercises while I read this.
3.8
205 clubs
CJReads50w ago
Yeah I think I get it now. I get why Dostoyevsky is so beloved. This book is amazing. So much emotion packed into 50 pages. I think this is the best place to start with his work. You get a sense for his writing style, his characters, his themes. It took me a bit to get into the writing but once you get into the flow it is fascinating. Every page has insight or a memorable quote. He loved to yap I tell you. He will just go on for pages and pages without breaks and at first I was like get to the point but I hit a groove where I was like no this is brilliant. Like I said, I get it now. It makes sense. This takes a look at love that isnāt in every romance novel. Love unrequited. What is more painful than that? And ugh exploring that theme in all the pain that Dostoyevsky can bring to the page? Devastating. The end of the fourth night literally gave me whiplash. Thereās not much else that I can think of to say. The book is really good. Itās a great way to introduce yourself to a legendary author. And I am so intrigued to see what he can do with a full length novel if this is what he can do with a short story.
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