4 out of 5 Stars
“He had suddenly begun to have a sense that the reason he wanted the escape was not only in order to sacrifice thirty thousand on it and thus heal his scar, but also for some other reason. 'Is it because within my soul I am a murderer, too?' He had started to wonder. Something distant but burning had stung his soul.”
This book is a family drama and a court case and a small helping of romance. Although, Dostoyevsky could not help himself, and he added pages upon pages of philosophy. Of course, I have to be honest, a lot of this went over my head. Mainly the philosophy, honestly. I know Dostoyevsky wanted to write about philosophy but I didn’t know he wanted to that badly. I enjoyed the clear good/evil dynamic of Aloshya and Smerdyakov, though. There are definitely some lines about the nature of humanity in here that I also liked. Each character was fleshed out in a way that made them reprehensible and relatable.
-Teen Reviewer