Oliver Twist - Final Review

Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens, 1837

Plot: Good. Fairly complex, but only because of the number of characters involved. Overall it was very satisfying with all of the loose ends tied up into a neat little bundle by the end. Just like I like it. 9/10

Style: This is hard to judge. On the one hand, I was pleasantly surprised by the humor and sarcasm that Dickens uses which makes it a really fun read. One of my favorite quotes, which I marked to be sure to share with you:
"The doctor seemed especially troubled by the fact of the robbery having been unexpected, and attempted in the night-time; as if it were the established custom of gentlemen in the housebreaking way to transact business at noon, and to make an appointment, by post, a day or two previous."
On the other hand, well, let's just say that I'm glad I never had to diagram a Dickens sentence. He is famous for his convoluted phrasing for a good reason. For the most part, I enjoyed deciphering his paragraph-long sentences and found myself smiling at the unique way he put the words together. But when it came time to explain the conclusion to the convoluted plot, I was at a loss to understand what was going on. I eventually figured it out by context later, but I'm convinced that I lost a good 5-10 pages. My final complaint would be the number of characters. Characters that seemed minor would make a reappearance in later pages and serve to completely confuse me as I wouldn't remember their significance from before. I feel like I needed to make a flow chart or a web graph to get it all sorted out. Anyway, I loved this book overall and am excited to read more Dickens. 8/10

Hotness of the main character(s): Well Oliver Twist is a little boy, so how bout we don't even go there. There are too many characters to list here, all young, old or completely unsavory. There was, however, a side plot that involved one Mr. Harry Maylie who was very reminiscent of an end-of-the-book Mr. Darcy. So that gets 10/10 automatically. :)

The character I would most like to be: I suppose Rose. She is sweet and kind and well...basically...Harry loves her. That's all I need to say about that!

Re-readability: When I'm in the mood to really READ, like, take time to understand each sentence, I would love to read this again. That doesn't happen super often though, so let's go with occasionally.

Final decision: Shelf it