This was really the worst book I've ever read. I don't know if it's a problem in the translation or not, but as much as I WANTED to like this book I just couldn't make myself. I got about 60 pages away from the end before I realized that I didn't care about any of the characters and just wanted Veronika to die and get it over with.

I think the worst part for me is that the author chose to write the second chapter about himself. Generally speaking, I think it's admirable that he wanted to protect his parents by not writing about his own institutionalization, but making himself a character in the novel and explaining his reasons for writing the book rather defeated the purpose. It also took me right out of the novel and made it impossible for me to get back into it.

Veronika Ölmek İstiyor sizi belki de uzun zamandır yapmadığınız bir şekilde yaşamı düşünmeye itiyor. Kitabı okurken de bittiğinde de kendimi hep hayatı sorgularken buldum. Veronika'nın intiharı sayesinde mutlu olmayı, hayata tutunmayı derinlemesine düşünüyorsunuz. Beni gerçekten çok etkileyen bir kitap oldu. Veronika'nın her şeye sahip olduğu halde hayatın monotonluğuna kapılıp yaşamak istememesi bencilce gelse de kitabı okurken ona katıldığım yerler olduğunu da fark ettim. Sanırım hepimizin içinde az biraz delilik var. Çok fazla satırın altını çizdim. Çok fazla satırı içime çeke çeke okudum. Kesinlikle herkesin içinde biraz kendisini bulacağı ve özümseyerek okuyacağı bir kitap.

' İnsanların mutluluk olasılığı ne kadar yükselirse, mutsuzlukları da o kadar artıyor demek. '

' Bir akıl hastanesindeydi, insanların genellikle kendi kendilerinden sakladıkları duyguları bastırmamakta özgürdü. Nedense hepimiz yalnızca sevmek, kabullenmek, işlerin kolayını bulmak, çatışmadan kaçınmak üzere yetiştiriliriz.'

' Güçlüğü ve kararlılığıyla pek çok kişiyi etkilemiş olabilirdi Veronika, ama neye yaramıştı bu? Boşlukta kalakalmıştı. Yapayalnız. '

this shitty, whiny book in a nutshell, which is all it deserves: a simple, trite, self-indulgent allegory that poorly contemplates the similarities between genius and insanity

i think this is the worst passage i've read so far:

Vitriol was a toxic substance whose symptoms he had identified in his conversations with the men and women he had met. Now he was writing a thesis on the subject, which he would submit to the Slovenian Academy of Sciences for its scrutiny. It was the most important step in the field of insanity since Dr. Pinel had ordered that patients should be unshackled, astonishing the medical world with the idea that some of them might even be cured.
As with the libido—the chemical reaction responsible for sexual desire, which Dr. Freud had identified, but which no laboratory had ever managed to isolate—Vitriol was released by the human organism whenever a person found him- or herself in a frightening situation, although it had yet to be picked up in any spectrographic tests. It was easily recognized, though, by its taste, which was neither sweet nor savory—a bitter taste. Dr. Igor, the as-yet-unrecognized discoverer of this fatal substance, had given it the name of a poison much favored in the past by emperors, kings, and lovers of all kinds whenever they needed to rid themselves of some obstructive person.

if you are filled with the incomprehensible rage that follows after utter dullness like this, we will probably make good friends.

so i actually finished this, and guess what! it was consistently awful. entirely insipid with a delightful dose of misogyny--outside of the entire premise of the book, a young woman just "deciding" to kill herself basically because she's bored; apparently veronika only discovers life is worth living after meeting a boring artist dude & and (spoiler ahead) it turns out her male doctor was drugging her with a medicine that mimics heart attacks solely so she could discover how important life is worth living. what??? in no way is this examined for how fucked up it is and we're supposed to just sit back and enjoy the shitty advice on how to live life that's being spewed. i probably would have enjoyed this when i was fifteen and didn't know any better, but i'm an adult human with critical thinking skills. i am not impressed with contrived, falsely "deep" drivel. y'all shouldn't be either.