in the wise words of trisha paytas, “IM FREEEEEE!!!!!!!!! WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY FUCKING LIFE”

ok but on a serious note — i did not have a fun time. i do not really know why i finished this, other than the fact it wasn’t as dreadful of an experience of other classics i’ve dnf’ed (cough cough the count of monte cristo) and i wanted to understand why this book is a classic and loved & why dostoevsky is praised as one of the best writers to exist. to be honest, i do understand it! i can defo see the positives but….. it was a chop for me.

let me tell you the few parts of this text where i experienced a positive feeling:

1. part 2 of the text, right after rodia kills the pawnbroker. that was interesting i guess. 2. dunia shooting svidrigailov. bad bitch 🔥. 3. svidrigailov killing himself . and im not even saying i enjoyed this just because he was awful. but i really liked the writing of that chapter.  4. the funeral chapter was lowkey interesting because so much tea was being spilt. 5. pofiry telling rodia he’s suspected him for ages and has even been using razumikhin as an unknowing pawn. FIRE MOVE MY BOY.

and that’s it! 5 chapters. in a 500 page book.

so let’s get onto what i did not like! almost everything LMAOOOO

ok i’ll get more specific. but honestly im just a full hater surrounding this book with no specific rhyme or reason. but let’s give some reasons.

rodia is so boring. he is supposed to be the heart of the book — his internal conflict, his thoughts, his actions, those who surround him, etc. i just found him utterly predictable and one-note. i don’t mind the fact that one minute homeboy is sane and the next minute he’s literally comatose for 3 days because he is that wracked with stress over a murder. girl i would be stressed too! but other than that i felt he lacked any depth. i do think later in the text this is developed more with the paper he published & his dialogue in part V chapter VI. but before that i was BOOREEEDDD. and i cared even less about the rest of the characters. literally everyone had one defining trait or fact about them. like what can i tell you about katerina other than she is tubercular and a bit batshit. luzhin? asshole. razumikhin? nice and educated. like nobody is interesting. yawn.

as always with classics, this book fucking rambles. ok yes i will concede at times rambling is necessary for this book, either in character for rodia’s mania or for dostoevsky to ponder philosophical themes. i’ll give him that. but man sometimes this book just dragged on and on and on and on. and i’m like.. do we need to read about rodia walking aimlessly around the town for the 7th time. did i really have to listen to marmeladov share information that is told to us by like 3 other characters? what are we doing here man. and i’m not even saying “oh just every sentence and paragraph needs to be shorter”. no. there’s just a lot of unnecessary fluff in this book. some random things still make sense thematically, but some things? I DONT CAAAREEEE

i did not give a fuck about the philosophical thoughts. ok ill be honest i did enjoy the ponderings related to rodia’s paper, and the morality of murder, and who is “above the law”… but other than that….. YAWWWNNNN. idk it felt like being forced to read a textbook except i was put into the classes’ subject to be tortured. i like philosophy to a certain degree, but idk at some point dostoevsky bored my ass. and i get he was the leading man in a lot of philosophical concepts, so sure i’d be bored! this is common knowledge to me in 2025! but back in dostoevsky’s times these concepts were unique and novel! but honestly i dont even think that’s the reason. i just think dostoevsky is not an engaging writer in this book.

i really thought i would like this. i enjoy classics with a bit of a deeper message and intriguing characters who are flawed. plus i studied a teensy little bit of the russian revolution in hs, so i thought with my “background knowledge 🤓👆” i’d have more fun. alas, i fucking hated every waking moment dedicated to reading this, apart from the 5 chapters i mentioned earlier. i started hating this so bad i had to play an audiobook whilst playing cookie run. THIS BOOK WAS SO BAD IT BROUGHT BACK MY COOKIE RUN ADDICITION FROM 2021. 

anyways, fuck rodia, fuck crime, fuck punishment, and fuck classics who yap about nothing.