I finally got around to finishing this! I read the first ~30 pages, probably two years ago. I didn't finish it then because it was a bit too dark for me at the time.

I loved the writing style. It was easy for me to get pulled into the story and I was able to read the first ~70 pages in one session. The plot is dark enough on its own, the immersive writing style makes it that much more disturbing because I could picture every detail.

Unfortunately for me, I found the subtextual meanings to be difficult to piece together. Morality tends to be one of my least favorite themes to read about, I tended not to think very deeply about things so that's one reason why I struggled to make sense of everything by the end. I could of course tell that other themes were weaved through as well, but morality kind of overshadowed everything, from my perspective. Louis is kind of insufferable 🫥

While I wasn't in the mood to be particularly analytical, I didn't want to DNF this again either, so I decided to just read it mostly through the entertainment lens. Noticing how it differs from the movie was something that did interest me. I definitely wasn't bored, until I neared the last act which was a bit anticlimactic. I think I'll rewatch the movie at some point because it will be interesting to watch, now that I'm more familiar with the source material!