Book Review//Sophie's World

Last week I shared this post about how important reading is in our daily lives. And going back through some of our recent blog posts I realised I have never shared a full book review here! This seems a bit ridiculous considering how much I read (just look at these posts), but today that's going to change. I'm going to be sharing this review of Sophie's World.

Title: Sophie's World: A Novel about the history of Philosophy.
Author: Jostien Gaarder
You can find more information about the book here

Plot Summary:

Sophie's World follows the life of 14-year-old Sophie as she begins to questions what she knows and comes to the edge of her understanding.
As the book begins we find Sophie, just come home from school, receiving two letters in the mail. Each letter contains just one question, no return address and no sender. Simply 'Who are you?' and 'Where does the world come from?'. These questions get Sophie thinking, as they would anyone. As the story progresses Sophie receives more questions, each guiding her to think deep and complex thoughts. Soon enough, Sophie receives at thicker envelope, one filled with information from a person who introduces themselves as Sophie's philosophy teacher.
As Sophie delves deeper into the world and history of philosophy she begins to find herself questioning everything she has ever known. And when she starts receiving mysterious letters, addressed to another girl, Sophie has to use her new found philosophy skills to find out what the truth is, and who these letters are meant for. Resulting in her discovering a truth more complicated than Sophie could have imagined.

Things I enjoyed:

There were a few things I enjoyed about this book. To begin, the complicated and detailed plot was one the kept you guessing and wanting to know more throughout the whole story, even when it seemed like things were coming to an end. And the beginning of the book, with the way that the plot was introduced and the questions that Sophie received was interesting, engaging and got you hooked. I particularly liked the questions that Sophie was receiving, as they allowed me a chance to think as well.

Things I did not enjoy:

Whilst the idea behind the book was a good one, and the plot was interesting there were several things I didn't like about it. To start with it was long. I am a reasonably fast reader and this book took me almost two weeks to read, perhaps not only because of the amount of pages, but also because it was dense and deep and required a lot of concentration to read- it was not a light read.
Secondly, the philosophy lessons were long and complicated, and at times it felt like it was a textbook. Some of the letters from the philosopher went for pages and pages, and took almost an hour to read, and they occasionally felt like they had been taken from a history book.
I also felt like Sophie was a bit obnoxious, towards the end of the book she began challanging things, which I get because she was learning philosophy, but when she was having conversations with the philosopher she was a bit rude and her parts of the conversation were unnessecary. It's hard to explain, but if you have read the book let me know if you agree below.
Finally the end of the book was, in my opinion, just weird and confusing, it kind of felt like I had been cheated- reading this book for so long and then the ending just being a let down. But don't let me tell you,  if you want, give the book a go and let me know what you think of the ending.

Finishing it up

To finish this review I just want to let you know that I don't like being negative and saying that a book is horrible, and I have tried not to do this with Sophie's World.
I didn't enjoy the book, but I don't want to put you off reading it. I'd love if you'd let me know in the comments below what your thoughts on Sophie's world are, if you read it.
xxxPoppy