A good surprise! There were some subjects in it I really liked but still I had some issues with it. Specially because I don’t agree with the definition of “good” and “evil” and I had some problems with the pride of the main character. Trough out the end the books get better and then it goes down again. But In liked it still.

I've read two of Nothomb's books before and really enjoyed them. I heard great things about this one but it really disappointed me. It could have touched on many topics like humanity, war or even morals. But it did not. I feel like I didn't have to have read this book.

My first 1 star book of the year. It's more 1.5 but I round down.Here's the thing, this has a really good synopsis. The world has gotten so bored of everything, that they start using the old Concentration camps in the same way they were used during the Holocaust, but it's broadcast on live television as a reality show. Anyone can be chosen, people are randomly arrested on the street, and you leave when you are dead. Guards are also randomly chosen off the street, and are paid.So, this had promis...

★✰✰✰✰ - Did Not FinishI tried. I really tried.The back cover was promising something amazing: in an alternative future, they start using old concentration camps for reality shows. People chosen randomly are the prisoners while others are the guards whose mission is basically to mistreat the prisoners. Yet, this book was really bad: the fact it's a short book was a problem here because I wasn't even concerned about what happened to the characters. We don't learn to know them, don't learn to love

This is not one of my favorites, but as always, reading her is a pleasure in itself, for her choice and use of language.

Didn't enjoy the style, it's easy to read but somehow too easy. I can't define why, maybe it's too simplistic sometimes. And though I love the pitch and its provocativity, I think the denouement is too optimistic: the day we will reach a level of ignominy, I am not sure it will be possible to stop the horrors we will have let start.But another point of view could be to see this book as an homage to those who resisted to the Nazi ignominy and who proved it's always possible to stop. With a remind...

And here it is gentleman! The first version of The Hunger Games. And it was published before the series so I wonder if miss Suzanne Collins really didn't read this book. It could be a coincidence.Anyway, this was a mixture between 1984, The Hunger Games and every book who's ever gotten written about concentration camps (nazi or otherwise).It was delightful, it was insane and it didn't feel too short or too long. I especially liked the ending, the moral that everyone can change the world, all you...

Sulphuric Acid [2005/2007] – ★★★★This book is by a Belgian author Amélie Nothomb, who was born in Japan, but now resides in Paris. Translated from the French by Shaun Whiteside, Sulphuric Acid is a short novella which quite shockingly and darkly satirises our obsession with TV, in particular with reality television, and our idolisation of celebrities. Probably taking some inspiration from Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale (1999), Sulphuric Acid is a dystopia-set story in which millions of people tu...

This is quite a disturbing book. It reminded me of Blindness by Saramago, and likewise has left me with the feeling that I have been punched on the stomach. I read one previous book by Nothomb – Fear and Trembling – but it did not prepare me for Sulphuric Acid.In both books Nothomb makes an acute criticism of society, but while in Fear and Trembling – an criticism of corporate organizations, the Japanese corporations more specifically – she uses humour and satire, in Sulphuric Acid the theme doe...

The concept of the story was interesting but the writing style just didn’t do it for me

How far can a society sink into a collective pit of stupidity, sadism, brutality and barbarism? Tune into Belgian novelist Amélie Nothomb's Sulphuric Acid and see for yourself.In the parks and on the street of Paris, hundreds of women, men and children are grabbed by the organizers and taken to a station to be piled into a cattle-truck. A stunningly attractive young paleontologist by the name of Pannonique, who just so happened to be out for a walk in the Jardin des Plantes, is among their numbe...

She would be God in every respect. It was no longer a matter of creating the universe: too late, damage done. Basically, once creation was accomplished, what was the task of God? Probably that of a writer when his book is published: publicly to love his text, to receive compliments, jeers and indifference on its behalf. To confront certain readers who denounce the work’s shortcomings when, even if they are right, it would be impossible to change it. To love it to the bitter end. That love was th...

I've tried combining the French and English versions but it isn't showing up SO I'm posting my review on both. Dear Reader,This is one of my favorite Authors of all time. Amélie has this magical way with words, and if you've been following my reviews, you'll know I'll gush about her until the day I die. Did I love this book? No, but I did like it. This might be the first Nothomb book that didn't take my breath away, and that's okay! I don't expect her to blow me away EVERY time. I want to, but r...

It's a decent concept for a book, but leaves some questions and gaps that were a bit too stark to be ignored. The underlying idea that the world would watch with gape mouthed fascination and never lift a finger to help fellow human beings kidnapped to star in a concentration camp themed reality show is a touch unrealistic to me. But perhaps I am not so jaded.A good read, but it would have been better as a longer book with more meat to its plot and depth to the characters.

Highly controversial when first published in Belgium, Sulphuric Acid is about a near future France, where a reality TV show incarcerates random people, dehumanises them in a concentration camp and selects two of them to die each day! A daring speculative fiction / satire that points fingers at the media, authority and most importantly, the viewer. Great read, read in one session... recommended. 9 out of 12.

WHAT IS THIS?! ZERO-STAR!This is probably the only book that I literally did not put down at all while reading. The reason: This book was so BAD, I spent my whole day flipping through pages, searching in vain for something of substance to at least make it a one-star. But no, this book totally disappointed me. The writing and the protagonist's thinking process were simply unbearable, pushing the book from being almost intriguing to downright ridiculous. I felt like I was reading a project of a te...

The time came when the suffering of others was not enough for them; they needed the spectacle of it, too. Sulphuric Acid is a biting satire on our obsession with celebrity culture and reality TV. It tells the story of a new reality TV show called Concentration which is a televised concentration camp, with victims plucked randomly from the street, and then filmed in the camp until their deaths. It becomes a TV sensation. Nothomb really captures the nation's hypocrisy in decrying the evil of the p...

Since the invention of reality television, novels have been shooting from every pipe of the cultural sewage works, pouring scorn on greedy TV execs and lazy ignorant viewers. This one-sitting read briskly states the obvious in the form of a gentle fable – the narration is childlike in simplicity, and it dumps its disgust and irritation in the most eloquent way imaginable.The novel takes place inside a reality TV concentration camp where contestants are voted off to be slaughtered by a panel of d...

If in the first 60 pages I don't know who the main character is... there's a problem....

[There was a review here. It's gone now.]