This cover and title made me think the story would be cute, but my God, what a deception! I don't even know if it was in a negative or positive way, because I’m just so surprised. (THis is the brazillian edition of First Love btw).

​First of all, this is my first time reading Turgenev, and I must say I really enjoyed his prose—it’s very fluid. I felt like I had stumbled upon the diary of a younger brother going through puberty, lol. I also had a unique experience with this book because it was the first one I managed to annotate from beginning to end. Plus, this was a 'filler' reading, it wasn't on my reading list, but I decided to picked it up so I could give a pause to my longer reads.

​As for the story itself, the characters are trash. They are entirely driven by passion alone, with no regard for others or even for the target of that passion. If that was the author's intention, I’d say he did a great job depicting passion in its most youthful and pure state, as well as a passion that is sordid and intense. What both types had in common was that they were only seeking the sensation of passion and love, not the person themselves.

​Vladimir made me feel so many things: he was so silly, so indecisive, and had no real sense of anything other than being in love. Honestly, I saw a bit of myself in him during my first crush, which might be why he irritated me so much, lol. At other times, I thought he was adorable—the kind of character you want to 'put in a jar'—acting like a little knight. But as he sank deeper into his feelings, you could see the passion taking over what little reason he had, making him act and think in very ugly ways (even if many of those bad thoughts were planted by the ill-intentioned adults around him). Honestly, he feels younger than 16.

​Now, Zinaida... definitely a woman with too much free time to have 'tormenting a child' as a hobby. As she said herself, she is very weird. My interpretation is that she surrounds herself with men not just to enjoy their lust and despair, but as a way to analyze who might be a good suitor or a target for her love. After all, her family is in ruins and there’s no one to introduce her to potential matches, so doing the filtering herself was the best she could come up with. Still, it doesn't make me like her at all.

​Vladimir’s father... wow. I don’t even know what to say about this man other than that he is detestable. A terrible father, a terrible husband, a terrible lover, and a terrible human being in general. Those who have read it know. I won't even waste my breath on that scum.

​Overall, I liked the book! I’m still in shock that a little book that seemed so harmless turned out to be such an avalanche, haha. This is the fifth Russian author I’ve read, after Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Nabokov, and Gogol. One day I’ll get to his Fathers and Sons.

​What were your thoughts on this book and the author?

First Love, Ivan Turgenev. What the hell was this book??