I guess I expect more from Dickens. This is an example of "telling". We are constantly told whether characters are ugly or beautiful, which aligns unerringly with whether they are good or bad.
I know he wrote prolifically and published the chapters each week. This story has an episodic feel as a result and I wonder if he knew where it was going when he started.
The title is also confusing as the story has little to do with the shop.

"He happens to be one of those 'great authors' who are ladled down everyone's throat in childhood. At the time this causes rebellion and vomiting, but it may have different after-effects in later life", so said George Orwell.

True sentiments. It isn't quite A Tale of Two Cities or Oliver Twist, but it's no bad read.

3.5, rounded up to 4, I guess. Certainly not my favourite Dickens (that'd be [b:Bleak House|18172068|Bleak House|Charles Dickens|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1373379910l/18172068._SX50_.jpg|2960365]), but still a fine read, if you're into ginormous casts of characters and dastardly villains and Victorian melodrama, WHICH I AM.

I loved The Old Curiosity Shop! I have to admit that I hadn't even heard about this book before I started poking around for another Dickens novel to read. It really has everything in it that Dickens is known for -- quirky characters, villains and heroes, harsh justice and redemption, and plenty of humorous moments too. I found myself captivated by the story, furious at the grandfather, and full of pity for poor Little Nell. A great read.

I liked it but I think I might have ODed on Dickens, so I found this a little predictable and sentimental. What didn't help was the reader - I was listening to the audiobook - used some extremely irritating even grating voices for some of the characters which made parts of the book like listening to fingernails down a blackboard.

3 stars-

I’ll be the first to say that Dickens is one of my absolute favorite authors. Over the last few years, I’ve been making my way through all of his novels. This is the 7th that I have read, and is maybe my least favorite so far. That’s not to say that it’s bad, but I think it is one of the most disjointed.

There are glimpses of Dickens brilliance in this novel, and I think that the setup is quite promising. I think he kind of loses track of his own plot throughout the middle. The last quarter of the book had some really engaging plot threads back in London, and that bumped the book back up to three stars for me. There are passages and chunks where I remember how much I love Dickens’ writing, but the middle of this book is just not completely redeemable.

Reading his earlier works is really insightful when comparing them to his masterworks like David Copperfield and Bleak House. There’s a certain difference in tone, but it is magical to see into his mind, and a kind of raw creativity in these early novels.

If ever you wanted to love to hate a character or three, Charles Dickens delivers. Devious, malicious and nefarious are just a few kind words I can use to describe those who prey on the have nots. Dickens writes of poverty and the struggles of friends and family in the harsh world. Along the way we meet kindly people who help our heroine and heroes. A grandfather and his granddaughter. A young boy who is befriended, but also falls prey to the nefarious.

The ending is philosophical and sad, but in the end is buoyed up by happenstance. To quote the author: "And so do things pass away, like a tale that is told."

I have struggled with Dickens in the past. Not this time.

My first venture into Dickens. I've always shied away from him because he was paid by the word - I thought there would be a lot of "filler". Silly me! His characters come to life in the most wonderful way. I actually didn't care for Nell (way too much crying) or her grandfather but the rest of the characters more than made up for them. I'm looking forward to my next Dickens novel!

Pros: Cannon gay characters ("The Bachelor" is not even subtle, Mr. Dickens), poor people who look weird and are not evil, good people who do kinda horrible things (which is pretty complex for Chuck, in my experience), hardcore ladies who actually get to be hardcore (Sally Brass 4 Ever)

Cons: he's-deformed-so-he's-evil, seriously I'm not sure what the plot or point of this book was, it rambled on SO MUCH, and most importantly, unlike previous good-yet-poor-kids-growing-up-in-adversity (See Oliver Twist or David Copperfield), Nell is a girl and therefore must [spoiler] die [/spoiler] instead of getting to grow up to be hardcore and awesome in and of herself.