The Two Doctors Górski

A lovely little novella about the evils of academia, this is a lovely answer to all of the weird self-obsession that tends to come with the dark academia genre. At no point does the novel glorify the horrors professors often put their students through, the obsession, the anxiety; it holds a mirror up to the selfish thrill of self-annihilation and asks us to care for ourselves before our careers, because that is so much harder and so much more painful.

4.5 stars. I loved the concepts and the writing, although the ending felt somewhat abrupt. I would've liked to know even just a bit more about Annae's work and life during the time lapse. Still, as is, the ending does come full circle in its way. I expect I'll be mulling over the pieces for a while yet.

This novella was a brilliant concept that was somewhat lacking in execution. It falls into the trap I sometimes have with novellas - this being fleshed out more could have made it brilliant. But besides length, there were other problems. The main thing being that the main character's primary movement throughout the story is to sit in a room alone and listen to people's thoughts. It made for very boring reading. Then all of a sudden, a bunch of ridiculous shit happens at the end that feels unearned and poorly elaborated on, and then its over. I also don't think the concept of the two doctors was fleshed out in a believable way. Which is a shame because the central idea - that someone could remove all the unwanted parts of themselves and put them into a clone - is awesome.