Brutal vs Wild Swans: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Américains d'origine irlandaise, Irish Americans, Social conditions, Biography & Memoir
Brutal
I grew up in the Old Colony housing project in South Boston and became partners with James "Whitey" Bulger, who I always called Jimmy.Jimmy and I, we were unstoppable. We took what we wanted. And we made people…
vs
Wild Swans
"Jung Chang vividly evokes China's sights, sounds, and smells to create what must be one of the grimmest, yet most perceptive accounts of growing up middle-class in the maelstrom that has swept China since the 1920s." -…
The verdict
- Readers rate Wild Swans highest: Wild Swans 4.3 · Brutal 3.9.
- Brutal is the quickest read — about 5 hours vs 13 for Wild Swans.
- Wild Swans has the widest readership — 128589 ratings behind its score.
- Wild Swans runs the darker storyline; Brutal stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Brutal | Wild Swans | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | — | 4.3 (128589) |
| Hardcover | 4.0 (3) | 4.3 (104) |
| Apple Books | — | 4.5 (187) |
Reception
| Brutal | Wild Swans | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 3 | 128589 |
| Editions | 7 | 72 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 161756 |
| Reading it now | — | 9161 |
| Written reviews | — | 8970 |
| Wikipedia attention | 159 | 5578 |
| Pages | 304 | 729 |