Reflection of Mrs. Dalloway

If I had to rate this book from 1-10, I would give it a 6.5. In my opinion, it wasn't great but it also wasn't horrible. I grew to like it more and more as I read this book, but at the beginning it was a challenge. I think that anything that is challenging is good for a person because it pushes them, so I think that even though I didn't enjoy this book that much, it was good because I was challenged. I liked Woolf's stream of consciousness writing style, but I wish it was only for 1 character because the transitions were often hard to follow. I also felt that there were too many characters as I struggled to remember names, especially at the party. There wasn't the typical rising action and climax and falling action in this book, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I like having a climax in the book because the book builds to an event, but I also appreciate how this book was different by not having that. My favorite character was definitely Septimus, because I found his stream of consciousness interesting. I thought he was different than all of the rest of the characters because of his PTSD.
I was extremely underwhelmed at the end of this book though. I thought the party would be much more interesting, but it seemed like it was just a description of different characters. It may only seem this was because of the stream of consciousness writing, because it's like Clarissa viewing all of the people walking in, but I thought the party would have a plot twist or a surprise.
I also thought this book reminded me of "The Great Gatsby" because of the party and the theme of love. Though they were written in different styles, they still had similar themes.
There are several questions I still have about the book though...
Why was it titled "Mrs. Dalloway"? Does that mean Mrs. Dalloway was the most important character in the book?
Does Clarissa still love Peter, or does she just love the past? Does Peter love Clarissa?
I didn't like the plot of this book, I often found it dull and uninteresting. But I did like that it was so different than any other book I read because of the writing style and the literary devices she uses.
If I was Woolf and writing this book, I would've added something to signal the transition between characters thoughts, like white space or asterisks. I also would have had more character development but less characters, so that the reader is not overwhelmed with character names and the main characters can have more depth. Lastly, I would've added a plot twist or climax, maybe have Peter do something drastic at the party like have him do something with his knife? Sometimes the book seemed boring because of the lack of action, so throwing something in there like that would've interested the reader more.
Like I said earlier, I did appreciate this book because of Woolf's style and techniques, but overall I didn't like the story line, so therefore it's only rated 6.5/10.