Book · 1988
The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho
A shepherd boy chases a recurring dream about treasure near the pyramids, and Reddit splits hard between finding the lesson profound and finding it insufferable.
What does Reddit think of The Alchemist?
The Alchemist carries the most negative scored sentiment in this batch, and the displayed excerpts don't make that a mystery. r/booksuggestions is where the knives come out: 'Quasi-mystical pseudo-allegorical hand-wavy bollocks. It's like Deepak Chopra OD'd on homeopathic LSD,' and separately, just 'jesus christ I hated The Alchemist.' r/suggestmeabook runs milder but agrees on substance, 'peppered with platitudes that did not make sense,' fit only for 'people who sell crystals at a flea market.' One commenter places it on the opposite end of a personal spectrum from Man's Search for Meaning, no elaboration needed. The most specific pushback names a direct replacement: A Psalm for the Wild-Built 'tackles many of the same topics and questions better and quicker.' A few list entries still slot it next to The Little Prince and Becoming, unbothered. Reddit clearly has a reader who loves this book. This sample is mostly not that reader.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Treated as the platitude-heavy entry point into spiritual self-help fiction
- · Regularly named as the thing to read instead of, not the thing to read
- · A dividing line between readers who find it profound and readers who find it embarrassing
- · Still shows up on gift-book and life-purpose lists despite the backlash
Common praise
- + It still gets grouped with The Little Prince and Becoming on a life-purpose reading list, unbothered by the backlash elsewhere (↑297).
- + One commenter frames it plainly as being 'about life purpose and finding your way,' no snark attached (↑297).
Common criticism
- − One r/booksuggestions commenter calls it 'quasi-mystical pseudo-allegorical hand-wavy bollocks' and compares reading it to Deepak Chopra on homeopathic LSD (↑317).
- − Another just types 'jesus christ I hated The Alchemist,' nothing else offered or needed (↑310).
- − A third calls it 'peppered with platitudes that did not make sense' and says it should only be read by 'people who sell crystals at a flea market' (↑346).
- − One reader names a direct replacement, A Psalm for the Wild-Built, and says it covers the same ground 'better and quicker' (↑197).
Who it's for
Skip this if platitudes about following your dreams make you wince, that's most of what the negative excerpts here are reacting to. Prefer your life-purpose fiction with sharper prose and a shorter page count? One commenter names A Psalm for the Wild-Built as the direct substitute. If you already love The Little Prince or Becoming, at least one list here is happy to put this alongside them without irony. And if you've ever bought crystals at a flea market, one reviewer has already decided you're the target demographic, their words, not ours.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for The Alchemist?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“Anything by Paolo Coelho. There was a time when The Alchemist was being read by just everybody around me. I found it peppered with platitudes that did not make sense, and should only be read by people who sell crystals at a flea market. Tried reading the another book of his...same.
“The Alchemist by Paul Coelho. Quasi-mystical pseudo-allegorical hand-wavy bollocks. It's like Deepak Chopra OD'd on homeopathic LSD.
“Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist I have seen it on lists and recommendations but was very underwhelmed when I read it, maybe the point went over my head but I didn't enjoy it, thought it was pointless and jumped around a lot
“{{The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho}} is overrated. I think {{A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers}} tackles many of the same topics and questions better and quicker. Both books deal with finding purpose and self discovery through some journey into the unknown.
““The Alchemist” -Paulo Coelho Does not live up to the hype. Dull and unoriginal. Journey of self discovery-I think not. “News of the World”-Paulette Jiles It is just so boring. Does anything happen at all? “Girl on the train”-Paula Hawkins Unreliable narrator is never my favorite but this one…
“Might be an unpopular opinion, but I really dislike Paulo Coelho. I read "The Alchemist" and I can't get over how the most shallow and obnoxious realizations about life get blown up into big philosophy. It's like if they made the Facebook postings of your 45year old aunt who is a lot into yoga into …
“The alchemist by Paulo Coelho. At best, it’s for seven-year-olds
“THE ALCHEMIST, by Paulo Coelho. Several friends recommended this and I now question our friendship. It's impossible to describe how bad the book is, so I'll use this 5-star Amazon review as an example of what type of person Coelho's bullsh*t might impress: Review title - "I COUDNT PUT IT DOWN" S…
“People talk about this a lot but Siddhartha by hermann Hesse is a better version of the alchemist by Paulo coelho. This one's a bit out there but I'd also say the yellow wall paper by Charlotte Gilman is better then metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. They both explore family reactions to mental health c…
“The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho have been a very big struggle for me to complete. It's like I'm stuck in a loope while reading it.
“Paulo Coelho's 'The Alchemist'. Read up to 40% of it. Just a load of 'game of luck' stupidity to give some deeper meaning to the characters. Didn't even make any point for me.
“For me any Coelho's or Ayn Rand's book (but especially _The Alchemist_ and _Atlas Shrugged_) is a huge red flag. So is _Fifty Shades of Grey_, but it'd be quite unlikely to hear it on a gay date. If a guy is team Dostoevsky, I'll be ok with it, Dostoevsky's an established classic author. But I'd ra…
“The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho ​ I read it at the time everyone was reading it. Folks were saying its the most amazing life changing book ever. FFS dude has a dream, goes to egypt searching for treasure. Gets beaten up and called a fool, only to return where he started to find the treasure …
“I'll do four. Fair warning, I hate pretentious twaddle so gd much. I would read 50 Shades of Gray a million times over before I read something that's trying too hard to be profound. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho Snow - Orhan Pamuk The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce The Overstory -…
“The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I know it’s beloved by many, but it felt like fortune cookie wisdom stretched over 200 pages. kept waiting for some real depth and it just never landed for me
Convinced? Pick up The Alchemist
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with The Alchemist — counted from the comments, not curated.
The Alchemist — frequently asked
Is The Alchemist overrated, according to Reddit?+
A lot of the displayed data says yes. One r/suggestmeabook comment (↑197) calls it 'overrated' directly and names A Psalm for the Wild-Built as covering the same ground 'better and quicker.' The scored sentiment across this book's excerpts is the most negative in this dataset.
Why do people hate The Alchemist so much on Reddit?+
The sharpest version, from r/booksuggestions (↑317): 'Quasi-mystical pseudo-allegorical hand-wavy bollocks. It's like Deepak Chopra OD'd on homeopathic LSD.' A separate commenter (↑346) calls it full of platitudes 'that did not make sense' and jokes it's for 'people who sell crystals at a flea market.'
Is The Alchemist worth reading if I've already read Man's Search for Meaning?+
One commenter (↑560) places the two at opposite ends of a personal spectrum without saying which end is better, just that they don't sit near each other. That's the only displayed comparison between the two, and it doesn't resolve the question either way.
What should I read instead of The Alchemist?+
A Psalm for the Wild-Built, according to one r/suggestmeabook commenter (↑197), who argues it handles 'many of the same topics and questions better and quicker.' That's the most specific alternative named in the displayed data.