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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Why is this book so popular? The characters are dull, the writing is pretentious, and the prose is clinical and has a lack of emotion. There's also too much kinky sex.
I agree with Rooney's views on class and capitalism, which is why I rated this two stars instead of one.
I agree with Rooney's views on class and capitalism, which is why I rated this two stars instead of one.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
instead of a proper book review you are just going to get all of my comments i wrote in the margins without context. enjoy!
- this word triggers the ick for me
- wow! thank you for telling & not showing us, sally!
- so quirky and unique
- fluid shifting between 2 povs...interesting
- nice. way to make your novel dated.
- oh, ew.
- is this supposed to be funny or cute or something? it's just weird.
- who uses this language in casual conversation?
- great.
- nice. really needed to know that.
- wait, seriously? she's just talking, dude. come on.
- WHO TALKS LIKE THIS
- this just reeks of millennial
- me trying to reach the word count
- look, i get that it's email, but does it have to be so formal? y'all are besties!
- she is literally so privileged tho,
- why, why is this so clinical and soulless.
- this is legit reading like one of my psych textbooks
- bitch, i know. i took a whole college class on this.
- check. your. goddamn. privilege.
- and he doesn't have to.
- GET OVER IT. CHRIST.
- why does she randomly go into excruciating detail about the most boring, basic things. like, yeah. we know what a nametag looks like.
- okay, nice way to set the scene. like, genuinely, this is ok.
- referring to us as "the gays" in the good year of our lord 2022? wild.
- brutal.
- i think it's because you're just pretentious tbh.
- because then it stops being ✨relatable✨
- hey, so a lot of people read novels because they want to escape reality. how has she not realized that.
- well, at least she's kinda self-aware.
- girl just say app. oh my God.
- again, what's the point of describing something so obvious that everyone's already painfully familiar with? WHY.
- huh. i didn't completely hate that.
- love it when you tell-don't-show, babes!
- this is drier than my sex life (i am ace)
- girl have you like...never been to church before. people generally act normal.
- ok. she's so real for this
- the shower liner...
- um. did not need to know that
- good Lird i never thought i would find a sex scene to be so static & boring.
- girl what is this sentence formatting
- oh good Lord how does she make such a sensual scene so boring
- ok other than the mediocre bland sex scene, this was okay
- oh hell, not another letter chapter...
- hm. maybe i should complain before every letter section. this one was actually very nice. really spoke to me. didn't expect that.
- no... :( must every chapter need a sexual scene in it?
- christ. you ruined it. thanks.
- eh. could be worse. at least she doesn't skirt around terms using flowery language or wha'ever
- wow. very poetic.
- i think that's just a you problem
- she adds new characters but then barely introduces them! love that
- oh so you can do show-don't-tell
- why are we sounding so business formal again good lird
- mm. yummy microplastics! :)
- exactly.
- WHO CARES i certainly don't :) ♡
- oh, come on why.
- i really wish she could've fleshed out these characters more so i could actually care about them...
- you're best friends, not colleagues. why do you type like this to each other!
- yes. aesthetic attraction does exist
- fall in love in what way? the superficial romantic definition, or on a deeper, more abstract level?
- i create fictional lives to escape my own—i wouldn't say it's a bad option at all. i adore pouring pieces of myself in characters and fleshing them out, putting them in Situations
- WOW. great detail.
- gee, thanks for telling me exactly how they feel. very cool.
- hm. not totally vibin' with the sentence structure here. choppy and not in a good way. feels incomplete.
- i feel like this is just trying too hard to be "deep."
- again, what is with such awkwardly fragmented sentences? why!
- these two cardboard men are indistinguishable in tone. i keep forgetting which one is speaking.
- sometimes the "deeper" topics/dialogue feels natural. sometimes it doesn't, and this is definitely the latter :(
- girl. stop with these Fucking Fragments
- i know they have WAY better things to talk about than their Cardboard Men.
- came for the existential themes, stayed for- wait no dragged along for the uh..gossip 'n shit
- oh, ew
- dude i fucking hate it here.
- girl what are you yappin' about
- she includes details that don't matter and omits ones that are important. WHAT KIND OF DOG DOES HE HAVE?
- the way he texts pisses me off
- SLAY
- damn, this just like me fr!!
- this moment all felt a little disjointed and undeserved. i don't know these characters well enough for this to have much of an emotional impact.
- did we really need all this detail? no.
- huh?
did i enjoy this book? hard to say. i have a complicated relationship with rooney's writing. sometimes the existential passages HIT and i like this! other times we get high art such as "for a while they fucked and said nothing." it really was fun to interact with the text like this, though.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Sad that I don't really like this book but I just cant get around her writing style. But the book perfectly summed up how it felt losing control of your life in your 30s.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love Sally Rooney’s writing style, which is most of the reason for the 4/5 stars. Unfortunately, the characters in this book mostly felt like ratbags who wouldn’t talk openly to one another, instead postulating endlessly about human nature. They would all have benefited from some decent therapy (but then there would be no story…)
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of those books that doesn't have much of a plot and has fairly unlikeable characters. I listened to the audiobook and was compulsively drawn to keep reading. Even as I wasn't sure i was enjoying it. Very good narration, probably wouldn't be as compelling of a story without the actors injecting some life into the characters.
i sped through this book and it got me out of my reading slump but the last two chapters were insufferable
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes