Reviews - Prachtige wereld, waar ben je

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31.5k reviews for:

Prachtige wereld, waar ben je

Sally Rooney

3.7 AVERAGE

taytay_h's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

pikku_pupu's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

i adored this, as i have everything sally rooney has written (only conversations with friends left to read), yet i also understand why a lot of people dislike this book and why it might be the least popular of her works.

1. the characters. i can't say i necessarily loved the characters, except for simon, with whom i fell in love. he was honestly the sweetest, hottest man. felix grossed me out at times, and at other times, especially in group settings, he was a breath of fresh air, bringing a sense of honesty and snarkiness to the others' avoidance. i both loved and hated alice and eileen, and it varied with whom i was more on board with. i suppose it's alice, because eileen's poor communication and decision making skills annoyed me. even though i didn't wholeheartedly love the characters as much as i did in intermezzo, i still enjoyed following their story and grew to care for them. i'd probably be fond of reading about any relationship rooney would write about, since she does it with such intricate detail and vulnerability. however, i understand why some people didn't like this book because of the characters. i suppose there is less potential for them to be liked than in her other books.

2. the writing style and format. i had heard prior to reading this that the book would be in email format. well, i assumed the whole book would be that. i thought, okay, let's give it a try. in reality, every other chapter is an email, but those chapters are significantly shorter, like five pages, compared to the chapters written in third person, observing the characters like a fly on the wall. i really liked this. it worked really well to have an unknown narrator who didn't know the characters, and then to get a personal account from alice and eileen during their emails. it was a fun experiment, but i can see how the emails might have thrown people off the story at times.

3. being pretentiously philosophical. i like pretentious philosophical discussions, since i think about those kind of things a lot myself, and have similar conversations. a lot of people don't like this in a book though, especially if they're expecting a love story like normal people, not taking a stand on societal matters. while i enjoyed this aspect, i still wish the connection between the relationships and the societal discussions had been more fleshed out. a couple of times i couldn't help but think that the emails were a little bit too pretentious for my taste. it felt unrealistic that these two women would actually write these profound, long texts to each other, only briefly mentioning their relationships, compared to their day to day life, where they would basically only focus on their relationship struggles.

i suppose i was left wanting a bit more from the story and therefore it'll "only" be four and a half stars. but this was great, it gave me the things i've learned to expect and love in a rooney novel: intimate descriptions of relationships, interesting characters and feeling a whole range of emotions.