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mals_library's review against another edition
Graphic: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Vomit
Minor: Death of parent, Misogyny, Blood, Terminal illness, Body shaming, Excrement, Child death, and Rape
gabi_sud's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I thought it was very beautifully written, the raw and real emotions Elio felt, I could very much relate to things he was going through. However, even putting the age gap aside, the relationship between Elio and Oliver was very predatory from both sides?? The amount of times Elio had thoughts about SA’ing Oliver? And many time he acted on those thoughts, touching him without consent. The time he thought about disabling him so he could be his master?? And obviously Oliver is no better even through we don’t know his thoughts but the peach scene alone was a good indicator of how sick in the head he is as well.
I wonder how people that view this as a beautiful love story would feel if one of them was a woman?
Also what the fuck was that bathroom scene. I get loving someone that much you want to be one with them, but looking at each others fecal matter is surely not the way to do it?
I truly don’t get Elio’s fascination with Oliver who might as well been a cardboard cutout cause he has just as much personality. Elio truly only desired Oliver because he was hot cause let’s be honest here, he didn’t even know him.
I’m not gonna say I didn’t enjoy the book at all, cause I’d be lying. There were parts I absolutely loved, could totally relate to Elio and his yearning for someone he can’t have but all the good parts were overshadowed by the weird and creepy stuff. Like there was truly no need for it.
And the foot fetish was driving me absolutely insane. Like not all of us are Quentin Tarantino.
The ending, however, absolutely crushed me , it was heart wrenching and really did things for me. Not sure how I feel about there being another book though. I feel like it defeats the whole point of this one.
Graphic: Sexual content and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Sexual harassment and Stalking
Minor: Terminal illness, Ableism, Child death, Racism, and Vomit
timedothwasteme's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Terminal illness and Sexual content
Minor: Death, Child death, and Death of parent
_marco_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I adored this book. At once simplistic yet poetic, Aciman’s writing conveys the complex emotions of first love (or is it something more spiritual?). First glances, growing desire, to denial, shame, guilt, followed by acceptance, friendship, romance, and all the transitional thoughts and feelings in between were rendered with such perfect clarity that I could have mistaken them for my own. Maybe they were, and this story put into words what I had never been able to do myself.
He was my secret conduit to myself—like a catalyst that allows us to become who we are, the foreign body, the pacer, the graft, the patch that sends all the right impulses, the steel pin that keeps a soldier’s bone together, the other man’s heart that makes us more us than we were before the transplant.
I’ve read a lot of literary books, but Aciman’s light and airy narration is my personal favourite. Thorough psychological descriptions and minimal dialogue propel the story very well, and subtle wordplay and recurring afterthoughts create layers of meaning in every sentence. Even his descriptions of place—the Villa, Rome—are rendered in such a dreamy light that I pictured everything as if in a watercolour.
The Italy that Aciman presents to us is also beautiful in itself. I loved how real it was: this isn’t a tourist-washed view of the country, where people go about singing Pavarotti in the unrealistically clean and well-maintained streets of Rome. This is an Italy that is lived in, yet still beautiful, where people speak their dialects and cast judgement over a game of briscola in the languorous heat of summer. La Società dei Magnaccioni was a nice Roman touch.
Once again, I love the theme of nostalgia and ephemerality that sets the tone in the very beginning and punctuates the story beautifully at the end. Something about brief experiences in our youth that will come to shape the rest of our lives, like the tart taste of lemon that stays on your tongue… delicious.
I cannot recommend this book enough, especially to queer men. The more I think about this book, the more I can say it’s my favourite out of all I’ve read.
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Minor: Terminal illness
While Elio and Oliver’s relationship falls under the adult/minor umbrella, it wasn’t predatory or manipulative, and it was completely consensual. The author presented it in such a way that wasn’t uncomfortable or graphic at all. While I’m still unsure as to how I feel about this aspect, I definitely wasn’t triggered in a way that affected how I experienced the core of the story.bernard_black's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Moderate: Terminal illness, Vomit, Death, and Alcohol
laffi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Moderate: Body horror, Homophobia, Vomit, Terminal illness, Outing, and Alcohol
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Cancer, Child death, and Death
lavenderbluestories's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Terminal illness and Child death
sauvageloup's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
pros:
- beautiful language, beautiful dialogue that I definitely want to read again. a rawness to the expressions and a lack of concern with moralising.
- elio is much more complicated and contradictory in the book, he wants so badly and doesn't shy from portraying that in the book, even if the character isnt always so brave.
- a poignant reminder about not being afraid of seizing your desires, no matter the difficulty or taboo or opinions of others. that people grow and change and die but some experiences can be so powerful.
- the film had a much less controversial or deep view than the book, which had elio acting hot and cold and cruelly at times, and Oliver somewhat the same, which made me like the characters less perhaps, but also added a much more human element. also, the end is far richer in how it stretches into the future, though it's very sad.
- I liked the exploration of different seasons of life, the burning spark of youth, the deeper, longer burn later on. and the depiction of memory, since elio has moments he remembers better, and Oliver adds details that illuminate bits of the story we weren't originally told. it felt more real and like a diary that way. even if it took a bit of getting used to, and irked slightly at the start when I just wanted all of it, not just the bits older elio remembered.
cons:
- few cons included above
- I did feel less compassion towards the early characters perhaps because of the on and off, the lack of communication. but this is understandable and I didnt hold it against them as the book progressed.
- I didnt agree with how little joy Oliver seemed to get from his future life, nor elio really. to call living with his wife and children a coma seemed cruel.
- the lack of important female characters is a real shame. the women who are there are for sex and to fulfil society's expectations of a picket fence life and little else. even elio's mother really has a very little role compared to his father. the other female characters are just flings, the house keeper or a sick, pre-publescent girl. while I understand the nature of the book is to focus on elio and Oliver's relationship, the lack of value given to relationships with women, platonic or romantic, and the lack of loyalty they seem to inspire was noticeable. although elio does make a throwaway mention that it could have been a man or a woman who caused such a fundamental shift for him.
overall, a strong, poetic, shockingly but refreshingly intimate and raw book with beautiful depictions of lust and love.
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Terminal illness, Grief, and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, Child death, and Homophobia
jelliestars's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Cancer, Grief, Racism, Toxic relationship, Classism, and Xenophobia
Minor: Death of parent, Excrement, Rape, Drug use, Terminal illness, Antisemitism, Ableism, Cursing, Vomit, Xenophobia, Body shaming, Stalking, and Sexism
rhi_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Terminal illness and Death
Minor: Death of parent, Blood, Vomit, and Excrement