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_maia3_'s review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Find Me is arranged in multiple parts, with the first two being the longest by far. These deal with Samuel’s new love who is a much younger woman, and Elio’s new love, a much older man. I was able to buy into Samuel’s story as a “sometimes you find love in odd places” since the characters seemed to have some chemistry, but Elio and Michel had exactly none, and it was at this point that I grew tired of the age gap relationship trope this book seems to rely on.
Whilst in parts a beautifully reflective piece on time, death, the “correct path” in life and most notably, ageing, it was overshadowed by what felt like a compulsive need to write in an unconventional love story. The strength of CMBYN was the fact that the sex seemed intimate and earned, here it is superfluous. However, once the book moves onto Oliver it gets stronger as we get a glimpse of his life still haunted by the Italian Rivera. Unfortunately, the book ends not long after.
This isn’t really a continuation of Elio and Oliver so much as a reminder that life isn’t a straight line, time is a loop, and that life is too short to stay unhappy (with random unconvincing love stories thrown in).
Whilst in parts a beautifully reflective piece on time, death, the “correct path” in life and most notably, ageing, it was overshadowed by what felt like a compulsive need to write in an unconventional love story. The strength of CMBYN was the fact that the sex seemed intimate and earned, here it is superfluous. However, once the book moves onto Oliver it gets stronger as we get a glimpse of his life still haunted by the Italian Rivera. Unfortunately, the book ends not long after.
This isn’t really a continuation of Elio and Oliver so much as a reminder that life isn’t a straight line, time is a loop, and that life is too short to stay unhappy (with random unconvincing love stories thrown in).
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: War, Antisemitism, Dementia, Death of parent, and Infidelity
stevia333k's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
Let's just say on somethings that my taste hasn't been good. Like I read a book review on Goodreads about "the bookseller's boyfriend" that pointed out so many negative aspects of that book which I agree with but hadn't caught on to & my review was like this book is cozy this book is blah blah blah, so when I give this 4 stars, know it could easily be 1 star. My distress level is chronically high. (I've learned about the day I wrote this review that the name for this level of distress is "numbing".)
I listened to this book at triple speed. There was an interview at the end that mentioned armie hammer as Oliver, so that's interesting. Also the author said they wanted a mercenary approach to writing.
This book is severely amatonormative (which is literally in the name quite) and even uses queer sense of time to say the time dimension doesn't exist. I partly read this book so I could get more insight on how amatonormativity works & also to find out what happened to these people because I thought basically everyone except Elio was dead at the end of "call me by your name".
That being said, I think this book did a better job at exploring amatonormative grief than "call me by your name" did. Like the first book felt like trying to get more historical context for a fictional book, because it just felt like there was a lot of trauma that happened. Cbmyn is a very WTF kind of book. This book felt more grounded & comfortable with the grief even though it used queer time for essentialist instead of existentialist analysis.
That being said the Holocaust is explored in this book, because the 3 men are Jewish, so the grief of losing information about the dead... Ugh, just, that's the part that made me sob my ass off.
I listened to this book at triple speed. There was an interview at the end that mentioned armie hammer as Oliver, so that's interesting. Also the author said they wanted a mercenary approach to writing.
This book is severely amatonormative (which is literally in the name quite) and even uses queer sense of time to say the time dimension doesn't exist. I partly read this book so I could get more insight on how amatonormativity works & also to find out what happened to these people because I thought basically everyone except Elio was dead at the end of "call me by your name".
That being said, I think this book did a better job at exploring amatonormative grief than "call me by your name" did. Like the first book felt like trying to get more historical context for a fictional book, because it just felt like there was a lot of trauma that happened. Cbmyn is a very WTF kind of book. This book felt more grounded & comfortable with the grief even though it used queer time for essentialist instead of existentialist analysis.
That being said the Holocaust is explored in this book, because the 3 men are Jewish, so the grief of losing information about the dead... Ugh, just, that's the part that made me sob my ass off.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Grief, Racism, Incest, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Antisemitism, Blood, Death, War, and Abandonment
Moderate: Alcohol, Dementia, and Domestic abuse
offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Incest, Antisemitism, and Homophobia
Minor: Death, Dementia, and War
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