Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Talking at Night by Claire Daverley

4 reviews

murderousscottishgremlin's review

emotional reflective medium-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

A poignant narrative and some beautiful prose. However, the Rooney-esque lack of speech marks did annoy me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death

Moderate: Eating disorder, Suicide, Cancer, and Infidelity

bella_cavicchi's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This has my name written all over it, Daverley's stunning, understated writing the clear highlight. It feels particularly resonant when questions of what one (I) wants to do in life, à la Mary Oliver, weigh heavily.

Recommend, and with pleasure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Death, Sexual content, Infidelity, Cancer, and Medical content

Moderate: Eating disorder, Body shaming, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Abandonment, and Alcoholism

Minor: Pregnancy

rhi_'s review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

reads_eats_explores's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

One cold November night, teenagers Will and Rosie meet while sitting around a bonfire, surrounded by their school friends, including Rosie’s twin brother and Will’s good friend, Josh. 

This is a story as old as time – the overprivileged, shy, straight-A girl who falls for the achingly handsome, wrong-sides-of-the-track bad boy. 

But maybe as we follow Will and Rosie on their ‘will they/won’t they’ journey, things will not be quite as they seem.

Talking at Night begins in a small Norfolk town in the 1990s and is split into three parts entitled ‘before’, ‘after’, and ‘long after’, and as the book unravels, we learn about the shared traumas that give reason behind these headings.

The book overall felt very YA in narrative style, and I suppose 20-year-old me would lap this up; 40-year-old me wanted a grittier read that I could really get my teeth into.

Saying that, I did enjoy the read and found it nostalgia inducing and highly immersive (a book to binge in one or two long lazy sittings) once I got over my initial irritation with Rosie, much preferring Wills's point of view and backstory. I'll certainly read more from this author in future; this is undoubtedly a solid debut. 3.5⭐

Many thanks to the author and publisher for this advance copy. As always, this is an honest review.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Classism, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Addiction, Violence, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Vomit, Abandonment, Car accident, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Gore, Alcohol, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Death of parent, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship