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rivareads's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I always thought this book would be a pretentious, trying to hard to be deep coming of age story, but now I know for sure it's a pretentious, trying to hard to be deep coming of age story.
I honestly just finished because it has the right amount of literary quality under all the pretentiousness and the perfect pacing to be read in waiting rooms.
The characters are deep down flawed in a way that makes them truly unlikable, shallow and tonal. The character driven conflict is completely circular, which destroys any chance of character development. The inner conflict goes in circles and it's kind of hard to believe a 50 year old who was a therapist would still react the same way has she would when she was a teen. The characters are very black and white up until the point they are made to be morally grey, which fails and makes them dull. These people never actually develop anything, they a re always recycling the same things they felt when they were teens.
The truly remarkable thing about this book is how shallowly it addresses controversial and heavy topics such as sexual assault and AIDS. These are treated like things to add to the plot and create a dramatic moment. there's no deep conversation about the consequences of sexual assault and how it affected a young girl. Instead all is presented in a careless and even tacky way. "so this happened because it's a good plot point and made this guy, who is very cute by the way, did we mention that?, only 200 times , run away to Iceland and fullfil his tragic descent into a degenerate "
It runs in circles to nowhere and it is as pretentious as you'd think about a group of people who titled themselves the interestings.
I honestly just finished because it has the right amount of literary quality under all the pretentiousness and the perfect pacing to be read in waiting rooms.
The characters are deep down flawed in a way that makes them truly unlikable, shallow and tonal. The character driven conflict is completely circular, which destroys any chance of character development. The inner conflict goes in circles and it's kind of hard to believe a 50 year old who was a therapist would still react the same way has she would when she was a teen. The characters are very black and white up until the point they are made to be morally grey, which fails and makes them dull. These people never actually develop anything, they a re always recycling the same things they felt when they were teens.
The truly remarkable thing about this book is how shallowly it addresses controversial and heavy topics such as sexual assault and AIDS. These are treated like things to add to the plot and create a dramatic moment. there's no deep conversation about the consequences of sexual assault and how it affected a young girl. Instead all is presented in a careless and even tacky way. "so this happened because it's a good plot point and made this guy, who is very cute by the way, did we mention that?, only 200 times , run away to Iceland and fullfil his tragic descent into a degenerate "
It runs in circles to nowhere and it is as pretentious as you'd think about a group of people who titled themselves the interestings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Terminal illness, and Sexual assault
greenbeangal's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
fast-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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Rape
Moderate: Mental illness and Drug abuse
Minor: Racism, Ableism, and Antisemitism
andrewjbank's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
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
3.25
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault
mandeyzing's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Death, Chronic illness, Cancer, and Addiction
oliviastewart716's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A bizarre exploration of problematic characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Rape and Drug use
amberlc's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault
annacochran's review against another edition
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sometimes you just need to read a story about the intertwined lives of fictional people, it’s as simple as that.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness and Sexual assault
Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Racism, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Ableism, and Adult/minor relationship
qi_'s review
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
i think reading/listening to this at the current point in my life was interesting because i am in between both the stages that the book explores, young teenager (13-14) to adult (30+). i relate to the aspirational side of them when they were at the summer camp but still understand the realities of life (i would like to believe). i understand why people wouldn't like it (because a lot of the reviews i have seen were not favourable) since we're following pretentious, privileged, tALENTED teenagers living their best new york lives and at many points feeling sorry for themselves; i mean..wISH IT WAS ME.
yes, the characters were pety, annoying, pretentious, jealous and contradictory but, real people are assholes too. so, i think that was the whole point of it and is what made is so realistic. either way the things that it explored: dreams vs reality, the dynamics of envy in friendships, how big tragic life events can change a person and their relationships, class and just the development of life and relationships over time, were really interesting and well fleshed out.
when big events came into the plot (not saying for the sake of spoilers), i found it so interesting to see how this could change the dynamics within these relationships.
as for the audiobook, not much to say other than i liked how the narrator committed to the voices (male and female), definitely helped with distinguishing between characters.
when meg wolizter addressed ash's response to cathy's rape i was so relieved lmao. it was irking me and im glad that it was revisited at the end. she is this "feminist" character yet completely failed to consider that her brother could have actually done something. it was a really interesting element to bring into the plot and i loved seeing how everything played out. okay enough ranting
yes, the characters were pety, annoying, pretentious, jealous and contradictory but, real people are assholes too. so, i think that was the whole point of it and is what made is so realistic. either way the things that it explored: dreams vs reality, the dynamics of envy in friendships, how big tragic life events can change a person and their relationships, class and just the development of life and relationships over time, were really interesting and well fleshed out.
when big events came into the plot (not saying for the sake of spoilers), i found it so interesting to see how this could change the dynamics within these relationships.
as for the audiobook, not much to say other than i liked how the narrator committed to the voices (male and female), definitely helped with distinguishing between characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, and Death of parent
jgrimm's review
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
Although not too graphic, sexual assault is a big plot point in this book and the way characters discuss it could feel insensitive and potentially triggering. However, it's fairly clear that the characters are in the wrong in the way they view the situation, and eventually their views change.serendipitysbooks's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
This is a story about a group of friends who first met as teens one year at summer camp. They believe they are special and vow to always live interesting lives. Yet their adult lives do not play out as they anticipated, something I’m sure many readers can relate to. I did find the characters to be fairly self-absorbed and self-important. I can have limited patience with that sort of book. Luckily I hadn’t read one for a while was able to enjoy this.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer and Sexual assault