Reviews

What belongs to you by Garth Greenwell

rmontanar's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

sandpiiper's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

rmperezpadilla's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent, Medical content, and Alcoholism

gadicohen93's review against another edition

3.0

The original novella -- the first half of the book -- was deeply moving, an inevitably-broken travelogue pseudoromance that untangled the fine line of falling for someone you're paying to sleep with. The writing was subdued, evocative, hyperaware of the ways in which the smallest of human gestures and interactions can reveal deep insecurities. The main character evoked Ben Lerner's character in Leaving the Atocha Station in how separated he felt from the new European world around him and in how his inner thoughts juxtaposed with his outer interactions; he also was falling in a love that approximated Call Me By Your Name in how surprising, foreign, and unavoidably failed it was.

Then -- a long and awful stream-of-consciousness digression in the middle about the character's Midwestern upbringing, his father's rejection of him, his sisters' damaged psyches, etc. Yawn. Why do writers feel like en media res backstory is always good? It usually reads as gratuitous filler, a diversion from the pull of the concrete present to an abstract, peripheral, unwanted past.

The last third -- Mitko's fall from grace, nod to one Balkan neighbor -- was also prolonged (I am not especially interested in reading accounts of STD testing horror stories in post-Soviet states), but at least returned to the same observant and delicate voice of the first third. It was quite sad, but also echoed the hollowness of the romance.

I can't wait for the author to write about a real love someday, without all the childhood digressions.

shortsmarts's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

bren17's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

kkdelrey's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

6/5

creiland17's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

3.5

silver_lining_in_a_book's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

 

Love isn’t just a matter of looking at someone, I think now, but also of looking with them, of facing what they face.

Gorgeous writing, but was not the right time for me to read this. I will be updating my thoughts following a reread in the future. 

alicja_p's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.0