Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Exciting Times

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

46 reviews

kajasversion's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

4.0

A very interesting character exploration, I really liked the story and the way the characters were written. I am a bit confused about the ending, but I would read it again.

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c1audia's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.5

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ariana3's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad 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? Yes

1.0

This sucked so bad. I finally got in the groove towards the end, but the whole book was confusing. I didn't understand what I was reading. It's an Irish author, so references, jokes, and just colloquial language was hard for me to understand. And I hated the humor (aka everything about the main character...).

Basically about a girl who hated her life at home (despite what sounds like a loving, caring family) to go teach English in Hong Kong to mix things up. She's miserable because she doesn't let people in, then finds this odd (and maybe autistic?) English banker she starts sleeping with. She ends up being a freeloader and moves into his nice ass apartment, not paying rent. She's tortured by the way he treats her, since they're basically roommates with benefits, but she's unsure if she wants more. She meets this girl, they start fucking and fall in love (turns out the main character might be bisexual or just a lesbian? Unclear), but of course the main character fucks it up because she's too scared to express her feelings and regrets and apologize. The ending is vague and ambiguous on purpose, but it could be that they get back together right as the main character is literally headed to the airport to move to Berlin with her roommate-with-benefits...so freaking stupid and childish

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sestout's review

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challenging funny reflective medium-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? Yes

3.75

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lucylou's review against another edition

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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

1.0

I feel like I’m being generous giving this book a two star rating. The main character Ava is insufferable; she’s self-centered, insecure, indecisive, and only self-aware enough to feel guilty about hurting people, but not enough to try to fix anything. I pushed through the book to get to the sapphic romance around the half-way mark, but it was not worth it. Ava is so self-absorbed that when talking about Edith she spends more time comparing herself to her. I did not feel like Ava even liked Edith as a person, let alone fell in love her. Ava seems to have no idea why Edith would be angry that

Ava had a sexual relationship with Julian and never told her about it, and instead acting like Edith wasn’t open-minded to polyamory. Like, no, you lied through your entire relationship with Edith. You are an ass.

The last third has some interesting parts, like when Ava gave us more insight into how she “actually” felt about Edith after their breakup, but for the most part this story left me unsatisfied and annoyed.
Edit: after writing this review, I knocked it down to 1 star. Every character was boring or insufferable except for Edith.

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finn_vibing's review

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emotional funny reflective sad medium-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? Yes

4.0

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alisonfaith426's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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ramreadsagain's review against another edition

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funny reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

This was amusing in a dry humour type of way, however the book is not as good as it thinks it is. It's trying to call out racism, privilege, and colonialism, while being full of unchecked stereotyping and an astounding lack of self-awareness.

I enjoyed the writing style itself, as well as Ava as a deeply-flawed, largely unlikeable narrator. But that just wasn't enough to make me care at all about what happens. Overall this lacks substance and achieves nothing.

Also, another reviewer pointed out that there is no reason for this book to take place in Hong Kong and I agree.

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annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-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

4.25

very similar to the only Sally Rooney book i've read, Normal People, (in fact, both audiobooks were read by the same person) but where i found NP depressing, i found Exciting Times *comforting*. i think it's in the narration: NP's is third-person, detached, and almost cold, while ET's is first-person, familiar, and didn't make everything feel completely futile? it helped that i related a lot, more than i would like, to the narrator 🥲 she's just like me fr. i loved her character's voice (in the literary sense, not the audiobook, though that was good too), i saw myself reflected in it a bit.
i want to talk about the ending. at first i was disappointed, asking myself how the author could think that's a good place to stop. but i read it back and there's more to it:

the comparison of exiting the subway station to ascending into the clouds—heavenly, or at least stepping out of the dark and into the light. and to spot & run after Edith there? and Ava's admission to herself that she loves Edith, and that Edith changed her life… i think it says more about me that i wasn't against her moving to Frankfurt with Julian. because at least she had someone who ostensibly wanted her, and what more is there, right? but that's not what i was meant to take away. it's a little bit romcom, but chase after the person you wronged in a transit hub and get them back; don't settle for the emotionally stunted man-child. (i do actually kind of like Julian though, despite his politics [Miles is right]).

i also appreciate that the book is a vessel for talking about these things: even though you lovely storygraphians did not ask to hear any of this, it's nice to be able to express it.

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adelal's review

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reflective medium-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

3.0

This book was definitely not what I expected. While I normally love books with no plot about lost pretentious 20-somethings, this book failed to make me feel connected to the characters. Towards the end, Ava was so annoying I wondered how everyone even put up with her. Still, I enjoyed the writing and the thoughts on language, race and sexuality, and also Edith and Miles.

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