Reviews

At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill

gadicohen93's review against another edition

4.0

I hesitated to give this book four stars. For one, parts of it were incredibly hard to get through: The Irish dialect shaped the syntax and the diction in every way imaginable, and O'Neil seemed to want to investigate every character in a sometimes long-winded manner. I also felt uncomfortable when characters did or said things that pushed the boundary, that seemed uncharacteristic, that confused me. I also felt like Jim was a little boring as protagonist--sort of like Harry Potter, an aimless, hesitant, bland character, though brave. (That's not to say that his development as a person wasn't fascinating, because it was--the way he grew to accept himself was realistic and beautiful.) The sex scenes also seemed weird to me, probably because I've never encountered gay sex in literature before.

I loved Jim's relationship with Doyler. I loved the way O'Neil handled sexuality. I loved the language and I loved the characters.

The ending was what pushed me over the edge from three to four. So hard-hitting.

tracie's review against another edition

DNF. I rarely give up on a book but 120 pages in and I still haven't got a clue what I've read or what is happening I'm admitting defeat. The Irish dialect is just impenetrable and I can't care about the characters or the story. I did listen to the author reading about 30 minutes of it and it was so much better but have failed to find a audio book copy. If I ever come across a audio book of it I will try again. But for now this big book is going in the donate pile.

dlsta's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

aislingmoconnell's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad slow-paced

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

5.0

ageorgallis's review against another edition

2.0

I struggled with this book for 2 reasons, which are on me: I have little to no background on Irish history and I had a very hard time understanding the writing in this book. This novel centers around the year before the Easter Uprising, and then the year of. I had to do quite a bit of extra reading on the side to understand the context of the setting. I loved Doyler, Jim, and MacMurrough's characters, but didn't enjoy any others, and had a hard time understanding what the others brought to the story. I would have preferred the story focus on the 3 of them. Also, it was so long, which was tough for me as I was already struggling significantly with the writing style and language. I think this is a beautiful story, but so much of the beauty was lost on me due to my inability to navigate the language. 

iamcat's review

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.0

sezzaj's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

kiera_lucy's review

challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

vanillaphantoms's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

acdavid1995's review against another edition

3.25

Overall plot was enjoyable, but the stream of consciousness writing became unbearable after a while. Also, many characters and plot points just left open ended.