Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Call Me by Your Name

I don't even know how to describe this book. The prose is absolutely stunning, incandescent... though, contrary to the back page's bold declaration, I would not call this a love story lmao

I would advise readers to research this book thoroughly and read the content warnings beforehand as many descriptions are quite graphic and uncomfortable to read.

Content Warnings

bardic_llama's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

0.25

While there’s a plot, it has no substance. It’s pedophilia disguised as a teen’s first summer fling that ends in heartbreak because they were never meant to be in the first place. And it feels as if the queer aspects of it were to hide the pedophilia. Even though I hated Lolita due to how intimately you get to know Herbert Herbert’s thoughts, I’d rather torture myself by rereading that.

Lastly, this could be due to the amount of horror stuff but Élio had the potential to be a yandere and even though I knew from the get-go that wouldn’t be happened, I’m disappointed that it didn’t go in that direction.

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thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

finishing this book is like waking up from a stupor, one where my heart has been ripped out and ive been punched in the gut in the process. call me by your name is a devastating story of love and loss, bone-deep aching and longing and desire and shame and fear and an unbreakable bond forged during an unbelievably idyllic, languid summer. the language is simple yet lucid and breathlessly stirring--it was as if i was elio himself--the setting and mood are superb, and the book's final part is a treasure. never has a book been so masterfully, acutely aware of all the ways we second-guess and subtly manipulate, all the heady push-and-pull we maneuver to draw out others or to protext ourselves, yet this is such an affecting, evocative, heartbreaking read.

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laurenleigh's review against another edition

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emotional reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

I found this beautiful, poignant, and heartbreaking in a strangely satisfying way, for a number of reasons. There’s a catharsis in reliving your first love, in all its intensity and eagerness and doomed fate, as it must almost inevitably make room for a second, third, fourth love. There’s also a certain happiness to be found in watching a young person feel ALL the feelings, compared to your older self, who still has a lot of feelings of course, but has the gift of perspective. Lastly, I derive a twisted pleasure when a book can break my heart. That black squiggles on a page or a string of sounds can bring about rich, unfettered emotion is a never-ending marvel to me. I really want to reread this in print sometime, to better sit with Aciman’s language. I also, unsurprisingly, want to rewatch the movie for the umpteenth time. I actually can’t decide if I like the movie or the book better, which is rare. If anything, I appreciate the movie even more now. The acting, the directing, the soundtrack…ah they were all so perfectly encapsulating of the text. I think the one and only thing missing from the movie is some of the nuances regarding Elio’s bisexuality. Not that Elio ever pins down or puts words to how he identifies, but the book just illustrates this element of Elio a bit better.

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