Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Beautiful World, Where Are You

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

7 reviews

cassiefowler's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

This book essentially touched on every aspect of my character development from my late teens through present day. It was devastatingly comforting and relatable - the way it was written felt like my inner monologue. Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized by Sally Roony’s literary characters emulating your deepest personality defects🖐️🫡😌😎

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shann32's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-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

3.25

This book fell unfortunately flat for me. The characters were mediocre, some downright unlikeable. There wasn't much plot to the story, which I guess was probably intentional, but I kept waiting for something to happen, and it just never did. It was disappointing that one of the main relationships in the story was toxic and manipulative, but there was no narrative around that dynamic and no real character development around that.
Some of the prose in the emails between the two characters is reflexive and relatable.
I wasn't a fan of some of the writing style of lists and run-on sentences.

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pasteli's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

This is my second Sally Rooney book because I'm trying to understand the hype. By the end of this book, my indifference has turned to outright dislike.

Sally Rooney is Taylor Swift for readers.

Blah, boring, overhyped, need I say more?

She seems to feel the need to comment about communism in each of her books that I've read, but in a way that makes me suspect she learned about it through instagram accounts instead of reading political theory. She keeps saying 'communism would work but we're all too busy trying to fuck each other for it to be realistic' (not a direct quote, what she implies in her writing). Suffice to say its a very white privilege, first world, white feminism understanding of a political ideology. Plus, her characters that claim to be communist never engage in politics! They claim membership for moral superiority and to appear like a good person. Barf.

I also need to address her "queer" characters. Yes, I put it in quotes. Because her queer characters are written like the straightest cishets I've ever encountered. Maybe they're suffering from internalized homophobia, maybe Sally is writing characters with these traits to gain social justice points. I suspect it's the latter, and her point of discussing communism falling under the same reasoning.

Also, the sexual dynamics in this book...big oof. *CW SEXUAL ASSAULT*
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At one point a female character moves a male character's hand to her throat and asks him to choke and hit her, and then when the male character is disturbed by it says she doesn't even know why she did that? Like bro, WHAT. There's also this female character's obsession about being his wife and how she would take care of him and clean the house and fuck him good when he comes home... it's all veeeery patriarchal and there's no exploration as to why she may feel that way/feel inclined to serve the patriarchy. She says she feels comforted when he takes control and wishes that he would control her whole life because it makes her feel safe. Needless to say this girl has a lot of problems and it's written in a way that doesn't really present it as problematic.

If I had to give Sally a complement, I'd say this: Sally Rooney is excellent at writing unlikeable, dare I say hateable characters. So if hate reading is your thing, this author may appeal to you. But personally I'm going to return to reading things that have literary value.

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abmochapman's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-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

4.25

Sally Rooney always manages to write beautifully intricate relationships that, though often messy, are so compelling. I am thankful for this look into the lives of these four characters as they navigate love, sex, friendship, work, and the world around them.

What I appreciate most about Beautiful World, though, is the tension it allows between the contemporary novel and the impending collapse of civilization (at least as we know it). The conversations between these friends are so insightful as they give space to some of our generation’s most pressing thoughts from morality and aesthetics to climate change and global capitalism.

I’m not sure if I can say that I’m completely satisfied with its ending, but this book definitely feels like a one to which I will have to return.

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