Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

386 reviews

bowelhaus's review against another edition

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

3.75

Funny and full of drama. The characters feel like real people and you’re the normal friend listening to them tell you how they’re fucking up their lives.
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lumew2's review against another edition

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

4.0

idk how i started liking the characters by the end but i did. good god. 
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manukahoney_reads's review against another edition

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

5.0

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seventhswan's review against another edition

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reflective medium-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? Yes

3.75

Hot take, definitely never posted by anyone before: Sally Rooney is an excellent writer. Her observational and descriptive skills are really like no-one else, and Conversations with Friends was no exception - I didn't want to put this book down, and got the same sense of being acutely seen that I always do from her writing. 

That said, this was definitely my least-favourite book of Rooney's three currently-published novels. In Normal People and Beautiful World, I liked or at least sympathised with the main characters; here I spent most of the book actively hating them, and Frances' voice grated on me throughout. This still represents considerable skill in writing, and I'm not averse to an unlikeable narrator in the slightest, but it did weaken my emotional investment in most of the story.

Or so I thought, until I got to the final chapter, and promptly threw the book at the wall, which is not something I believed people actually did until now. Have I been Frances? Absolutely! Did that make me want to give her head a wobble any less? Absolutely not!

Overall, then, I wouldn't say I enjoyed CwF in the same way that I got genuine delight from parts of Normal People and Beautiful World, but I'm glad I read it, even if a lot of what I liked about it was the smug self-satisfaction that I'm Not Frances Any More.
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alexandradogbe's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective

4.75

aahhhhhhhh
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vannahcabana's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

This book follows Frances’ journey as a young college student. This book is not what I thought it was when I picked it up. However, it’s not terrible, but I didn’t think it was great. A great deal of intimate moments throughout that I personally didn’t think were necessary to the storyline. 
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jeffgoldblumsbeats's review

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3.5

ack once again sally rooney exposes my inability to deal with conflict even in character form - well written, hard to read
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nineinchnails's review against another edition

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emotional 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

5.0

frances was painfully relatable and i really loved her despite all the secondhand embarrassment and frustration. i definitely came out of it confused and conflicted on how to feel about nick but at least i don’t completely loathe him! for now this is tied with normal people but i’m not sure if it’ll measure up beyond the short term since i really loved normal people.
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withlivjones's review against another edition

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reflective 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? Yes

4.5

My first time reading a Sally Rooney book didn’t disappoint! This is a powerful debut that perfectly reflects what it means to be in your early twenties: making a lot of bad decisions. I would probably find Frances (the protagonist) insufferable if I didn’t relate to her so damn much, from her tendency to close off and snap at people when given the opportunity to be vulnerable, to her having a panic attack about the inevitable heat death of the universe. Books like this can be difficult to read because the main characters show us the worst parts of ourselves, the parts that we don’t necessarily want to address. Every single character is complex and flawed and very interesting. Sally Rooney’s writing is incredible, she has a very “show don’t tell” approach with a focus on the small details that make up the big picture. I do feel like the book could’ve been a little shorter as it lost steam a bit in the final chapters, but I really enjoyed my first venture into her novels and I look forward to reading more! 
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theliteraryteapot's review against another edition

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fast-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I have absolutely zero tolerance when it comes to adultery so obviously this was not a book for me. Yes, I understand the characters are meant to be very flawed and all that stuff, okay and then what? What do we do with this and them? Because it certainly didn't feel like any of them grew out of this, they seem stuck and there's barely a sign for a future character development. They all need therapy.
Add to that, as someone who grew up in the countryside, coming from a half-romani family, not rich, not bourgeois, with poor access to culture and literature, reading this book about privileged white rich and bourgeois (plus shitty and not genuine) people felt weird and useless. Their supposed political ideas felt so very performative.

On the endometriosis aspect, as I have the disease, I can't judge much because it can manifest in many different ways from one person to another. The only thing (maybe I'm nitpicking here), is that no you don't necessarily need a surgery to confirm a diagnosis, an mri scan is enough. And no, endometriosis is not just painful periods and infertility, it's so much more, so many other symptoms and different types of pain (outside periods and ovulations).

Also, I've seen people debating on Rooney's writing style and I don't get why? There's nothing to say to it, it's easy to read and very accessible.

It's funny because on paper Frances could have been my representation I guess: bi, endometriosis, poetess, studying literature, financially struggling (except for the fact her uncle owns her apartment), and yet... Nothing worked for me. It's just not for me.

I'm glad it got me out of a reading slump and I'm glad to see endometriosis more in fiction. That's it.
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