Reviews with content warning for Drug use - Conversations with Friends

Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

30 reviews

rexpostfacto's review against another edition

4.0

Started kinda slow but picked up...def liked Normal People better but still enjoyed this.

Big ~august~ energy:

"Remember when I pulled up and said, 'Get in the car'
And then canceled my plans just in case you'd call?
Back when I was livin' for the hope of it all, for the hope of it all."

(Completely realizing the irony of these lyrics btw)

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samanthaleereads's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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mayadelaine's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

I read this long after reading Normal People, and I put it off, worried that Rooney's debut wouldn't live up to her second book. While there is more complexity to Normal People, Conversations With Friends was an interesting analysis of 21st century love and friendship

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bookish_5280's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

I read Normal People just recently and felt that I absolutely had to get my hands on another Sally Rooney book immediately. I had this lurching feeling in my stomach starting this book, fearing that it wouldn't live up to her debut novel. All those thoughts disappeared within a couple pages. Rooney has this incredible, irresistible ability to encapsulate little moments--the little pleasures, the little disappointments, the little beautiful details--all the things that might seem mundane and unimportant she surrounds with this stunning, heartthrobbingly accurate language. You read it and you just have to close the book and sit back and think, "wow. that is something so normal, so everyday, that i've completely ignored it. and yet it's so incredibly beautiful." Frances and Bobbi and Nick and Melissa are all complicated--the book, at its core, isn't about cheating or marriage or romance. It's about acknowledging how all these intricate moving parts (traumas, previous relationships, financial hardships, psychologically engrained power dynamics) play into the formation of somebody's life path. Sally Rooney somehow manages to let the reader live inside multiple characters' minds simultaneously and use this omniscience to reflect on how these people's histories got them to the place where they are right now. At multiple points in the book, everything is so utterly confused and chaotic and dysfunctional and depressing and yet you see these characters' thoughts with complete clarity, and it's absolutely magical. Sally Rooney's books are this whole other world with genuine, real characters experiencing life at its harshest and most disorienting--it's a world with people we might know, with the toughest, rawest situations, and yet also the most compelling, hopeful moments.

"You live through certain things before you understand them."

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blackcatkai's review against another edition

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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

CW: Infidelity, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, Blood, and Injury/injury detail, Drug use and Alcohol, casual ableism

i dont know what it is about sally rooney's writing that grabs me and wont let go but here we are. a story that involves a few heavy subjects in a more slice of life story progression style, similar to Normal People though this one doesnt jump forward in time so much. i found myself both liking the main character and rooting for her but also wishing i could shake her to snap her out of whatever trance the 'love interest' had with her. but she really feels human in her decision making and thoughts, despite all the people around her being super entitled/hispter-esque, and i feel like she had pretty good character development over the course of the book.

im not going to lie, i do love a story with some good rich people drama. this definitely had a bit of that going on.

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reneeandreea's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense 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? Yes

5.0

An insane attention to detail in otherwise mundane, day-to-day life. Makes you feel like one of the characters; Frances is both relatable and flawed. You couldn’t really love any character and you couldn’t really hate any character either, which I think is a lot like real life.

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