Reviews with content warning for Eating disorder - Conversations with Friends

This book is INCREDIBLY well written. The protagonist narrates the story with a refreshing and at times brutal honesty and I felt that the scenes and dialogues simply felt realistic and less touched-up like they usually are in fiction.

I could not relate to all characters, so sometimes I found their actions and decisions puzzling. However, I still experienced this as a great portrait of love, attraction, friendship and communication. Though Sally Rooney mostly uses simple words and short sentences, she really manages to create a detailed and complex emotional landscape, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

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hclin'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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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verorikky's review

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

2.75

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joshuaedwardcrowe's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

How many fearfully avoidant people does it take to break up a marriage? Four clearly isnt enough.

This book was nothing if not emotionally paralysing. Rooney's work continues to be weak in having a real story -- the narrative often only progresses for the sake of the characters next hurdle.

Frances is a fairly self-entitled main character, so emotionally withdrawn it borderlines on a narcissistic pattern. Rooney sprawls across each page in monotone first-person dialect and it becomes draining fascinatingly quickly, yet somehow, you become sucked into something you want to hate. Watching a main character make incredibly destructive decisions leaves you dragging your feet through eachc chapter wondering 'what the fuck are you doing, Frances?' There's little insight into how Frances became this way, and whenever the narrative gives you a glimmer of direction in the mess that is a range of 'complicated characters'', another curve ball comes your way and Frances ends up right where she started.

I want to give credit to Rooney for the way she depicts such a vacuum of the coming of age emotional landscape that she creates. Many a time while reading this, I resonated with Frances' pain an enormous amount -- her relationship with her feelings is frail and she spends lots of time in compulsive discovery of their meanings -- this is a journey I myself have gone on. I was placing my faith in Rooney exploring Frances' discovery of what relieves her emotional pain and a transition away from the coping mechanisms she currently works with, but it never came.

I'm not sure what journey I went on with this story. I just feel I came out with plenty of fatigue and a lack of interest in Rooney's further work. Normal People is a story that I can get on board with: a story that explores its characters unfaltered weakness and gives them a solid, resounding arc, and development along the way. You can't really spoil the ending of this book, because the ending is on the back. The front is the end. That's almost as vapid as Bobbi is.

Reading this book is a trap. You think you want to read it, but I can promise you, you really dont

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readwith_le's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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thetearex's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.5

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dfram's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

this is a story about love, in many forms. i liked only one of the characters, everyone else was so unlikable i wanted to punch them in the face (and THAT is what i loved the most about this book). i wasn’t on anyone’s side, because these characters captured the complexity of relationships and feelings and being human so well. everyone was right and everyone was wrong in a lot of ways. i loved normal people by sally rooney, and this book wasn’t what i expected it to be; i’m not disappointed by it, and i’m also not super sure i would read it again.

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