Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

20 reviews

alisonfaith426's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective 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

4.25

very similar to the only Sally Rooney book i've read, Normal People, (in fact, both audiobooks were read by the same person) but where i found NP depressing, i found Exciting Times *comforting*. i think it's in the narration: NP's is third-person, detached, and almost cold, while ET's is first-person, familiar, and didn't make everything feel completely futile? it helped that i related a lot, more than i would like, to the narrator 🥲 she's just like me fr. i loved her character's voice (in the literary sense, not the audiobook, though that was good too), i saw myself reflected in it a bit.
i want to talk about the ending. at first i was disappointed, asking myself how the author could think that's a good place to stop. but i read it back and there's more to it:
the comparison of exiting the subway station to ascending into the clouds—heavenly, or at least stepping out of the dark and into the light. and to spot & run after Edith there? and Ava's admission to herself that she loves Edith, and that Edith changed her life… i think it says more about me that i wasn't against her moving to Frankfurt with Julian. because at least she had someone who ostensibly wanted her, and what more is there, right? but that's not what i was meant to take away. it's a little bit romcom, but chase after the person you wronged in a transit hub and get them back; don't settle for the emotionally stunted man-child. (i do actually kind of like Julian though, despite his politics [Miles is right]).
i also appreciate that the book is a vessel for talking about these things: even though you lovely storygraphians did not ask to hear any of this, it's nice to be able to express it.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

eleanor029's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.5

I found the premise of the book exciting and hoped for something good, but was a bit disappointed. The plot often moved slowly and I absolutely despise the ending. It totally left me hanging. Why would you do that. I loved Edith. 
I hate the trope of bi girl having a really good relationship with a woman, but still ending up with a man. Avas reasons for staying with him are low-key, toxic. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

rian_b's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

randomheart's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.0

This book is definitely not for everyone, and I can understand why it's such a polarizing one. It took me about a good 100 pages before I FINALLY started clicking with what I was reading, and even then my feelings on this book kept changing as I continued.

So...I do really like the setting of this book. I don't think I've ever read a book set in Hong Kong before, but I thought that the setting was written in a pretty immersive way (love the use of the street names and the various locations in Hong Kong). I've been there a few times, and have relatives that have lived and worked there as well, so there was something comforting about the setting for me.

I also thought that the technical explanations of language was quite interesting...it made me realise a lot of things I'd never really thought about (as someone that speaks English as a first language). There's so much that I didn't realise had to be learned that just comes innately to English speakers just because we're used to it. I liked how it was noted that the parents of these children only wanted them to learn a specific type of English too (no slang, colloquial language, etc.), which definitely seemed realistic to my own experiences (my mother, like Edith's, is Singaporean...so I was brought up speaking Singlish too).

I can see why people compare Dolan's writing to Sally Rooney's. Of course, they're both Irish, but this book had a similar mundanity, focus on relationships/connection and internal characterisations to a lot of Rooney's books...but I feel like there's a key difference there. Whilst Rooney's writing, for me at least, always has a simplicity and ease while reading, Dolan's tends to be too overwrought and long-winded to flow in the same way that Rooney's does. It's not a long novel, but it FEELS long because of the way that it's written. Sometimes I didn't know whether it was because I was just too stupid to understand what was going on (was it too cerebral?), or was it just too needlessly complicated for its own good? Did every second word in this book need to be so long that it sounded like it was from a spelling bee competition? Using big words doesn't make a book 'smarter' or more sophisticated. As a former 22-23 year old, I also just don't feel like most of them speak like that either?

Interestingly though, I do think that Ava's thoughts and actions (aside from some of the language used), was pretty typical of someone in their early twenties...so I did feel like there was definitely some realism there. Her low self-esteem, the way she projected all her insecurities on both Julian and Edith (always thinking that they thought a certain way about her without actually hearing it from them themselves) were relatable to me. Her self-centredness (and inability to communicate her actual feelings to Julian and Edith out loud), whilst true to life, was quite frustrating. I didn't really like any of the characters in this novel (Edith was okay, at least), but I do think that they were interestingly written. Julian and Edith always felt a little less fleshed out, but that makes sense since everything is told from Ava's point of view, and she's quite an unreliable narrator. You're never really sure if she's reading things correctly, or if she just thinks she is because she doesn't really seem to be able to see things from other people's perspectives unless it relates in some way to her own. I think because of this, although her character has obviously grown from the start, it doesn't feel like there's been enough character development overall for this novel to feel completely satisfying.

Although I do think that some of the writing was a tad pretentious at times, there were some turns of phrase and observations that I did like a lot or that I found insightful. I didn't dislike anything in this novel whatsoever...and I generally like character driven books even if they're mundane with no real plot, but admittedly, I just think that this one went over my head at times.

3/5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

skudiklier's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny lighthearted reflective 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

4.5

I'm not sure how much I liked this book. I enjoyed it, I found it engaging, and I laughed out loud more than once. I also really liked some of the lines; I listened to the audiobook while driving so I sadly didn't save most of them, but there was one part that hit me so hard I paused the book and just sort of yelled for a minute. I just spent fifteen minutes tracking it down so I might as well share it here:

"The best wedges of words were the ones my eight-year-olds wrote: I like her face. With her I am happy. I wished I’d never learned more advanced grammar and could only make sentences like that. It would give me an excuse to say them aloud."

Anyway. This book didn't really go anywhere and I'm not sure the characters are very good in any real way, but I enjoyed the narration for sure. It's interesting and I'd recommend it to some people, but not everyone. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

hollymileham's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.5

such a good book with the most amazing writing, theres nothing i love more than a bit of character focused literary fiction
it helps even more that it had such good sally rooney vibes 💕💕💕

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

girlgetsbook's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective slow-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

3.25

I didn't love it as I thought I would, because it has a lot of themes I either relate to or am interested by, however I didn't enjoy the character's voice so much and almost DNFd it, it felt tiring at times especially in part I, it felt like it was the same scene over and over and the same topics, though important, being driven to the ground by being mentioned in every sentence. Part II saved it for me and all the stars here are exclusively because that part exists, still I was already tired and wanting to finish it as quickly as possible by that time.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

caljmarr's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings