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annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition
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.
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:
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Biphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Lesbophobia, Abortion, Classism, and Cursing
Minor: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual assault, Bullying, Colonisation, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Addiction, Body shaming, Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Drug use, and Fatphobia
bodiesinbooks's review against another edition
Dolan is a good writer but this book isn't for me. I would have probably kept on reading anyways if it wasn't for the fatshaming in a cast of characters that are thin.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia
liteartha's review against another edition
reflective
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
as this isn't going to be the most positive of reviews, i will just start off by saying that i did like dolan's writing style, the exploration of linguistics, and the touch of sapphic yearning, if little else
anyway
i feel like i've read this book before. ava's narration was so similar to that of frances in sally rooney's conversations with friends that i could genuinely have believed they were the same character at times (and i don't think i can blame that on the audiobook narrator being the same for both books)
all the supporting characters were flat and uninteresting to me, which i'll attribute mostly to ava's narration and (at risk of sounding like a broken record) note that that's the exact reason i felt similarly about rooney's aforementioned novel. i felt no emotional connection to anyone or to their relationships with each other, which made for very low stakes
there's a lot of shallow social commentary at play especially in terms or race and class and my god does it feel like this book thinks it's so clever for it all. there's a lot of tongue in cheek acknowledgement of the privilege various characters hold while also really not getting it? or at least not discussing it with the needed depth and nuance? idk
this also feels like it had no business being set in hong kong, imo. it reads like it could've been set in [insert generic major east asian city here] and frankly didn't need the asian setting at all given that ava's there for no bloody reason and spends her time surrounded almost entirely by white people with the exception of edith. there are virtually no other asian characters with speaking lines and the few that do are quite stereotyped
and then there's the bi rep. this one's much harder for me to pick apart, but i'm going to try. it's hard to give context for what gave me pause without explaining the entire plot of the novel so this is spoiler-y, but in essence:
- ava is involved with julian. they aren't dating, they don't say they love each other, but she lives in his flat rent free and knows his father and blah blah blah. julian goes away for work for several months, leaving the flat to ava
- enter edith, who ava is initially friends with but does eventually enter into an actual romantic and loving relationship with all while not disclosing the nature of her relationship with julian or calling things officially off with julian himself
i guess i'm just tired of this?
julian is straight, edith is gay, ava is bisexual
julian isn't clear about his emotions, edith is, ava is deeply undecided even to herself
the dynamic this creates here is just... what am i meant to do with yet another bi character who misleads her romantic partners? and look, i'm bisexual. we are nuanced fucking people. i want to be as open to stories about bisexuals being messy in their romantic relationships as i am to any other story about it, but when these are already the prevalent stories about us, it gets tiring to see it played out again and again
not that this was the point of things, but there's a throwaway line from edith at one point about how compulsory monogamy and heterosexuality can often go hand in hand which would frankly be a much more interesting exploration than what we got, but was also clearly not what this story was doing so there's that
anyway
i feel like i've read this book before. ava's narration was so similar to that of frances in sally rooney's conversations with friends that i could genuinely have believed they were the same character at times (and i don't think i can blame that on the audiobook narrator being the same for both books)
all the supporting characters were flat and uninteresting to me, which i'll attribute mostly to ava's narration and (at risk of sounding like a broken record) note that that's the exact reason i felt similarly about rooney's aforementioned novel. i felt no emotional connection to anyone or to their relationships with each other, which made for very low stakes
there's a lot of shallow social commentary at play especially in terms or race and class and my god does it feel like this book thinks it's so clever for it all. there's a lot of tongue in cheek acknowledgement of the privilege various characters hold while also really not getting it? or at least not discussing it with the needed depth and nuance? idk
this also feels like it had no business being set in hong kong, imo. it reads like it could've been set in [insert generic major east asian city here] and frankly didn't need the asian setting at all given that ava's there for no bloody reason and spends her time surrounded almost entirely by white people with the exception of edith. there are virtually no other asian characters with speaking lines and the few that do are quite stereotyped
and then there's the bi rep. this one's much harder for me to pick apart, but i'm going to try. it's hard to give context for what gave me pause without explaining the entire plot of the novel so this is spoiler-y, but in essence:
- ava is involved with julian. they aren't dating, they don't say they love each other, but she lives in his flat rent free and knows his father and blah blah blah. julian goes away for work for several months, leaving the flat to ava
- enter edith, who ava is initially friends with but does eventually enter into an actual romantic and loving relationship with all while not disclosing the nature of her relationship with julian or calling things officially off with julian himself
i guess i'm just tired of this?
julian is straight, edith is gay, ava is bisexual
julian isn't clear about his emotions, edith is, ava is deeply undecided even to herself
the dynamic this creates here is just... what am i meant to do with yet another bi character who misleads her romantic partners? and look, i'm bisexual. we are nuanced fucking people. i want to be as open to stories about bisexuals being messy in their romantic relationships as i am to any other story about it, but when these are already the prevalent stories about us, it gets tiring to see it played out again and again
not that this was the point of things, but there's a throwaway line from edith at one point about how compulsory monogamy and heterosexuality can often go hand in hand which would frankly be a much more interesting exploration than what we got, but was also clearly not what this story was doing so there's that
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Sexism
Minor: Body shaming, Homophobia, and Sexual assault
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