Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - Exciting Times

Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

16 reviews

jrow's review against another edition

funny lighthearted reflective 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

2.5

It feels like there is almost nothing going on in the story, but it was funny at times and some parts were cleverly worded.

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themeanfrench's review against another edition

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funny reflective sad 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

3.25

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lucylou's review against another edition

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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

1.0

I feel like I’m being generous giving this book a two star rating. The main character Ava is insufferable; she’s self-centered, insecure, indecisive, and only self-aware enough to feel guilty about hurting people, but not enough to try to fix anything. I pushed through the book to get to the sapphic romance around the half-way mark, but it was not worth it. Ava is so self-absorbed that when talking about Edith she spends more time comparing herself to her. I did not feel like Ava even liked Edith as a person, let alone fell in love her. Ava seems to have no idea why Edith would be angry that

Ava had a sexual relationship with Julian and never told her about it, and instead acting like Edith wasn’t open-minded to polyamory. Like, no, you lied through your entire relationship with Edith. You are an ass.

The last third has some interesting parts, like when Ava gave us more insight into how she “actually” felt about Edith after their breakup, but for the most part this story left me unsatisfied and annoyed.
Edit: after writing this review, I knocked it down to 1 star. Every character was boring or insufferable except for Edith.

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alisonfaith426's review against another edition

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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

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ramreadsagain's review against another edition

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funny reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

This was amusing in a dry humour type of way, however the book is not as good as it thinks it is. It's trying to call out racism, privilege, and colonialism, while being full of unchecked stereotyping and an astounding lack of self-awareness.

I enjoyed the writing style itself, as well as Ava as a deeply-flawed, largely unlikeable narrator. But that just wasn't enough to make me care at all about what happens. Overall this lacks substance and achieves nothing.

Also, another reviewer pointed out that there is no reason for this book to take place in Hong Kong and I agree.

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annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

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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.

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abbruzzese's review against another edition

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funny reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

The truth is, you like Julian because he enables this perception you have of yourself as a detached person. Plenty of people are willing to offer you intimacy. That terrifies you. You prefer feeling like no one will ever love you.

the more i read books written by authors with a similar writing style to sally rooney, the more i realize how much i dislike sally rooney's writing. naoise dolan writes the way sally rooney thinks she does. at least that's how i think of it. dolan's writing has the wit and humour and snark needed to balance out the sociopolitical commentary and regretful introspection (much of which is so accurately reflected upon myself that it is equal parts terrifying and thrilling).

i think it's very understandable and important for a girl to have a man who she hates solely on the grounds that he does nothing to justify her feeling any other way about him. someone with whom she can say, "no, there's no genuine contempt here, however a slight animosity is the only mutual feeling either of us can play up convincingly enough to give this relationship any sort of flavour, so that's how it is." because being able to think like that—if you cared as little about me as you claim you do, you'd have gotten rid of me long ago. and because i am still here, i know this lack of consideration for me is a facade, and i can enjoy the fun that being mean brings without the usual worry that it is all based in something real.—is so good for a girl's psyche, actually. i am lucky enough to have a boy like this in my life.
it is very refreshing from other friendships, where there is no hatred, and also from other enemyships, where the hatred is real and means there's something unlikeable—and, consequently, wrong—about me.

however, there are lots of things about this book that make it a bad book fundamentally. mostly, there is a lot of casual racism that is written so plainly it is easy to miss if you don't tend to pick up on things like that (which i don't, something i know is problematic in my own being and indicative of the inherent privilege i have as a white person who can read racist things and not think too hard about them at first). there is no reason for being set in hong kong. you could pick this story up and drop it into the middle of any non-white country and achieve the exact same result. even so, despite being set in hong kong, the main characters are both white. if we divide ava's social circles into categories of friends, work colleagues, and families, only one category—friends—has any non-white people in it. and even so, half of it is still white (there are only two people in said category, julian and edith, but i rest my case).

overall i did enjoy reading this book. except i think i missed the big meanings and lessons and morals. after finishing it, i have a bit of a sour taste in my mouth caused by realizing things that didn't occur to me while reading (re: casual racism). also, i can't really grasp how things play out between ava and edith in the end. i largely dislike books with vague, unspecified endings, and sorry to say it but this book had one of them. but i can just invent a proper ending in my head and go on with my life, so that's not too troubling.

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georgiaalexturnbull's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I feel like this book read me just as much as I read it. Ava ends up making a decision very much the opposite than I would have done myself but I love her for it.

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elenakperez's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I think this was well-written and interesting read. Most of the book takes place inside the protagonist's head. If you enjoy a Sally-Rooney-esque novel you'll like Exciting Times. If you like reading about an emotionally detached, 20-something woman making poor life decisions which many could be avoided with simple communication then you'll like this book.

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sentcinematic's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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

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