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kimveach's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Grief, Alcohol, Body shaming, Child death, Homophobia, Outing, Vomit, and Sexual content
gabi_sud's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
I thought it was very beautifully written, the raw and real emotions Elio felt, I could very much relate to things he was going through. However, even putting the age gap aside, the relationship between Elio and Oliver was very predatory from both sides?? The amount of times Elio had thoughts about SA’ing Oliver? And many time he acted on those thoughts, touching him without consent. The time he thought about disabling him so he could be his master?? And obviously Oliver is no better even through we don’t know his thoughts but the peach scene alone was a good indicator of how sick in the head he is as well.
I wonder how people that view this as a beautiful love story would feel if one of them was a woman?
Also what the fuck was that bathroom scene. I get loving someone that much you want to be one with them, but looking at each others fecal matter is surely not the way to do it?
I truly don’t get Elio’s fascination with Oliver who might as well been a cardboard cutout cause he has just as much personality. Elio truly only desired Oliver because he was hot cause let’s be honest here, he didn’t even know him.
I’m not gonna say I didn’t enjoy the book at all, cause I’d be lying. There were parts I absolutely loved, could totally relate to Elio and his yearning for someone he can’t have but all the good parts were overshadowed by the weird and creepy stuff. Like there was truly no need for it.
And the foot fetish was driving me absolutely insane. Like not all of us are Quentin Tarantino.
The ending, however, absolutely crushed me , it was heart wrenching and really did things for me. Not sure how I feel about there being another book though. I feel like it defeats the whole point of this one.
Graphic: Sexual content and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Sexual harassment and Stalking
Minor: Terminal illness, Ableism, Child death, Racism, and Vomit
lio_ramon_dolor's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, and Pedophilia
Minor: Vomit and Excrement
tea_ana's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Pedophilia, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Alcohol
maddie_08's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cancer
dorhi's review against another edition
- 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
3.25
In 'Call Me By Your Name' we follow 17 year old Elio as he comes to terms with his attraction towards 24 year old Oliver, who is an American staying in his family home in Italy for the summer as he works on his manuscript.
Elio is a very mature character, to the point of pretentiousness often if we're to be very honest. All the characters are kind of along these lines: incredibly intellectual professors and philosophers and academics, poets. At first I really enjoyed the wordiness of the story as it seemed to partner the hot Italian summer atmosphere of the beginning of the novel. Long, hot summer days where there was nothing better to do than go for a swim or play some tennis and make sure you get a lot of rest and midafternoon naps. It was slow in the story, and it was a slow paced novel. It worked well, gelling with the slow build in tension between Elio and Oliver and their feelings for each other that they refused to confess to one another.
Then as we move on in the novel it remains verbose and slow paced when things should, in my opinion, be moving along. We're still spending a lot of time introspectively wondering if anything
has changed between Elio and Oliver until the peach scene (which is gross, and I don't find any deep meaning in it personally) and things suddenly ramp up quite a bit. This may be a norm of the romance genre and I'll confess to not having read much of it, but I found the pacing overall unsatisfactory.
Oliver as a character I found mostly unlikeable. I do think Aciman does a good job of describing people though Elio's perspective so I'm not sure I even have a good grasp on Oliver as a character because I'm not sure Elio ever truly gets him. But he read as frustrating to me, and fake. I didn't believe in anything he said or did and so never really cared about him. Personally, I don't think he really ever felt anything for Elio anyway so I wasn't really surprised when he just left and didn't remember the game of names that Elio is so fixated on at the end.
I think this book is enjoyable if you buy into Elio and Oliver's relationship. If you don't... well, it's just kind of dull and wordy. I don't understand Oliver at all, and I found Elio kind of creepy with his infatuation. I didn't enjoy them together in Rome or otherwise, and so I finished this book and thought 'huh, well that was a book I read'.
3/5 stars is a fair review from my personal opinion, I think. I cannot deny that Aciman is a talented author and I'd maybe be interested in looking into some of his other works, but this one just wasn't really for me.
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Rape
macdonac's review against another edition
- 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
0.5
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Rape, and Adult/minor relationship
lay_kone's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, and Pedophilia
2busyreading's review against another edition
2.75
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Minor: Child death, Death of parent, and Vomit
honkinggoose's review against another edition
- 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
2.5
Graphic: Sexual content