3.65 AVERAGE

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
challenging dark reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
emotional reflective sad
dark emotional sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Arianna knows she is THAT girl. 

Also I liked Graziano a lot. 

Let's go to Rome now and live our best wine tasting, late night strolling, mysterious woman life.
dark emotional fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
slow-paced
reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

On the whole I really liked this book. Considering this book was originally written in Italian, the translation retained a lot of the beauty and wit that made this book so enjoyable. I found this book quite theatrical and could easily see it as a contender for a Wes Anderson or call-me-by-your-name-esque film. You could tell Arianna’s character was written by a man lol and I thought the ending was a little unnecessary. I started writing down my favourite quoes but there were too many so here are the first few:

  • “Her whole demeanor exuded independence, an independence so absolute as to make you think she hadn’t come into the world like everybody else, in pain and blood, but had simply emerged, like a butterfly.”
  • “What a sad name,[…] it sounds like a lost battle.”
  • “It’s from three o’clock [am] onward that night rises from its own abyss, dripping with dreams.”
  • “Have you ever thought how many pleasures progress has deprived us of?”
  • (On favouring second hand books) “they cost less and because you can tell in advance, with a certain amount of certainty, if they’re worth reading.”
  • “Is there anything you feel a part of? No, […] because we belong to an extinct species. We happen to still be alive, that’s all.”

I also might move to italy lol

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

Decent book, but read during the wrong time and head-space. I was quite upset with the meandering writing and the lack of connect between the reader and the characters, and only in the end (through Aciman's afterword, no less) did I realize what the novel was trying to say. I might have enjoyed this if I went into it with the right ideas—I blame the misleading back-blurb and advertising—but for now I can't say I did.
reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes