Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - Intermezzo: A Novel

Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Intermezzo: A Novel by Sally Rooney

139 reviews

laura227_'s review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

ruby_mae_read's review against another edition

3.0

challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-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

Content Warnings

annablanna's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

ru_th's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It doesn’t always work, but I do my best. See what happens. Go on in any case living.

Content Warnings

ukponge's review against another edition

4.75

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-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

Content Warnings

sydney15's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

This is my favourite Sally Rooney ending. I'm not sure I liked it better than Normal People but it was phenomenal. While the sentence fragments clearly communicated Peter's character and mental state, the stylistic choice did prove somewhat difficult to read.

Content Warnings

nicoleisalwaysreading's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense 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

intermixedfeelings

Content Warnings

clairebartholomew549's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book took a long time for me to get into, which was really disappointing considering how much I've loved Sally Rooney's other books (except Conversations with Friends, which honestly just annoyed me the whole time). I debated whether to give this book three or four stars, but settled on four stars because the second half got better and more powerful with every page. The writing style in the beginning is distracting, hard to follow, and a little obsessed with itself, but as the novel went on, it settled into prose that made more sense and felt much more emotionally resonant. Neither Peter nor Ivan is particularly sympathetic - Peter thinks he is incredibly morally superior but treats the women in his life truly horribly, while Ivan has said many misogynistic incel things in the past - but their relationship was fairly compelling, and as usual Rooney details grief and complex human emotions with compassion and searing accuracy. The woman in this novel deserve truly so much better (although Ivan and Margaret have a sweet and lovely connection), but that's par for the course I guess.

As you can see from this rambling and contradictory review, I'm not totally sure how I feel about this book - I should probably go with three stars, but I did find the last third or quarter meaningful and touching, so who knows.

Content Warnings

sophiestasyna's review against another edition

4.75

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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

Content Warnings

brotestantethic's review against another edition

2.25

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Very much not for me. Intermezzo attempts to tackle male loneliness, hurt, and mental health through main characters Peter and Ivan Koubek. Rooney’s characteristically unlikable characters are thrown to their limits here. Peter is vile and verges on predatory (not even the age difference, but how he talks about sex with Naomi) to the point that he is not enjoyable to read. Female characters are positioned as plot devices, with so little offer on their own. Peter’s two love interests especially:

Sylvia being okay with being used emotionally (implying someone incapable of sex/having a disability is doomed to have an incomplete relationship) and Naomi is okay with being used sexually.

The writing’s structure is an interesting thought, but in practice it is very hard to read. I had to read Peter’s incomplete sentences several times to understand them. And the dialogue is very unrealistic. Everyone says exactly what they are thinking, in long monologues of text.
Overall, while there were parts I enjoyed and themes I liked, I felt this was poorly done.

Content Warnings

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