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4.47 AVERAGE
4.47 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
In my opinion, the best of the Neapolitan novels. The characters are so extremely human; flawed, complicated, and beautiful. Even if you can’t relate to being a high school student in the 60s in southern Italy, you can absolutely relate to how Elena feels. A great look at female friendships and growing up
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this series continues to be fantastic. the relationship between elena and lila is if lacy by olivia rodrigo was a literary fiction quartet. both of the women define themselves in relation to the other, and, while both of them do questionable things (in this book, lila in particular), i get where they’re coming from and it hurts.
All the loveliest parts of the first book continue on here, but with an aged perfection of characters and places already known. When at one page you are railing against a character’s selfishness, the next you are confronted with their gentleness, their struggle. In Ferrante’s shades of humanness, no one escapes sympathy.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Classism
Even more compelling than "My Brilliant Friend," "The Story of a New Name" will consume you until you finish it. Exhausted, you will crawl on your hands and knees back into your ordinary life, grateful to return. Ferrantes's gift for language, her understanding of psychology and the human heart, and her attention to the details of everyday life are unequaled. A masterwork of literary fiction.
I hated Lila for most of this book because I feel like she does things deliberately to hurt Elena, the one person who truly cares for her as she is, not for what she represents. Overall these books are about the shocking inequality, violence and limitations that women in Naples (and surely around the world) faced as recently as the 1960's. Elena's general ignorance about the outside world is also shocking but ultimately believable, as she lives in a Naples bubble for her first 19 years.
Spoiler
She fully knew that Elena had feelings for Nino and that didn't stop her.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-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