Reviews with content warning for Eating disorder - Romantic Comedy

Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

30 reviews

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is not your typical romantic comedy and I really enjoyed that. The book is centered around Sally who is a writer at a SNL like show and Noah who is a famous musician and the host and musical guest on that week’s episode. Sally is focused on this phenomenon that happens especially men that she works with. They, normal guys looks wise continue to hook up/ marry super beautiful and successful women, but that is definitely not something that could happen the other way. Exceptionally handsome men don’t go for regular women, or do they? One big Trigger Warning is that about half the book takes place during the pandemic, so if you aren’t ready to read about that, this would be one to wait on.

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nuuamuikkunen's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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ariana3's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

3.75

This book took me a LONG time to get in to. I was going to give up, but I stuck it out, and it definitely paid off in the end! This book is an easy, light-hearted, funny, beach-read type book. It was hard for me to get over some parts, but once I accepted the premise and knowing essentially how the story was going to go, it was much easier to read and I enjoyed the last two-thirds of the book! The book is split up into essentially 3 parts. The first part feels chaotic, with too many characters being introduced and confusing and slightly annoying. However, I was sucked in during the second part, and then I found myself being pulled back to the book to find out how it ends.
Plot summary:

Sally works at The Night Owls (TNO), which is so obviously a rip-off of SNL. This was the biggest part for me that was so hard to get over. It felt annoying and stupid that the writer would put this story within a show that is so obviously something nonfiction that it was irritating. However, I eventually got over this and just accepted it. Anyway, Sally has been a writer at TNO for the last 9 years. She's in her mid-thirties, has previously been married, and just doesn't date because she no longer trusts her instincts and has settled into the fact she won't find love. Noah Brewster, a mega-hot, mega-famous star hosts TNO and she spends a considerable amount of time with him for the week. She feels like there's a flirtation but she must be crazy. At the after-party, she thinks he's going to kiss her, so she freaks out and says something a bit snarky as a jab (since her coping mechanism is snarky comments/humor, obviously). He feels hurt, their flirty friendship ends, and that's that. BOOM - Covid hits 2 years later. The entire 2nd part is in the format of emails to each other back and forth. Noah reaches out to Sally to rekindle a friendship, it gets honest and emotional, as two people during the pandemic are longing for a human connection. It's raw, emotional, honest, and their feelings are shared. These emails span over 5 days, which then leads into the 3rd part. The 3rd part, Sally and Noah start Facetiming and speaking on the phone. It's still early covid times, and she agrees to go out to LA to visit him. When she gets there, its kind of a will we/won't we hook-up, what are we doing, confusing mess. However, the feelings and conversations are so adult and mature, and they're primarily initiated by Noah which is a refreshing take on heterosexual relationships. Sally eventually comes around and shares her honest feelings and thoughts with him instead of her snarky quips. So, they obviously sleep together, they confess they love each other, etc. etc. Sally's stepdad gets sick so she flies out there to nurse him back to health and make sure he's okay. Noah comes out to help, and that's when they both realize, I think, they want to be with each other. It was his "grand gesture" to her to show that yes he loves her, yes he wants to be with her, yes this is real. There's also an epilogue which says they get married a year later, and her stepdad and his beagle eventually move out to LA and live with them.

I think I just love how wholesome the book turns out to be. There's plenty of ways it could take a dark turn or end a little bittersweet, but everything ends so happy and lovely! I wanted to give this book a lower score initially, but that fact alone bumped it up at least another star once I finished the book. And then I came through and bumped it up another 1/4 star haha

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stopprivatejets's review

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funny lighthearted reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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kyriannaj's review

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

This book heavily deals with COVID in the immediate summer of 2020 with uncertainty, anxieties, and all other political events that happened in the US during that time.

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emilymazzara's review

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

This was such a fun read! As someone who has never sat and watched a full episode of SNL, weirdly enough, this has made me want to. The way the author portrays working there has given me a whole new appreciation for the crazy work that they do at that show. Not only that, but the entire portrayal of life in and on the fringes of fame is insightful, realistic, and impeccably charming. I especially adored the way the natural insecurities, anxieties, and neurosis Sally has are written (partially because I feel SEEN and partially because they were done with such an exacting attention to detail).

The love story here was beautiful in all its messiness and flaws. I can’t help but applaud the balance Sittenfeld was able to strike between the MCs communicating like adults and miscommunicating like humans. Truly just delightful from beginning to end!

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gkabanuk's review

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funny hopeful 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

3.5

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abidavisf's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

Sexy, funny and deeply heart-warming, Romantic Comedy is a triumph.

This story reads like a conversation. It is not filled with drama and action, but raw human emotion and interaction. I’ve never read prose like this before and I loved it. I listened to the audio book and found myself giggling at my desk at the end of Chapter 2.

I’ll now be buying the physical copy because I need to read this again and desperately need to make notes!

Two of my favourite lines:

1. “If you were a musician, you got to be viscerally magical.”
2. “When I’m talking to you, I’m a funnier and smarter version of myself because you are funny and smart.”

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danikajoan's review

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informative lighthearted slow-paced

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

2.0

I enjoyed the second and third parts of this book much more than the first, and I trudged through the first part because I’ve enjoyed other books by this author so I was hopeful it would redeem itself, which it only sort of did? My main issue with the first part of the book is that I didn’t find the main character (or most of the sketches she was pitching) funny, with the exception of the dog internet searches. The behind-the-scenes SNL stuff was interesting but I prefer to read Amy Poehler or Tina Fey’s memoirs for that.

later, I really enjoyed the emails and the start of their relationship, but there are so many communication issues and unhealthy dynamics that it was hard to root for them as a couple.

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hydeandseek's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

3.5

I genuinely did enjoy this book! I bought it at 4 PM and read it that afternoon. The premise of the late-night comedy show was really compelling, and I liked the timeline and fast-paced structure. However,

the initial portion where the plot was contained within Noah’s week hosting TNO was my favorite part of the book. Unfortunately, the COVID email element slowed the momentum significantly for me (even though I acknowledge that it was super relatable and definitely intentional). This interruption made the climax have less effect for me—Sally could have had the same growth outside of COVID, I think.

I did like the realistic struggle of Sally’s insecurity and self-sabotage, even if the book was a little too self-aware at times. It’s about a writer and called romantic comedy, after all. Overall, a good time!

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