Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - Call Me by Your Name

Wow. That about sums up what I thought of this wonderful, brilliant book. Of course it doesn’t hurt thats it’s set in my favourite time period in beautiful country.
I have never read a book with so much imagery and description that completely relates to what I feel. Elio’s irrational and impulsive thoughts somehow reflect my own invasive and irrational thoughts - they change as the slightest external detail changes, they swing to both extremes, they are selfish and sad and powerful. The description in this book is - and this is not an understatement - god tier. Aciman creates sentences in a way that leaves you with a feeling that depicts what has happened, rather than an image. one i can think of now is

“his reaction to Vimini’s death, rather than soothe an open sore, seemed to graze one that had healed on its own”

but there are so many more beautiful descriptive sentences in this wonderful book. i wish i could write like this.
the ending is what hurt most. the type of love elio and oliver have actually scares me,

because in the final pages you see just how much of an impact they each had on each other’s life from a period of six weeks. it’s insanely powerful

.
Another aspect I liked was how malleable the time aspect was. Time wasn’t linear or even, it was all over the place and would be stretched out or skipped over. It was very much Elio’s perspective of time and how Oliver influenced him.
Something else i liked - the only time the name Elio is mentioned is when Oliver is saying it, and it doesn’t happen a lot. When the name is finally mentioned it has a more powerful impact, especially considering the title of the book.
I may come back to this review when I reflect on other aspects I loved. the only reason i didn’t give it 5/5 stars was that while it was interesting, for the most part it wasn’t compelling (although i have been very busy at work and with exams so that could be why). It gives me Lana Del Rey vibes. The movie did not do it justice, though it was very good.

Content Warnings

kaadee's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-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

1.0

After reading other peoples reviews, I have come to a conclusion. I think it’s important that this book was made because it gives a glimpse into the the thought process of the groomed. We as readers know that it’s gross, uncomfortable and upsetting and while Elio also realizes this, his feelings are much different. Through Elio’s thoughts, we are also being groomed by Oliver to care for their relationship (see other peoples reviews calling this an amazing love story) it’s a good story, but not one about love. It’s about obsession, it’s about craving an experience but ultimately it’s about the power imbalances teenagers have with adults. How teenagers are easily taken advantage of and made to think they are in love. I honestly don’t think the writer wrote it to have this kind of meaning whatsoever which makes it worse for me. The deep dive into Elio’s sexual thoughts was disturbing. I mean, I really didn’t need to know what a 17 year old was thinking while he was going at it into a peach. I think it’s important to understand his thoughts but the amount of detail into the desires was gross. Also the writing style??? What pretentious person decided they would just add every word from the dictionary, put it into run on sentences, and then publish it? Some quotes were good but it’s too much philosophy without actually making any sense. People who praise this book for the writing and the feeling that you get while reading are weird. Honestly, the writing just made me want to finish it 10x faster just so I could be done. I love the movie compared to this. Also the fetish for Jewish people, GROSS!!! The author isn’t even Jewish which I didn’t know while reading. I was weirded out but I just went along with it because maybe he was just being expressive of his faith/background BUT NO, he just fetishized Jewish people.

Content Warnings

gabrielleclarke05's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

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

2.25

Wow.. this was gross in multiple parts. Elio compared the peach to a SA victim🧐 I’m glad the film cut out the problematic bits. This book just felt like the author writing down his weird fetishes
The movie overall is better and this book just felt creepy and the author is a self proclaimed pedophile so take that as you will

Content Warnings

thelavendermenace's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This was a great book. I didn’t read it but instead listened to it on audible. Army Hammer is an insanely good narrator and I was in tears at the end. I would recommend for anyone who wants a chilled out romance.

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