Reviews with content warning for Self harm - La soledad de los números primos

A story with fleshed-out, raw and flawed characters, whose melancholic and trauma-ridden perspective on the world carries the book. A love story that has more pain and loneliness than love in it.

Content Warnings

nesblablabla's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional sad

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

2.0

Content Warnings

t555z's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

the ending had holes.

Content Warnings

aarony_22's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective medium-paced

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

1.75

I am so irritated
Now what exactly was the message/theme of this book? If this is supposed to be a romance novel, it failed. I don't feel like Mattia and Alice have a connection at all and their first moments together seem like stupid insta love. If this is just supposed to be about the tragedy of unjustifiable events and emotions that are all over the place, it was okay.

The writing style is very fluid and the pages really flew by. It was really good at times. Very good metaphors and symbolics were used.

I didn't quite get what is happening and nothing is really truly of relevance but the first two chapters. The events are all over the place and not explained well enough for me. Mattia and Alice are portrayed as the "odd humans out" (prime numbers in this case). That mindset makes it particularly interesting to see them having a bad social life.

In conclusion, to me, it's a failed attempt at writing about unusual people having trouble being so unusual as if nothing bad ever happens to "normal" people.

Also the portraying of consent in this book???? Very questionable???

It also needs a trigger warning for eating disorders, really. It comes out of nowhere.

Content Warnings

liesbethvv's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Apart from the ending not being my cup of tea, I did really enjoy being on this journey with Alice and Mattia, seeing them attract each other and push away again and trying to mould their lives around their difficult pasts.

From time to time, the way the characters think and behave themselves made me think of Sally Rooney’s writing and all in all, this novel is not going to make you high on life, but the execution of the characters’ trauma is well done imo and I might pick up something else by him to see what else he might do.

Content Warnings