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A review by abooknomad
Talking at Night by Claire Daverley
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
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
4.25
This book is the kind of story that will always call to me: achingly beautiful in its angst, filled with ups and downs between characters, and exploring the normalcy and oddity of life.
In this debut novel, we follow Rosie and Will as they deal with whatever life throws at them in the best way they can. The only constant in their life, it seems, it's the fact they never fall out of love with each other.
Although this is a love story, it’s not a romance, and the back and forth between characters and prevalent miscommunication is sure to frustrate the majority of readers. In this sense, a lot of this book reminded me of Sally Rooney's writing, storyline-wise, and stylistically: quotation marks are nowhere to be seen, and sentences are clipped, often cut short. Because I love me some Sally Rooney, all these things were music to my ears. However, if any of Rooney's novels made your skin crawl in a negative way, I’d say to stay away from this book.
Besides the romantic angst, Talking at Night also discusses what often plagues us in our daily life: grief, insecurities, people-pleasing tendencies, self-doubt, and mental health. It's not a firework of a novel that will make you realise something you didn’t already know or provide you with lighthearted escapism. It’s very much grounded in reality, and I loved it for that.
However, even I, one of the five people who likes a good miscommunication trope, had my patience tested. At times, the stagnancy, misjudgements, and omissions felt overdone for plot convenience, and there’s only so much suspension of disbelief you can ask of me.
All in all, this was a great read, and I’m excited to see what the author has in store next. Bonus point for making me feel like I couldn’t put this book down. I haven't felt this feeling for months!
In this debut novel, we follow Rosie and Will as they deal with whatever life throws at them in the best way they can. The only constant in their life, it seems, it's the fact they never fall out of love with each other.
Although this is a love story, it’s not a romance, and the back and forth between characters and prevalent miscommunication is sure to frustrate the majority of readers. In this sense, a lot of this book reminded me of Sally Rooney's writing, storyline-wise, and stylistically: quotation marks are nowhere to be seen, and sentences are clipped, often cut short. Because I love me some Sally Rooney, all these things were music to my ears. However, if any of Rooney's novels made your skin crawl in a negative way, I’d say to stay away from this book.
Besides the romantic angst, Talking at Night also discusses what often plagues us in our daily life: grief, insecurities, people-pleasing tendencies, self-doubt, and mental health. It's not a firework of a novel that will make you realise something you didn’t already know or provide you with lighthearted escapism. It’s very much grounded in reality, and I loved it for that.
However, even I, one of the five people who likes a good miscommunication trope, had my patience tested. At times, the stagnancy, misjudgements, and omissions felt overdone for plot convenience, and there’s only so much suspension of disbelief you can ask of me.
All in all, this was a great read, and I’m excited to see what the author has in store next. Bonus point for making me feel like I couldn’t put this book down. I haven't felt this feeling for months!