kayladamon518 's review for:

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

4.0

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I can’t truly put what I feel about this book down concisely. But I wholeheartedly hated these characters and loved them and related to them. The almost constant existential crisis that the two main female characters are discussing is exactly how my brain works. Also I think Alice and Felix are the worst conversationalists with one another! They kinda bounce from one inscrutable topic to another and then into vague topics of conversation all in the same breath and it makes my head spin a bit. Like the two truly don’t seem to have anything in common in my opinion and then at the same time they both like and hate each other. Alice almost seems imperialistic at times and then a shy girl with mental issues also?? Alice is almost obnoxiously eccentric and I truly can’t tell if it’s forced or not. But at the same time so blatantly insecure the mix of the two makes me hate and adore her. And Felix seems to just be vaguely opinionated and mildly annoyed with the world around him. He feels like your first boyfriend in high school flaky,overly cock sure at times,but also needs constant reassurance that you actually like him. Also who talks like this during sex??? The erotic parts of this book are so ordinary that they seem more vulgar than the smut I read regularly somehow. I think it’s the fact thats what an ordinary couple would do in bed that makes it so. Like conceptually both smut and the erotica in this both are the same but without the build up to it happening and without the overzealous way it’s written in smut so the sex in this book feel strangely more blatant. Like without the glitz and glam of it all it’s almost off putting to actually have normal day to day sex described is strange to me for some reason lol.

I like that the topic of catholicism or organized religion is actually shown as the absurdity that it is at least in my opinion. But also the flip side of it being just a weekly ritual for some people. And how some people like Simon do truly believe but it hasn’t radicalized them in any way. Simon and Eileen are just two romantically inept people I think. But Simon unfortunately has a point by telling her exactly what was going on. But at the same time they both said I love you so I feel like that kinda voids of the other fling he was having before no?! Also why didn’t Eileen just tell him that she in love with him and wants to be with him? I think both of them are in the toxic attachment with each other. But I guess them finally having a full conversation about their relationship fixed it crazy fucking concept! lol

I don’t know this book was nothing profound because it’s literally just an example of white low to middle class people’s day to day lives and the struggles they go through. But I think in that same right seeing it all put to together like this it was very thought provoking at least for me. I want to rip this book apart and also keep it as a trophy on my shelf. Couldn’t explain why I loved this so much because everyone in this book is insufferable truly but I think that was the point. I don’t know I’m rambling at this point! I’ll probably read Normal People just to see if the characters are actually likable in that book lol.
~4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️