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A review by grayisasleep
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25
i was around 14-15 when i first read this book and i wanted to reread it now, when i’m 18 to see how my opinion has changed. i plan to do this again in my 20s. when i first read it i rated it a 5/5 easily. i thought it was the most beautiful, emotional, raw piece of writing on intimacy ever written. but i was 15.
looking back on this story now i have many mixed feelings. my love for this book was so strong that it has deepened how i feel about it now. i want to resent this book— and i do, i just wish i did more. this is not a love story. it is a story of grooming, and it is difficult to see that because we are in elio’s mind. i was so deeply infatuated with this book at 15, and while rereading it i felt those feelings come back. the giddiness, the “beauty” of this book— of this “relationship.” reading this at 15 has my warped perception on it just as elio’s perception of oliver was warped. i hope by my next reread in my 20s i’m over it.
i’m not going to write a whole essay on this book because hundreds of people already have but there’s just so many problems with it. the author adds in incredibly gross scenes because he thinks he can just excuse it as “complete and total intimacy.” like no dude it’s just straight up gross.
the writing is what really saved this for me the second time around though. it really is the most beautifully written book i’ve read in my life (thus far that is.) i need so many quotes from this book engraved into me.
but yeah, in conclusion; pretty writing but oliver is a disgusting, manipulative person and i wish more people saw this book for what it really was.
looking back on this story now i have many mixed feelings. my love for this book was so strong that it has deepened how i feel about it now. i want to resent this book— and i do, i just wish i did more. this is not a love story. it is a story of grooming, and it is difficult to see that because we are in elio’s mind. i was so deeply infatuated with this book at 15, and while rereading it i felt those feelings come back. the giddiness, the “beauty” of this book— of this “relationship.” reading this at 15 has my warped perception on it just as elio’s perception of oliver was warped. i hope by my next reread in my 20s i’m over it.
i’m not going to write a whole essay on this book because hundreds of people already have but there’s just so many problems with it. the author adds in incredibly gross scenes because he thinks he can just excuse it as “complete and total intimacy.” like no dude it’s just straight up gross.
the writing is what really saved this for me the second time around though. it really is the most beautifully written book i’ve read in my life (thus far that is.) i need so many quotes from this book engraved into me.
but yeah, in conclusion; pretty writing but oliver is a disgusting, manipulative person and i wish more people saw this book for what it really was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Homophobia, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Antisemitism
Minor: Child death, Death, and Death of parent