A review by capuletsbirdie
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

2.0

The writing in this is strong. I enjoyed reading the book because I found the dialogue and description realistic and enjoyable enough that somehow, I couldn't put it down! I just couldn't. I finished it in two days, of which both days were work days. Maybe it was because some of what has been said and described, I could relate to. Maybe the story was just set up to be intriguing and compelling.

Having said that, however, I have to mention how I did not like the characters much, if not at all. I don't think it was necessarily the point - to make the characters angels and likeable. Some people are probably really like that and that in itself could be a point for realistic characterisation. But all the characters' actions in this book really don't align with my values at all so it's hard for me to feel empathy so I felt emotionally dissociated from them. But again, maybe this was supposed to be the outcome?

Other than that, I didn't mind that the book didn't have quotation marks for the dialogue as it "forced" me to read everything without skipping to the dialogue. Somehow, that's a habit of mine that I'm working on, so taking away the quotation marks was a good thing for my reading experience.

And please, for the love of God, put a trigger warning! Self-harm.