A review by erinbarton
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

3.0

i’m very much experiencing mixed feelings about this one - i found the first third to be extremely slow and boring, the middle third to be okay and the last third really good. overall i think it evens out. the huge amount of hype surrounding this (as well as sally rooney’s other works) probably contributed to these mixed feelings.
i wasn’t a fan of the email chapters, i thought since they recapped plot points and also included large chunks of opinions on big topics they felt quite unnatural and like a way of the author to just state her views - i didn’t disagree with any of them, i just wish they were integrated into the book in a more covert way. for instance, eileen and felix’s conversation towards the end about their jobs and income, the parallels between felix having to leave for work while the other characters have a beach day, etc. i think the emails were good to give the sense that eileen and alice are drifting in and out of touch and struggling to stay connected,
with the great irony being that the book’s end is during the pandemic wherein they are unable to see each other anyway
, but i wish the emails were shorter and more infrequent.
initially i felt the characters all quite difficult to connect with and none of them felt distinctive to me, however by the last third i felt we got to know them all a lot more, and i loved that whole portion of the book where all four of the main characters were interacting and the relationships were being shown in the real light. eileen and alice’s friendship, and eileen and simon’s relationship in particular felt very authentic and realistic to me.
overall, this one was definitely a slow burn but in the end i did enjoy it and liked all the characters and relationships. the writing style wasn’t my favourite but i understand the choice to be distinctive from sally rooney.
i don’t think sally rooney will be cracking my list of fave authors any time soon, but i’ll definitely continue to read her works as and when they come out. i’ve not read any of her short stories, but i think her style would translate well to a short story collection, each story exploring different questions and types of relationship
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