A review by kimdokjaa
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

5.0

yeah so i spent the entire third act crying like a baby like full body sobs. i will never recover and need to reread this immediately. sally rooney i apologize i was unfamiliar with your game

the only other sally rooney book i've read is normal people, which i did not care for, so i was honestly not expecting much out of this (i'm really into chess right now and saw this at the library and thought what the hell sure). little did i know i was picking up one of the most raw and compelling books i've had the pleasure of reading, and one that would leave me a nonstop sniveling mess from peter & ivan's confrontation at their dad's house to "my brother, the genius" (to which i let out a blood-curdling scream)

the dialogue was exceptional, and i loved how stylized peter & ivan's narrations were, and how much that contributed to each of their voices. this was some of the best character study work i've read, and definitely the best i've read from a contemporary author. nothing about peter & ivan ever felt fictional, and even though on paper they are two people i would never remotely care about, and would probably actively dislike, i could not stop crying. stealing this from the top comment here, but sally rooney dissected the mundane situations peter & ivan were going through on such a microscopic level that you can't help but be irrevocably moved by it. and god was i moved by it. i love how well sally rooney illustrated how there is so much pain in every mundane moment of life, but, also, so much love. i also love (and hate) how much this made me think about (and sob over) my relationship with one of my best friends and my baby sister

it's just such a raw look at love and grief and our need for connection and humanity and life and a million other things i don't yet have the words for. it's one of those books i need to own so i can write all over it and read it again and again and again

anyways i'm going to sit outside and listen to carrie & lowell (album, though the song itself is going to kill me too don't worry) by sufjan stevens and let out the rest of my tears