hannet 's review for:

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

3.0

dark lighthearted slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Hm. Maybe I shouldn't read Nick Hornby's entire bibliography. I'm at four books this year (three of them fiction, of which Hornby's written nine), and two are the best (High Fidelity and About a Boy), and now there were two duds (31 Songs and Juliet, Naked). I think the story was fine, or could've been fine, but it did not work for me.

A female character who at 40-ish is feeling she wasted 15 years on a bad relationship and should've had kids and feels it's too late: interesting. The aged, retired rockstar who has a handful of obsessive fans and yet is out of money and a relationship and estranged from his kids: sure. A nerdy guy who's just not very nice and also bored with his life? Yeah okay.

However, all characters were kinda annoying and nothing much was happening, so reading this felt pointless. I guess Hornby writes good inner lives and complex men and women et cetera, and at least there's no super-schmaltzy ending. I didn't care for the smalltown bashing, I don't like the title, nor the cover. On to the next Hornby!