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

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

okay, my fingers are trembling while I write this because i finished the book like, 2 seconds ago. I wonder what sort of power an author can have to portray something so realistic, so scary and terrifying and just as ordinary, as something so epitomozingly beautiful. only 1 star less because in the middle of the book, the emails where alice and Eileen talked about the bronze age and the concepts of aesthetics and beauty, it felt quite like an info dump. and while it does tickle me that they couldve just exchanged numbers, emails read like letters and perhaps thats why they have more of an effect. I'm still, as a reader and person, very very young and the characters are much older and do seem to me to be much wiser, the mistakes they make and the flaws they have and the recourses they take makes me wonder. i dont know what exactly it makes me wonder because somewhere along the way i lose the track of the thought-yarn, but it does make me wonder. the fact that i related to alice and eileen and felix and simon and lola, too. the fact that being horrible at one point in life doesn't paint your entire future. or the fact that they loved life at some point, fell down a rabbit hole of meaningless in their own way, and somehow still scrambled up and took a hold of their winning branch; doesnt matter whether that be staying alive. i guess it just reiterates the fact that older people say life actually starts living when you reach your 30s, because that was where the characters were at the end. and I don't know, but it just filled me with a little bit of hope. perhaps the old people really don't lie about the fact that it gets better. perhaps I'll just stick around and find out because this book gave me a beautiful and valid reason to. and honestly, all thanks to my favourite youtube podcast mic guy jack edwards who yapped so much about sally rooney. otherwise i mightve never picked up this new book from the school library's shelves, let alone be the first person to write their name on the issue card. and i dont really know if this is a proper review or if I make any sense, but I guess thats okay. nobody is probably going to give 2 cents to what nonsense ive typed here anyways, haha. i mean. this book is amazing, alright? you should go read it, too. if you're into the kind of feels i felt when i read this book (if ive even been able to convey what I felt properly). and even if you think this book wasn't your cup of tea thats alright too. nobody is above or below anybody, I think we all just have our own horizons and thats okay. now i dont know what im yapping about. I'll go. bye! (also pardon my grammatical and any other errors I've probably made, please and thank you ♡) also, i loved the fact that she used the american minimalist style of writing. we just learned about it in school like, 2 months ago, and it all just seems very new and interesting and a nice change. :]