A review by abbruzzese
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

funny reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The truth is, you like Julian because he enables this perception you have of yourself as a detached person. Plenty of people are willing to offer you intimacy. That terrifies you. You prefer feeling like no one will ever love you.

the more i read books written by authors with a similar writing style to sally rooney, the more i realize how much i dislike sally rooney's writing. naoise dolan writes the way sally rooney thinks she does. at least that's how i think of it. dolan's writing has the wit and humour and snark needed to balance out the sociopolitical commentary and regretful introspection (much of which is so accurately reflected upon myself that it is equal parts terrifying and thrilling).

i think it's very understandable and important for a girl to have a man who she hates solely on the grounds that he does nothing to justify her feeling any other way about him. someone with whom she can say, "no, there's no genuine contempt here, however a slight animosity is the only mutual feeling either of us can play up convincingly enough to give this relationship any sort of flavour, so that's how it is." because being able to think like that—if you cared as little about me as you claim you do, you'd have gotten rid of me long ago. and because i am still here, i know this lack of consideration for me is a facade, and i can enjoy the fun that being mean brings without the usual worry that it is all based in something real.—is so good for a girl's psyche, actually. i am lucky enough to have a boy like this in my life. 
it is very refreshing from other friendships, where there is no hatred, and also from other enemyships, where the hatred is real and means there's something unlikeable—and, consequently, wrong—about me.

however, there are lots of things about this book that make it a bad book fundamentally. mostly, there is a lot of casual racism that is written so plainly it is easy to miss if you don't tend to pick up on things like that (which i don't, something i know is problematic in my own being and indicative of the inherent privilege i have as a white person who can read racist things and not think too hard about them at first). there is no reason for being set in hong kong. you could pick this story up and drop it into the middle of any non-white country and achieve the exact same result. even so, despite being set in hong kong, the main characters are both white. if we divide ava's social circles into categories of  friends, work colleagues, and families, only one category—friends—has any non-white people in it. and even so, half of it is still white (there are only two people in said category, julian and edith, but i rest my case). 

overall i did enjoy reading this book. except i think i missed the big meanings and lessons and morals. after finishing it, i have a bit of a sour taste in my mouth caused by realizing things that didn't occur to me while reading (re: casual racism). also, i can't really grasp how things play out between ava and edith in the end. i largely dislike books with vague, unspecified endings, and sorry to say it but this book had one of them. but i can just invent a proper ending in my head and go on with my life, so that's not too troubling. 
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