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

hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I need to address that Sally Rooney's writing is not my cup of tea. Beautiful World, Where Are You often feels dull and at certain points, even tiresome for the impersonal narrative voice, not to mention many abrupt viewpoint shifts in a single paragraph, all of which almost made me give up the book. Compared to her previous novel Normal People, there is a strong stepping-up in terms of the attention to detail by the author. And while this level of specificity helps identify the characters in the grand scheme of the story, bringing to life their personality, it has become excruciatingly tedious due to the sterile voice throughout. On the point of storytelling, however, the new novel is clearly a step-down. Up until chapter 28/30, even though the pacing is slow, it is at least consistent

as opposed to the eighteen-month time skip in chapters 29 and 30. Set in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the two final chapters present the characters in a blithely optimistic light as to their current state of mind and life—which, considering the general vibe and atmosphere brought on in previous chapters, is not as justified as it should be. And for myself, in particular, the cheery take on the book's ending has somewhat killed its poetic element, a feature that Normal People was able to highlight with its open-ended resolution

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