A review by hannahmayhere
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This book.... yikes. Where to even begin? The premise is something I just can’t get behind. Main character is 16. Older dude who is a college professor comes into the picture and a “romance” ensures. The entire book portrays their explicitly sexual relationship as this once in a lifetime love experience and I just have a fundamental issue with that.

Also, the completely weird and just not okay peach and toilet scenes. Unacceptable. 

Add in the fact that the main character fantasizes about rape? And also about the “love interest” being killed to relieve him of his desires? And that at one point the wishes the other character would be in a wheelchair so that he would “be superior to him”?? And in one line the main character casually compares a peach to a rape victim? Wayyyy crosses multiple lines for me. 

There are some ways the author writes that I appreciate and found some passages to be beautifully written - hence the 2 stars and not 1. But I would not recommend this book to anyone.
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