Not a fanI've read two books by Sally Rooney now and both of them have been misses. Normal People and Beautiful World, Where Are You? And both of them just did not work with me. I was unable to like fully connect to either of them.
Review 1 of 2
Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021)
Others: Mostly positive Three friends and a hanger-on gradually coalesce into two couples.
- ISBN:
- 9780374602604
- Length:
- 352 pages
Genres: romance, literary fiction
Lists: …
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1 of 6
Normal People
Sally Rooney
2018 · 273 pages · 26 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveAt school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers - one they are determined to conceal. A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other. Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also literary fiction and romance48%On 5+ of the same lists28%2 creators loved bothPersonalize your recommendations24%Second Place
Rachel Cusk
2021 · 184 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveFrom the author of the Outline trilogy, a fable of human destiny and decline, enacted in a closed system of intimate, fractured relationships. A woman invites a famed artist to visit the remote coastal region where she lives, in the belief that his vision will penetrate the mystery of her life and landscape. His provocative presence provides the frame for a study of female fate and male privilege, of the geometries of human relationships, and of the struggle to live morally in the intersecting spaces of our internal and external worlds. With its examination of the possibility that art can both save and destroy us, Rachel Cusk's Second Place is deeply affirming of the human soul, while grappling with its darkest demons.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 4 of the same lists64%Also literary fiction27%Jack Edwards loved bothPersonalize your recommendations9%Everything I Know About Love
Dolly Alderton
2018 · 368 pages · 3 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveThe wildly funny, occasionally heartbreaking internationally bestselling memoir about growing up, growing older, and learning to navigate friendships, jobs, loss, and love along the ride When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming an adult, journalist and former Sunday Times columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir, she vividly recounts falling in love, finding a job, getting drunk, getting dumped, realizing that Ivan from the corner shop might just be the only reliable man in her life, and that absolutely no one can ever compare to her best girlfriends. Everything I Know About Love is about bad dates, good friends and—above all else— realizing that you are enough. Glittering with wit and insight, heart and humor, Dolly Alderton’s unforgettable debut weaves together personal stories, satirical observations, a series of lists, recipes, and other vignettes that will strike a chord of recognition with women of every age—making you want to pick up the phone and tell your best friends all about it. Like Bridget Jones’ Diary but all true, Everything I Know About Love is about the struggles of early adulthood in all its terrifying and hopeful uncertainty.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 5+ of the same lists49%Also romance31%3 creators loved bothPersonalize your recommendations20%Open Water
Caleb Azumah Nelson
2021 · 160 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positive"In a crowded London pub, two young people meet. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists--he a photographer, she a dancer--and both are trying to make their mark in a world that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence, and over the course of a year they find their relationship tested by forces beyond their control. Narrated with deep intimacy, Open Water is at once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity that asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body; to be vulnerable when you are only respected for strength; to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, and blistering emotional intelligence, Caleb Azumah Nelson gives a profoundly sensitive portrait of romantic love in all its feverish waves and comforting beauty. This is one of the most essential debut novels of recent years, heralding the arrival of a stellar and prodigious young talent"--
Why?
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Also literary fiction and romance60%On 3 of the same lists30%Jack Edwards loved bothPersonalize your recommendations10%I'm a Fan
Sheena Patel
2023 · 216 pages · 2 reviews
Others: MixedIn I'm A Fan, a single speaker uses the story of their experience in a seemingly unequal, unfaithful relationship as a prism through which to examine the complicated hold we each have on one another. With a clear and unforgiving eye, the narrator unpicks the behaviour of all involved, herself included, and makes startling connections between the power struggles at the heart of human relationships and those of the wider world, in turn offering a devastating critique of access, social media, patriarchal hetero-normative relationships, and our cultural obsession with status and how that status is conveyed. In this incredible debut, Sheena Patel announces herself as a vital new voice in literature, capable of rendering a range of emotions and visceral experiences on the page. Sex, violence, politics, tenderness, humour—Patel handles them all with both originality and dexterity of voice.
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What made the match, strongest first
Also literary fiction and romance64%On the same reading list25%Jack Edwards loved bothPersonalize your recommendations11%My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Ottessa Moshfegh
2018 · 304 pages · 10 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveIt's early 2000 on New York City's Upper East Side, and the alienation of Moshfegh's unnamed young protagonist from others is nearly complete when she initiates her yearlong siesta, during which time she experiences limited personal interactions. Her parents have died; her relationships with her bulimic best friend Reva, an ex-boyfriend, and her drug-pushing psychiatrist are unwholesome. As her pill-popping intensifies, so does her isolation and determination to leave behind the world's travails. She is also beset by dangerous blackouts induced by a powerful medication.
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What made the match, strongest first
On 5+ of the same lists49%Also literary fiction33%Jack Edwards loved bothPersonalize your recommendations18%
Not a fan
Loved itWhat I did really like about this book is that all the characters felt relatable in that they were young and they didn't really know who they were.
Loved itthis book does feel like go girl give us nothing except I really enjoyed the nothing
Review 1 of 3
Not a fanI found this book incredibly boring incredibly redundant
Review 1 of 2
Mixedsome aspects of the story were not my favorite I'll be honest there were certain things in this book that I found problematic but the end of the story the way all the Loose Ends got tied together was satisfactory and fulfilling for me personally the only character I just did not like was Felix I could not stand him but apart from that the overall book was pretty great for me
Loved itI really loved Beautiful World, Where Are You... it's just really exceptionally well done.
Loved itAnd I feel like Beautiful World, Where Are You is a really mature departure from her previous works, but also still just glimmering with her characteristic style. … So I thought this was profound and dazzling in its ordinariness? And just so perceptive.
Loved iti was completely kind of sucked in and addicted and obsessed with reading this book so just enjoyable ... sally rooney is just a brilliant writer who at once can have these massive big conversations as well as doing tiny intimate portraits
Loved itbeautiful world where are you which came out this year in september and normal people adored all of them
Loved iti was really impressed with beautiful world where are you i think i gave this book four stars but it still made its way into my favorite books of the year just because the reading experience i had with it was just so amazing