Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

16 reviews

lokes's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I have absolutely no idea what to think about this book… there were a few good thoughts and passages (and many of those came off as quite pretentious), but none of them were more than very simple mentions, only brushing the actual topic. Also, the sex scenes were not my thing. They generally felt weird, especially when paired with the pseudo-catholic thought experiments about Jesus. And since I’m not the biggest fan of smut, a book where there is about 50/50 sex scenes and actual story (if you could call it that) doesn’t work for me. All in all, simply not my kind of story :/
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astrangewind's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Sally Rooney's storytelling style - rooted deeply in the inane details of every day life - becomes even more compelling in Beautiful World. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are each deeply flawed characters with deeply flawed relationships with themselves and each other; it's this complexity that makes them lovable. 

The "plot" (some might argue there is none) is interrupted with emails between Alice and Eileen, which serve primarily as the author's own philosophical projection. At first, I thought this was a little bit much, but by the end of the book I appreciated these vignettes as additional characterization of Alice and Eileen, and Felix and Simon by proxy. 

I loved these messy characters and their messy lives, and I rooted for them to the end. 
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lizziaha's review against another edition

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  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A

3.75

I appreciate sally rooney’s commitment to reality in the telling of this story. and I have to acknowledge that she writes characters that I relate to so deeply it’s uncomfortable. but the reality of it, while rendering it very thought-provoking at points, makes it boring at points. 
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zara89's review against another edition

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

4.25

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camillarossi's review against another edition

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

4.5

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scruffie's review against another edition

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

4.5

I felt like I could have done without the very elaborate descriptions of the protagonists' surroundings, but other than that I really liked this book. The characters felt complex and I quite enjoyed reading about their concerns, even if said concerns don't perfectly match my own. A highly quotable book.
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meredith_williams_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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danajoy's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This is not my first Sally Rooney. I'm one of the camp who read and loved Normal People (and was a bit too nervous to pick up Conversations with Friends as a result). I really enjoy her dialogue, the way she ignores the conventions so it occurs concurrently to everything else. There isn't much in the way of punctuation and occasionally it can be a but hard to work out who is talking but there is something about it I really like.

BWWAY didn't grab me in the same way that Normal People did. I found the characters pretty pretentious and immature. While the difficulty to communicate emotions felt very understandable for teenagers in this book the cast are almost thirty and feel like they're stuck in the mindset of self-important 20 year olds. The emails they send eachother are very philosophical and felt a bit too long and essay like to me. 
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claragweny's review against another edition

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

4.0

A nice, easy to listen to audiobook. I found myself surprised by the significant number of emails in the book but I absolutely loved it. I’m a big fan of epistolary novels so loving this wasn’t a very far stretch for me. The dynamic between Simon and Eileen was a bit strange for me but the way these characters acknowledge the age gap/power dynamic in the story felt genuine. Felix was most definitely my favorite character in the story. His short, funny manner mixed with his indifferent queerness made me want to see more of him. If Sally Rooney wrote a story about Felix I would read it in a heartbeat. 
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storykath's review against another edition

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

4.5

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