Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

303 reviews

minnie_xx's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

real

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content

tadiwa_e's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

I cannot really express the experience I went through reading this book. Almost DNFed it 3 times… I am still processing. But I will say. What a beautifully written piece. I would not call it a romance but maybe a recollection of Elios memories. It was intimate and sometimes really intense. 

However I cannot get behind the age gap and power dynamics in the relationship. No matter how much Aciman tries to present it as something to be praised. For that I cannot give a higher rating. Some parts of this book also were disgusting… sorry… there’s no way THAT scene is going to be skipped past like it never happened. 

Overall I loved a lot of quotes in this book and it was thought provoking especially Elios Fathers speech at the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Misogyny

Minor: Child death, Cancer, and Death of parent

leahhmorriss's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

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

2.5

i enjoyed the movie but didn’t like the way the book was written. there was way too much of elio rambling on about how obsessed he was with oliver and not enough actual plot. 
i didn’t exactly like either of the main characters. elio’s obsession was creepy and weird and uncomfortable to read. oliver was clearly a groomer, it wasn’t even the age gap that got me it was oliver’s reaction to elio regretting their time together and how he was clearly manipulating a minor because of his guilt. 
for some reason, even though this book made me angry and uncomfortable multiple times, i still enjoyed the ending of them both being adults and reconnecting. i found myself wanting to read the second book even though i probably never will. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, and Toxic relationship

zamakodknjiga's review against another edition

challenging tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Kraj je bio emotivan i svideo mi se, zbog toga 3.25⭐️. Inače zaslužuje 3, osrednji je roman kada se sve sagleda. Imala sam love-hate odnos s glavnim likovima, mnogo toga mi je bilo diskutabilno, a pritom portretisano kao ljubav. Za mene je, uprkos kraju, to što su Eli i Oliver imali ništa više od privlačnosti i seksualne tenzije koju su na određeni način zadovoljili. Pritom, razlika u godinama, seksualizacija i fetišizam koju je Asiman prikazao definitivno nije u mojoj zoni komfora. Mislim da mi je na neki način ogadio breskve, to je sve što ću reći... 😵‍💫 Stil pisanja jeste donekle izvukao celokupnu knjigu. Ono u šta sam sigurna je da ovo definitivno nije LGBT knjiga u kojoj sam uživala, ali mi je drago da sam je pročitala jer bih mislila da sam propustila nešto. Krajem nisam ostala ravnodušna, ali je pomalo bilo prekasno da se vežem za likove. Ukoliko "možete da progutate" dozu pomalo čudnih seksualnih fantazija i okej vam je tinejdžerska dramatičnost prve ljubavi (to sam i uspela da preguram), verujem da bi vam knjiga bila u redu. Što se mene tiče, ja se s Asimanom više neću družiti, nije mi toliko legao koliko sam se nadala da hoće.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content

Moderate: Toxic relationship

milakzm's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad 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? It's complicated

2.5

snoozefest lowkey. movie is better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cancer, Death, Alcohol, and Sexual content

kris10coopah's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content

Minor: Antisemitism

jordan_noel's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-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? It's complicated

3.75

At first, I felt this book was an overly vulgar description of a teenager’s sexual awakening initiated by his attraction to an older, mature man. It felt like a summer romance and nothing more; a fling to be done with at the end. Maybe reminisced upon in an older age, but never a deep regret.

However, in Part 4, this suddenly felt like much more to me.

<SPOILER>

With loss, their romance could be clearly recognized as eros; something the readers could grieve with the characters. In Oliver’s forced complacency with his new wife and family and Elio’s determination to hang on to this brief moment in the past, it’s hard not to feel grief for such a short-lived happiness. What they had together doesn’t disappear as they age but it gets silenced and the characters are forced to live lives of dejection. If I could feel as much in the rest of the book as I felt in Part 4, I could find practically nothing to complain about in this book. Maybe it was the author’s intention to make us feel such deep regret after viewing their love as an initially silly romance, I don’t know. But I do feel this book greatly connects beauty and sexuality with a most turbulent and determined kind of love in a way that’s unique and unexplored in many modern love stories.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Excrement

Minor: Chronic illness, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Death

carlycormier_'s review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

The exploration of the psyche that Aciman takes you on is… just wow. This book captures a snapshot of all young people’s lives when they find themselves in their first relation/situation-ship that is all-encompassing, passionate, maddening, and the intricacies of figuring out yourself and life. You truly feel like you are Elio experiencing turbulent mental and emotional processes as he navigates his relationship with Oliver, his family, and, most importantly, himself. This narrative perspective opens a window into the unspoken depths of our minds. Elio has many racing, and racy, thoughts that we don't typically vocalize, which makes the book feel almost intrusive and voyeuristic at times.

"He came. He left. Nothing else had changed. I had not changed. The world hadn't changed. Yet nothing would be the same. All that remains is dreammaking and stranger remembrance."

Part Four will rip your heart out and put it back just so it can do it all over again.

The hazy, dream-like visuals and intense inner-monologues of remembering a life that equally feels distant and unreal, yet fresh, are the gems of this book. Memory is an additional, unspoken character woven through the storyline and the dialogue with billowy (wink wink) and effortless ease.

Palpable, visceral, intoxicating, bellissimo.

I have a feeling - I know, rather - that I will be thinking about this book for a long time. To add more to this review would do this book a major injustice. So, just read it for yourself and feel all of its beauty first-hand.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Adult/minor relationship

singalana's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Tämä kirja herätti ristiriitaisia tunteita, koska kokemus jakautui pääasiassa kolmeen tunnetilaan. Kirja kertoo, kuinka yhtenä kesänä 17-vuotias Elio rakastuu itseään seitsemän vuotta vanhempaan kesävieraaseen, Oliveriin. 

Kirjan alkupuoliskolla seuraamme Elion suorastaan pakkomielteistä ihastumista Oliveriin. Seuraa kiihkeä (ja hyvin graafinen) romanssi, ja sen jälkeen katkeransuloinen loppu, koska kesä on lopussa ja Oliverin täytyy mennä. 

Kirjassa kuvattiin elävästi kesää, Italiaa ja ihmisiä. Silti en päässyt päähenkilön kanssa oikein sinuiksi, ja osa kirjan sisällöstä sai aikaan vaivaantuneisuuden tunteita. Olisin halunnut tutustua enemmän muihin hahmoihin, etenkin Elion isään, mutta näkökulma pidetään hyvin tiiviisti Eliossa ja hänen suhteessan Oliverin. 

Suuren osan kirjasta vietämmekin Elion pään sisällä, siinä mitä hän ajattelee, suunnittelee ja muistelee. Hänen suhteensa Oliveriin on hyvin elävä, ja lopussa katkeransuloinen. Silti en voi antaa kirjalle tämän korkeampaa arvosanaa, sillä jotain jäi puuttumaan, ehkä jokin lopullinen yhteys hahmon ja lukijan välillä, jotain sellaista, joka olisi saanut lukijan rakastamaan Oliveria yhtä paljon kuin Elio. 

Tämän lisäksi loppua kohti kirjassa on paljon lainauksia italiaksi, ja itse koin ne hieman turhaksi.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Antisemitism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Infidelity, and Vomit

savvy999's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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? No

4.0

Moments of lush beautiful prose, but ultimately devastating in its candor and use of memory.  I have a lot more to say about the complexities of the subject matter— it’s most specific and reiterated criticism—and it’s deployment. In the end it did not feel like a love story it felt like a story of loss a permeating, unbalanced love and loss that takes a lifetime to get over. Whether or not the author meant to show the imbalances, the tilting house that young obsession and love bring is maybe not clear but I am taking from this book an understanding of the deeply felt and the skewed all in the same breath. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content

Minor: Antisemitism