Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - L'amica geniale

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

L'amica geniale by Elena Ferrante

21 reviews

juliacoutinho's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Os sentimentos conflitantes entre a Lenu e a Lila são muito comoventes. As duas não sabem, mas elas são as pessoas mais importantes da vida uma da outra e o amor e o ressentimento que as duas sentem uma pela outra é muito humano. Elas são pessoas reais pra mim e eu pude sentir e viver tudo que elas sentiram e viveram ao longo da história. A gente passa o livro inteiro pensando: “Se elas conseguissem ser honestas uma com a outra, tudo seria tão melhor”, mas a vida e o mundo que elas estão inseridas leva elas para caminhos diferentes como uma maré, que te puxa pro mar aberto. Eu gostei muito desse livro e quero ler os próximos logo, já sei que estou diante de uma grande história.

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raybudbury's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-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

3.75

I’m intrigued so I will continue onto book #2 but this book made me really be like “wow these men suck and should all do time in prison/go to therapy/die etc”

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tourmalinequeen's review against another edition

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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? Yes

4.0

I read this for my book club. I did not expect to enjoy it. but here we are with a four star rating and partway through the sequel. It begins very slowly. The entire plot is the setting and characters, which is a departure from books I'd usually gravitate towards.

The setting is vividly drawn, post-WW2 Naples, in an area full of poverty. The narrator is first-person pov and the other main character is the titular "brilliant friend" who is the sort of friend who is only a friend when it suits. And the characters are flawed; they argue, are prideful and petty and childish (they are children for most of the book to be fair), and utterly compelling. If one has something the other doesn't there is both support and jealousy, which is so human and real to me.

The pace is glacial, and it took me a good quarter-to-third of the book to get into it, but once I was hooked I was hooked. It got to a point where I would start the audiobook just to ensure I got through the slog, but after so many chapters I realised I was looking forward to finding out what happened next. It sneaked up on me, and I am so glad it did.

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guavasoup's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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friendly_neighborhood_grandma's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

It felt very realistic and maybe therefor a bit underwhelming with all the hype around it. Read it if you want atmospherical poor napolitan neighborhood vibes, girlhood and the life of people that usually get glossed over.

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nikkimccooltaylor's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense medium-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

4.25

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miller8d's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

This book is brilliant in a way that makes me say “This is the story of a real life,” not “omg I love this book.” Like, I don’t really feel like I read a fictional story. (I actually have no clue if it’s autobiographical or not but I won’t google it because I don’t want to spoil it). Perhaps for that reason, this book took me an incredible long time to read. Like, months on end of picking it up and loving it, but being unable to pick it up again because it was so difficult to read. I don’t even think it was actually difficult literature for me, but instead so emotionally dense and detail-heavy that I couldn’t pay anything but 100% attention while reading, otherwise I’d have to go back dozens of pages to figure out why I was confused. Also,

this is perhaps the only book or story I’ve ever known which accurately depicts how tumultuous and confusing and painful it can be to survive childhood and grow up. I absolutely loved her depiction of how the child’s mind can equally spin fantasy and horrific terror on the same coin— not simple boogieman stuff, but much scarier, finding awful and disturbing fears in/around the mundane figures of your social world and daily life, even when there’s nothing truly wrong there.

Beautiful book.

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