Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Story of a New Name

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante

50 reviews

franciscalmr's review against another edition

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emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

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marikareads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

4.0

I wish I could write everything that's on my mind right now, but that would take waaay too long, so I'm just going to compress my thoughts into a few lines:

After reading two books, I understand Lila's desperation, but sometimes that makes her truly evil.
Lenù on the other hand is still as obsessed with being better than her, but gets better in the second half of the book after

she publishes her novel

and starts to believe in herself a little bit more.
There are scenes that are truly sad and disgusting, which are sadly the reflection of those times.
I feel deeply for Lenù after she was

basically r*ped by Donato Sarratore

and didn't even understand the enormity of what happened to her.
I also feel for Lila, being trapped into a toxic marriage and fighting hard for her freedom to live and

to love whoever she wants to(even if it's Nino, the boy that Elena had feelings for and that she totally knew about).

The ending was quite surprising, we'll see what happens in the next instalment of the series!

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carojust's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

Oh, I'm emotionally invested. Definitely read these in order. This book builds on Elena and Lina's lives after Lina's wedding, and we follow them into young adulthood with the same gravity and detail as the first book.

The first half was a drag for me, and suddenly I raced through the second half in a day, after the turning point during their beach vacation. Nino Sarratore, count your days.

Lina, who bothered me only a little in the first book, absolutely drove me up the wall in this one. I have a friend who made the same decisions in real life as this character does, and am stunned at the exact psychological pattern both follow. Elena Ferrante has a power in reflecting precise emotions and turmoil that are so frighteningly real.

I'm left so satisfied with how Elena's life is evolving, and while there are no winners in this story, I'll continue rooting for her, the idea of her that I hold inside myself.

I think it's the obsessive inadequacy, the verbose and constant reflection, the natural tendency to empathize, that makes this series feel like womanhood, itself. I better understand why this series has captured so many of us.

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maddelleine's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

Blame it on the translation... or at least partly on the translation.
I've read the first volume in English and found it dry, with a basic vocabulary - despite the character who actively works on developing her own vocabulary and culture. Yes, Lenu and Lila have grown up, they matured. But not enough to justify the gap between the two books. I'm just sorry I can't advance with my reading in Italian, to see "what the author meant" in her own words.

The second volume of the Neapolitan Quartet kept me hooked. Reading one chapter, I craved the next and the next and then another one until my eyes became blurry and I would know I had to stop. I moved over the shock of the violence and context from the first volume, and I was able now to focus better on the characters. And I wanted to know how the story continued, what happened next.

A very well-written novel - the action is clearly not its main goal, but the characters, their lives and evolution. And the characters have as many profundities and facets as onion leaves, waiting to be uncovered one by one.

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