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heyyyitsjp's review against another edition
4.0
I really loved this book. The translation was beautiful and totally gave a Call Me By Your Name vibe (time for a reread!). But, in better news than CMBYN, we don’t have the age gap to feel uneasy about, and are left with a beautiful love story!!
shipmistress's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
batrock's review against another edition
3.0
Molly Ringwald, of all people, translates Philippe Besson’s novel about an author recalling a relationship he had in high school, and the bifurcations lives can take. Sparing prose that sometimes asks questions that may not have been intended, like “does the word for ‘crushed’ in French automatically mean ‘hit by a car’?, combined with a whisper thin run time, create a slight mood piece that offers a predictable yet believable finale.
simonlitton's review against another edition
4.0
Powerful yet delicate love story. At first it felt a little unoriginal; the classic tale of lost youth and first love, but without anything new to say. But it takes a turn in the final third and becomes shocking and very moving.
andrewmaher's review against another edition
4.0
“…and that I already know I will never be so happy again.”
It hit me harder than I expected, a wonderful novella of first love, perhaps the only true love, the first is always the most impactful and sometimes most damaging.
It hit me harder than I expected, a wonderful novella of first love, perhaps the only true love, the first is always the most impactful and sometimes most damaging.
annikahe04's review against another edition
4.25
“I just wanted to write to tell you that I have been happy during these months together, that I have never been so happy, and that I already know I will never be so happy again.”
“This feeling of love, it transports me, it makes me happy. At the same time, it consumes me and makes me miserable, the way all impossible loves are miserable.”
“He smiled so that I could take his smile with me.”
“This feeling of love, it transports me, it makes me happy. At the same time, it consumes me and makes me miserable, the way all impossible loves are miserable.”
“He smiled so that I could take his smile with me.”
akovach's review against another edition
4.0
Thoughtful and melancholic quick read. Really enjoyed.
"I tell myself that pleasing him was just an illusion, and that pleasure itself lasts only as long as an embrace in a closet."
"...above all that a place is not a question of topography but rather the way that we describe it - not a photograph but an impression."
"And the feeling of never quite belonging, of being a person uprooted, as if, maybe, who knows, a sense of not belonging is something one inherits."
"I tell myself that pleasing him was just an illusion, and that pleasure itself lasts only as long as an embrace in a closet."
"...above all that a place is not a question of topography but rather the way that we describe it - not a photograph but an impression."
"And the feeling of never quite belonging, of being a person uprooted, as if, maybe, who knows, a sense of not belonging is something one inherits."