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whoanelle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This is not your typical romance book, it feels similar to Emily Austin’s writing except almost zero character development.
The ending was confusing and honestly so was some of the writing as someone who comes from a low income background and the U.S I didn’t understand certain parts.
I don’t know if I’d recommend this but once you start it, no matter how terrible the characters I feel like you’ll want to see it through. That’s the kind of book this is!
Minor: Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Xenophobia
aileron's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Classism
Minor: Racism, Medical content, and Colonisation
thatswhatshanread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The humor in this book is incredibly dry and clever, sneaks up on you. Story and dialogue is simple but full of intellect. Characters feel evasive but real, monotonous day-to-day life of twentysomethings who hate harping on their privilege but definitely take advantage of it. Dolan’s wit is sharp and relentless at times, which works well for the temperament of our main character, Ava. Her not-boyfriend Julian is very noncommittal and quite dull, actually, but his and Ava’s routine of being somewhere between roommates and FWB is interesting although played out. Thus, it is with the turn of the arrival of Edith into Ava’s life that shoots the plot into more compelling territory, though not altogether interesting, even with the announcement of love between them. In any case, the writing is great and very introspective. Many comparisons can be drawn to Sally Rooney, beyond them both being Irish authors of the same age. This one was quite similar to the plot of “Conversations With Friends”, but less engaging, and I do find that Rooney’s writing carries more weight to it.
Dolan’s take on the daily rituals of an Irish millennial living abroad is very functional and slice of life. I didn’t really care for any of the characters, which is not always great when a story is character-driven. In the end, I found myself skimming through paragraphs. I wished for more plot. But that is another pointed joke of Dolan’s—a book called “Exciting Times” with very little excitement.
There were many quotes I liked, especially this one:
“We were the sum of the routines we’d built around each other.”
Graphic: Cursing and Infidelity
Moderate: Sexual content, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault
alisonfaith426's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Cursing, Sexual assault, Abortion, and Colonisation
annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
i want to talk about the ending. at first i was disappointed, asking myself how the author could think that's a good place to stop. but i read it back and there's more to it:
Moderate: Biphobia, Cursing, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual content, Abortion, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Colonisation
eleanor029's review against another edition
2.5
I hate the trope of bi girl having a really good relationship with a woman, but still ending up with a man. Avas reasons for staying with him are low-key, toxic.
Minor: Sexual assault
rian_b's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Minor: Sexual assault
randomheart's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
So...I do really like the setting of this book. I don't think I've ever read a book set in Hong Kong before, but I thought that the setting was written in a pretty immersive way (love the use of the street names and the various locations in Hong Kong). I've been there a few times, and have relatives that have lived and worked there as well, so there was something comforting about the setting for me.
I also thought that the technical explanations of language was quite interesting...it made me realise a lot of things I'd never really thought about (as someone that speaks English as a first language). There's so much that I didn't realise had to be learned that just comes innately to English speakers just because we're used to it. I liked how it was noted that the parents of these children only wanted them to learn a specific type of English too (no slang, colloquial language, etc.), which definitely seemed realistic to my own experiences (my mother, like Edith's, is Singaporean...so I was brought up speaking Singlish too).
I can see why people compare Dolan's writing to Sally Rooney's. Of course, they're both Irish, but this book had a similar mundanity, focus on relationships/connection and internal characterisations to a lot of Rooney's books...but I feel like there's a key difference there. Whilst Rooney's writing, for me at least, always has a simplicity and ease while reading, Dolan's tends to be too overwrought and long-winded to flow in the same way that Rooney's does. It's not a long novel, but it FEELS long because of the way that it's written. Sometimes I didn't know whether it was because I was just too stupid to understand what was going on (was it too cerebral?), or was it just too needlessly complicated for its own good? Did every second word in this book need to be so long that it sounded like it was from a spelling bee competition? Using big words doesn't make a book 'smarter' or more sophisticated. As a former 22-23 year old, I also just don't feel like most of them speak like that either?
Interestingly though, I do think that Ava's thoughts and actions (aside from some of the language used), was pretty typical of someone in their early twenties...so I did feel like there was definitely some realism there. Her low self-esteem, the way she projected all her insecurities on both Julian and Edith (always thinking that they thought a certain way about her without actually hearing it from them themselves) were relatable to me. Her self-centredness (and inability to communicate her actual feelings to Julian and Edith out loud), whilst true to life, was quite frustrating. I didn't really like any of the characters in this novel (Edith was okay, at least), but I do think that they were interestingly written. Julian and Edith always felt a little less fleshed out, but that makes sense since everything is told from Ava's point of view, and she's quite an unreliable narrator. You're never really sure if she's reading things correctly, or if she just thinks she is because she doesn't really seem to be able to see things from other people's perspectives unless it relates in some way to her own. I think because of this, although her character has obviously grown from the start, it doesn't feel like there's been enough character development overall for this novel to feel completely satisfying.
Although I do think that some of the writing was a tad pretentious at times, there were some turns of phrase and observations that I did like a lot or that I found insightful. I didn't dislike anything in this novel whatsoever...and I generally like character driven books even if they're mundane with no real plot, but admittedly, I just think that this one went over my head at times.
3/5
Minor: Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
skudiklier's review against another edition
- 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
"The best wedges of words were the ones my eight-year-olds wrote: I like her face. With her I am happy. I wished I’d never learned more advanced grammar and could only make sentences like that. It would give me an excuse to say them aloud."
Anyway. This book didn't really go anywhere and I'm not sure the characters are very good in any real way, but I enjoyed the narration for sure. It's interesting and I'd recommend it to some people, but not everyone.
Graphic: Biphobia, Cursing, and Infidelity
Moderate: Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Lesbophobia, and Colonisation
Minor: Racism
hello_lovely13's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Rape
Minor: Sexual assault and Abortion