Reviews

Love & Virtue by Diana Reid

Only show reviews with written explanations

cestelaine's review

4.0

I was quite uncertain about this one when I started reading it, thinking I’d stumbled into another YA stereotype of a novel, but it surprised me in the best ways.

Reid is superb.

persuadingdaisies's review

Go to review page

challenging reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

pippa_monckton's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.75

This was very interesting but the entire time it felt like it was about to do something really impactful, like it was leading somewhere but it never actually got there. Even when the moments that seemed to be the climactic ones happened, it just felt like they were wasted opportunities.

lbhreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

‘love and virtue’ is a campus novel following the friendship of 2 young women in their first year of university in sydney as they grapple with power dynamics, sex, philosophy, privilege, and the lines of consent.

this book feels like a mixture of ‘my last innocent year’ and ‘thirst for salt’, both in terms of the writing styles and the themes explored. but similarly to how i felt about ‘my last innocent year’, while the premise and commentary is strong, i think the novel was a little ambitious in everything it tried to explore within its 300 pages, making some aspects feel less developed than others. while no author or novel could ever provide clear-cut answers to the themes explored in this book, after reading this i was left with the feeling that this book was trying to say something poignant, but sadly never really got there.