A review by cassreading
The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

After finishing the Neapolitan quartet, I feel that strange emptiness that comes from exiting a literary world that has become almost more real than your own. These books, especially this last one, are philosophical, concerned with the boundaries of selfhood and identity, with violence, passion, politics, and the meaning of the written word, without being overbearing the way a lot of literary fiction is. That's because the whole epic is really driven by Elena and Lila, two amazingly fleshed out and dynamic characters who have such a rich, complex (toxic?) relationship. Their lives are so wonderfully and horribly intertwined, and reading about them is a really incredible experience. I loved these books, and I could gush about them all day long.
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