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A review by jjuliaagriss
Find Me by André Aciman
1.0
WHAT?! I literally cannot believe that this book exists and I went into this knowing that Elio and Oliver don't show up until the last like 10 pages!
The first like 50% is from Elio's father, Samuel (or the endearing "Sami"), which I was excited about because I really liked his characterization in the first book. But WHAT DID I LITERALLY just read? IT was so cringey because it took all the bad parts of the "older man having a mid-life crisis meets manic pixie" trope and tried to make it digestible. Here are some truly standout scenes that is nothing but the author trying really, really, really hard to make us believe this meet cut is a once-in-a-lifetime-all-consuming-true type of love:
- age ain't nothing but a number
- fucking only in true form aka no brushing teeth or showering, etc.
- she doesn't wear nail polish like ~other women~
- claim to want to move in/ have a baby together when they've known each other for less than a day (keep in mind that this is RARE for Mira bc she can't settle down)
- she can’t keep relationships and even her dad knows this
- Mira admitting her darkest secret to Sam (which was wanting her brother to fuck her at fifteen... HUH??)
- they both have these deep, raw, real, true emotional talks bc they just GET each other
It's literally painful to dredge through and there were many times I wanted to DNF this book. But I pushed through because I was eventually rewarded with Elio's chapters. But JOKES ON ME because it begins with Elio ALSO meet-cuteing an older man (who talks about his dad WAY TOO MUCH if you ask me) that turns into a weird "let's solve my dying father's request" to find out who this Léon character is. The only nice thing about this section was that adult Elio is still reminiscent of his teen years, and still pines for Oliver after all this time (cute but heartbreaking).
Oliver's section I didn't care about (bc he just talks about all these people at his going away party he wants to get with) UNTIL the piano moment. He then realizes, I guess the encompassing theme of the novel, that relationships are messy and constantly changing. But that the one constant in his life was and is Elio. Skip to the best parts of the novel - the ending LOL mostly bc we finally get to see our boys together again... for like 5 pages...
At first I gave this a 2 star rating but even the select beautiful quotes (that came from Elio and Oliver’s chapters) and the fact Elio and Oliver meet again doesn’t make this worth the read tbh.
I really feel like this should have been a standalone novel and not a sequel to CMBYN (mainly because I doubt I would have read it LOL). Let's just leave it at that.
The first like 50% is from Elio's father, Samuel (or the endearing "Sami"), which I was excited about because I really liked his characterization in the first book. But WHAT DID I LITERALLY just read? IT was so cringey because it took all the bad parts of the "older man having a mid-life crisis meets manic pixie" trope and tried to make it digestible. Here are some truly standout scenes that is nothing but the author trying really, really, really hard to make us believe this meet cut is a once-in-a-lifetime-all-consuming-true type of love:
Spoiler
- Miranda calling his dick a lighthouse then wanting to GET A TATTOO OF IT NEXT TO HER VAGINA- age ain't nothing but a number
- fucking only in true form aka no brushing teeth or showering, etc.
- she doesn't wear nail polish like ~other women~
- claim to want to move in/ have a baby together when they've known each other for less than a day (keep in mind that this is RARE for Mira bc she can't settle down)
- she can’t keep relationships and even her dad knows this
- Mira admitting her darkest secret to Sam (which was wanting her brother to fuck her at fifteen... HUH??)
- they both have these deep, raw, real, true emotional talks bc they just GET each other
It's literally painful to dredge through and there were many times I wanted to DNF this book. But I pushed through because I was eventually rewarded with Elio's chapters. But JOKES ON ME because it begins with Elio ALSO meet-cuteing an older man (who talks about his dad WAY TOO MUCH if you ask me) that turns into a weird "let's solve my dying father's request" to find out who this Léon character is. The only nice thing about this section was that adult Elio is still reminiscent of his teen years, and still pines for Oliver after all this time (cute but heartbreaking).
Oliver's section I didn't care about (bc he just talks about all these people at his going away party he wants to get with) UNTIL the piano moment. He then realizes, I guess the encompassing theme of the novel, that relationships are messy and constantly changing. But that the one constant in his life was and is Elio. Skip to the best parts of the novel - the ending LOL mostly bc we finally get to see our boys together again... for like 5 pages...
At first I gave this a 2 star rating but even the select beautiful quotes (that came from Elio and Oliver’s chapters) and the fact Elio and Oliver meet again doesn’t make this worth the read tbh.
I really feel like this should have been a standalone novel and not a sequel to CMBYN (mainly because I doubt I would have read it LOL). Let's just leave it at that.