Book Review: Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

“People who intentionally become famous—I mean people who, after a little taste of fame, want more and more of it—are, and I honestly believe this, deeply psychologically ill. The fact that we are exposed to these people everywhere in our culture, as if they are not only normal but attractive and enviable, indicates the extent of our disfiguring social disease. There is something wrong with them, and when we look at them and learn from them, something goes wrong with us.”

Sally Rooney. Beautiful World, Where Are You

Review:

I knew going into this book that the style of writing was going to be different than what I am used to, so I actually started this as an audiobook to avoid the whole ‘no quotation marks’ issue. I have read books written in this style in the past and enjoyed them, so I wasn’t super intimidated. What got to me was the run-on paragraphs that did not need to be run-on paragraphs, along with the dull plot. I ended up switching to the ebook.

There isn’t a plot so much as there are relationships being discussed and lived out. Most of it is told in retrospect, however, eliminating any sense of urgency to the story. The relationships are complicated, yet. uninteresting, in my opinion. Others may relate more.

The only parts of the book I found even moderately engaging were the more philosophical discussions. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to salvage the book for me as it fell against a backdrop of emptiness. Long story short, I discovered that I am not a Sally Rooney girlie. I have Normal People sitting on my shelf and I’ll probably give that a go at some point, but not in the near future.

Likes & Dislikes:

What I liked:

• Some of the more philosophical discussions between the characters.

What I didn’t like:

• Lack of plot.
• Just use quotations, please. I don’t understand the point of not using proper grammar and punctuation when writing a book.

Afterthoughts:

I actually did want to enjoy this. I love the cover so much, but now I can’t justify hanging onto my copy.

Where to buy the book: