A review by liilykke
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

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

3.0

 Sometimes I think I was afraid that without him my life would be just the same, or even worse, and I would have to accept that it was my fault. And it was easier and safer to stay in a bad situation than to take responsibility for getting out. Maybe, maybe. I don’t know. I tell myself that I want to live a happy life, and that the circumstances for happiness just haven’t arisen. But what if that’s not true? What if I’m the one who can’t let myself be happy? Because I’m scared, or I prefer to wallow in self-pity, or I don’t believe I deserve good things, or some other reason. Whenever something good happens to me I always find myself thinking: I wonder how long it will be until this turns out badly. And I almost want the worst to happen sooner, sooner rather than later, and if possible straight away, so at least I don’t have to feel anxious about it anymore. 
I picked this novel to get me back into my reading habits. I didn't really enjoyed the book and the only character i liked was Felix. The last 100 pages had a good build up. One thing about Sally Rooney's characters is that it feels redundant to call them out for being tone deaf on the issues they're speaking on. I feel like any judgement about their temperament can be excused by "they're just flawed that way".  Some of the emails-essays were interesting, others was a total snooze. One thing i noticed is that there is little to no humor in her books? I wonder why