Review: You by Caroline Kepnes

This book had a terrifying air to it. Joe’s obsession was clearly highlighted by his lack of description of much other than Beck and this is where the choice of first person was key. The lack of time spent on Benji’s death really struck me and made me realise properly how messed up Joe was.

I must admit that I watched the Netflix adaptation first and there was a time when the book was a let down in comparison to this. The series seemed to take it’s time from when Joe enters therapy till Beck’s death but in the book it seemed rushed. I feel like the book could have had another fifty or a hundred pages and I would have loved to have an extended version of that time.

(Goodreads parallel) 

Review: Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

The realness of this book was what struck me most about it. I could so easily see Elio as a real seventeen-year-old boy with all of the emotion and lust and confusion that comes with that. It also meant that when he did things that I didn’t particularly like, or agree with, I wasn’t as upset or as disappointed as I would have been if he had been portrayed as a falsely understanding or knowledgeable character.

Another point of realness is that this book is not a fantasy love story. A lot of such stories have obstacles that keep the characters apart, which this book does have, but then they shift to the characters being together forever and dealing with all the problems that face their relationship together. This book doesn’t have that element; Elio and Oliver are together for two weeks and they end and it’s heart-breaking, but it’s also real. You don’t end up with everyone that you fall in love with and you’re denied time together with such people, but that’s life. An important message that this novel puts across is that someone can be very definitive in your life and play a huge role in shaping your future, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll be a part of your future.

This book is Elio looking back at the time that he and Oliver were together, and the novel reads really well as that. In our memories, some things stick out more than most and usually I would be annoyed with a lack of certain descriptions, which could have easily added another hundred or so pages to this book, but in this case, I wasn’t because that’s not what this book is.

This book managed to make me happy, sad, disgusted, angry and most other emotions in between. Still, a week after I finished it, I find myself continuing to go back and reading the final few paragraphs again; that’s the impact it has.

(Goodreads parallel)