it took me four months to read this coz i was going through a very significant book slump, probably still am, but i decided to lock in with a cup of coffee and read the last third of the book in one evening. so here are my thoughts.
quite frankly, i did not understand the point of this book during the first two-thirds of it. i could see the web of interactions between the characters but what, in the end, did it mean? by the time i read the last line, i realised that this book was not about a simple binary relationship, but a character study of dynamics with four different people. the story literally starts the night bobbi and frances meet melissa and nick for a reason. perhaps it was by comphet design that i kept dismissing bobbi and melissa's role in the story at first, but as i kept on reading, i realised that frances couldn't outgrow bobbi the way nick couldn't outgrow melissa, and by making these two relationships meet each other, it created an ecosystem with balance stemming from codepency that gave everyone a crucial part of something they wanted and made them better than they were before. it all sounds pretty complicated because it is. i rather enjoyed the last part of the book. but as much as i understand and appreciate it, i also have to state my grievances. sally rooney's books are objectively thinly veiled semi-autobiographies in the way they state her opinions and share themes. marianne and frances are two sides of the same coin. the submissive-dominance thing is also something that is present in Normal People. in fact, i commented that CwF felt like a prototype to Normal People. they both explore codepency, only that the latter is with more concentration and tact. rooney's writing style is very blunt and to the point, which oftentimes falls into a severe case of telling not showing and evokes a sense of emotional disassociation, which, while successful in conveying what the characters feel half the time, falls flat during times when the reader is required to connect to emotionally charged conversations, which in this style, read like just words on paper devoid of life. so yes, lots of gripes on my part. i don't want to make this too long so i'll stick with this much. i mostly hated this, but i'm open to exploring more of sally rooney's catalogue in the future (not anytime soon tho. i've read enough of her stories for this year).
