This was a couple of chapters for review as a taster.. I loved what i read
I can’t believe Sally Rooney made me cry in the middle of Sainsbury’s, holding a croissant, wanting to hug myself.
4 star prediction

This is Rooney being Rooney - either you're going to love it or you're not. For me, it didn't quite work.

Really enjoyed this snippet to Sally Rooney's latest novel, definitely got my appetite up to read the book in full.

I know many readers loved this, I just didn't connect with it. It's not that I hated it, it's more that I was indifferent, to the characters of the successful writer, Alice, her best friend, Eileen, warehouse packer, Felix and Simon, the relationships and interactions with each other.

I wish it was the whole book! It's so hard to "rate" an extract, especially with Rooney's writing style being so hyper focused on the characters and the plot. If I hadn't read her other books, I wouldn't know what to expect after reading this section, but I know that the plot will probably follow these characters into their inner worlds through the most mundane of moments.

Extract of Sally Rooney's new novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You. I'm sure it'll be a best seller and garner much praise.

After reading an extract of this book from Netgalley, I have determined that I don't particularly enjoy Sally Rooney's writing style, but my overall opinion of the book cannot be determined until I read it in its entirety.

I will note that this book does have a compelling introduction, and for readers with a strong attraction to character driven novels, I recommend. Personally it is not my cup of tea, but I will be reading the complete novel in order to give it a fair chance.

I am unsure how to rate this as it's not the whole book. Unsure why publishers do this but I requested it nonetheless!
It was a good opening, and certainly piqued my interest and I have the book on my TBR to read properly.

This has only made me even more excited to get my hands on the full thing! I loooove Sally Rooney’s writing style and unlikeable but relatable characters.

I was intrigued to try this sample as I must confess to having mixed feelings about Rooney's previous books, having enjoyed Normal People more than Conversations with Friends. This certainly feels like a Rooney book, but I am intrigued enough to buy the book and keep reading.

‘Eileen put her arm around Alice’s shoulders. If you weren’t my friend I wouldn’t know who I was, she said. Alice rested her face in Eileen’s arm, closing her eyes. No, she agreed. I wouldn’t know who I was either.’

There has been *so* much said already about BWWAY and Rooney that I’m not going to do a full review of this one, because I really don’t think I have anything to add that hasn’t been said already.

But - I think this is it lads. This is my favourite Rooney. Sorry, Conversations with Friends. The top spot is no longer yours. This seems to be a controversial opinion on booksta, so perhaps that can be my contribution to the discourse.

As much as I found a lot to dislike in both Eileen and Alice, the quote above also floored me. I read this novel just after we got back from a few days in Dublin, and for the first time in two years I got to see the friends who, if I didn’t have them, I really would not know who I am. There is a beautiful look in this novel at friendship of a variety of kinds, and I absolutely loved that aspect of it.

All this to say - this book is great, I love Sally Rooney, read it if you haven’t already.

"What if the meaning of life on earth is not eternal progress toward some unspecified goal- the engineering and production of more and more powerful technologies, the development of more and more complex and abstruse cultural forms? What if these things just rise and recede naturally, like rides, while the meaning of life remains the same as always- just to live and be with other people?"

Sally truly has a knack for writing about the entirely ordinary. Much of this book is just describing four people going about their very regular daily lives, with every other chapter being a letter from Alice to Elaine or vice versa. In the letters is where the "action" happens, insofar as you can say there is action in this book lol. That action is asking questions, working through thoughts, taking a step outside of yourself to consider existentially how life works but then zooming back into the specific details of their own.

Her language is always beautiful, but where I truly did not like Normal People because there was absolutely no glimpse of closure or resolution, here we see there is forward momentum. It's not a nice neat bow but it doesn't need to be. Rooney makes specific choices about format including not having quotation marks, and while that bothers some people, after a couple of pages I get used to it and it doesn't feel out of place at all.

The pandemic is alluded to at the very end of the book, references to the early stages of quarantining, but even apart from that this truly feels like a book for millennials at this specific time, for our internal worlds as we navigate an external one that has changed so much, even apart from COVID. I'm rating 4 stars for now because there are some places I wish we would have gotten a little more, but I could totally see myself thinking about this book over time and coming back to add an extra star.

I love Sally Rooney's writing and the extract that we have received through netgalley definitely lives up to my expectations!

This was my first Sally Rooney so enjoyed getting t see her writing style and pacing. looking forward to reading this work in its entirety.

I wasn't overly impressed with Sally Rooneys third novel and was hoping to enjoy it alot more than I did. I feel Rooney needs to come I to her own and failed to find her footing with this.

https://thebookfeed.wordpress.com/2021/10/08/beautiful-world-where-are-you-by-salley-rooney/

What’s right with it?

Has there been a book in recent publishing history with more hype? The bucket hat merch being sold to mark the publication of Beautiful World, Where Are You suggests not. And Sally Rooney delivers. She explores the relationships between four friends with blisteringly astute observations about what it is to live at this moment in time. There is a reason why she has been heralded the voice of a generation.

What’s wrong with it?

With every success story – particularly that of a woman – come the critics and naysayers. Ignore them. Whatever might be said about her, there is no denying Rooney is a master storyteller and Beautiful World attests to that.

What’s it about?

Successful novelist Alice, warehouse worker Felix, and childhood friends Eileen and Simon are trying to navigate their late twenties. Through friendship, sex, desire and despair they explore who they are and what they want out of the world.

I enjoyed the excerpt and then went on to read the whole novel. Although I enjoyed the book, I felt that I didn't ever really get to know any of the characters, and didn't feel like I cared much about any of them either. However, Rooney creates excellent dialogue and this moved the book along at a good pace, which kept me reading to the end.

This free snippet did not entice me to purchase the full book despite loving Rooney's previous novels.

I felt due to the way she writes, a snippet is not enough to give me a sense of the plot or attachment to the characters.

I enjoyed this book …. A story of relationships…. Not as good as Normal people but worth a read.
Characters dialogue is interesting although found it hard to relate to students and their worries and lifestykes

This was such an excellent opening and immediately got me hooked - Immediately purchased the full book.