MixedAir MailRooney has a gift for creating gut-wrenching stories out of the mundane. Even more impressive, she manages to make absolutely everything she writes about sound both sexy and cute ... At one point in the novel I was convinced she was just flexing the fact that she can make even descriptions about a curtain seem tantalizing ... Yet...I would rather be forced to take a course on ethics taught by Jake Paul than sit through a single dinner with a character from this novel ... Rooney’s latest characters weren’t even unlikable for the reasons I believe she intended. It wasn’t that they were too human, complex, fragile, or fucked up for their own good. I disliked them for the small things—the things you find a friend doing that annoy you to such a degree you have no choice but to talk shit about them to your mom ... Because I hated these people so much, I didn’t really care if any of them achieved love or happiness. In many ways it was like Normal People, except you don’t root for anyone to get together—and don’t worry, they’re aware of the horrors of the world. I did find myself rooting for Simon and Felix to dump Alice and Eileen and have sex with each other ... Fortunately, Sally Rooney can make even people who really annoy me still be sexy and cute.
