meant to read before watching, and now too lazy to watch more than some youtube clips

Content warning: abuse, both emotional and physical (not in the main relationship, though, from family members)

I wanted to watch the well-reviewed Hulu series based on this book, but wanted to read it before I did–even though a few people had told me that the series was better. I’m not one of those purists who thinks that the original written version is always better (come @ me but I think the Heartstopper TV adaptation is superior to the comic, and there are changes the TV Expanse did that I think are far superior to the book, and let’s not forget that Nicole Kidman was so good as Marisa Coulter that Philip Pullman rewrote parts of an already published book to incorporate her into it more thoroughly).

That being said, Rooney clearly writes books for a certain subset of people into which I fall. She’s the subject of no end of pithy Twitter-type jokes–e.g., andtheIToldYouSos line in a review of Beautiful World, Where Are You goes “Once again, we are in the heads and beds of miserable post-grads,” and truly where is the lie?–but there’s nothing particularly wrong about writing what you know and what you do well. Conversely, there’s nothing inherently rewarding about purposefully writing books in new genres or subjects just to challenge yourself (or languages, looking at you Lahiri).

Connell and Marianne are a special breed of hellish characters to watch–they’re just constantly communicating, so you can’t fault them for not speaking up, but then when they do so they’re really just constantly miscommunicating. Usually I’m like yelling at characters to just say something to one another but in this case I think both of them might have been better served living in some confusion but at least living together. I mean, one time they broke up (oops spoiler but if you didn’t see that this book was going to be about two people constantly breaking up and getting back together I think this might not be the book for you) because Connell was going to be home for a summer and didn’t want to ask Marianne to stay with her so he just told her that he wouldn’t be able to be with her. I suppose that is a case of not communicating, but when confronted by someone leaving Marianne does not question, Connell does not explain, and we are forced to skip forward x years to resolve this particular terrible conversation.

All of that makes it seem like I disliked the book when actually I liked it quite a bit! There was something just a tad funny about the tragic missed connections of Connell and Marianne, a tendency of both Rooney and the characters to take themselves just a bit too seriously that made it all sort of enjoyable. I suppose I’m just old enough that the philosophical musings of a pair of 20somethings now makes me do that eye roll + scoffed “kids!’ thing, but both Marianne and Connell also end up old enough towards the latter part of the book that I feel their anguish keenly.

Strong kudos to having Connell go to therapy–separate from Marianne telling him, or helping him, or serving as a de facto therapist–be a major driving factor in how these two anxious kids finally stop bobbing around one another and communicate straight!