Guest Review by Kaitlin Vaughan

Enjoy this review from guest Kaitlin Vaughan!

Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You was voted #1 in fiction in Goodreads People’s Choice Awards, which is why I chose to read it as my first book of 2022.

I honestly regret the decision.

The story follows 4 characters as they navigate relationships and their place in life, as well as contemplating the collapse of civilization. This discussion felt out of place for me as the ideas and actions of the characters didn’t seem this mature and thought-out; they continuously make decisions and remarks I feel a person in their teens early twenties would make and not those in their thirties. The disconnect could be as someone that married young and is satisfied with my place in life, I don’t understand the depressing yet content outlook the characters have or rather that they are so focused on the world around them they themselves can’t become well rounded and continue to make the same small-minded decisions.

“And in that way even the bad days were good, because I felt them and remembered feeling them” Pg 170.

I felt this quote best described my time with this book because even though I found it unenjoyable it made me feel things for the characters. Mostly anger and frustration, but feelings nonetheless that caused me to finish the book because it had wormed its way into my thoughts. Simply for that I give Rooney a 3/5.