2020: Overall, a big fan of this novel. It was a quick read, but I genuinely cared about both of these characters by the end. I think Rooney nailed the transition between high school and college, turning quite a specific story into an accessible and universal bildungsroman.

I absolutely loved all of the reminders of college life in Ireland, like calling classes “modules”, having gone to the Debs, references to RTÉ and driving down to Howth, being on J1s and Erasmus, and even Phoenix Park brought a smile to my face! I don’t know if I would have been so engaged with the story if I did not have the personal experience of studying in Ireland to fall back on.

The book’s absence of quotation marks was not annoying; I actually found it very easy to follow the rhythm of the dialogue. It made me think more about why we need quotation marks, or if there was a benefit of not using them?

Excited to get my hands on Conversations with Friends next!