this was the first non-genre fiction book i'd read in...at least 6 months, so it was an interesting experiment for me. i really didn't think there'd be much for me, an american teenager, to relate to in a book about a college student in ireland having an affair with a 32-year-old married man, but i was pleasantly surprised. even though the experiences weren't relatable at all to me, i felt i could still relate to frances in many ways, her anxieties, her desires to not show how much she cares, her insecurities about her own identity, and of course her love of literature <3. i think it's really powerful that i could see myself in something so foreign to me, and i really liked that about the book. i know that sally rooney's writing style can be polarizing, but i have to say i kind of enjoyed the tone of the book. it did make things kind of confusing at times, with the way frances didn't always explain why she said/did things, but not to any concerning extent. the writing style was also kind of depressing to me, but i still thought it was very well-written. i really enjoyed the story of frances' pursuit of nick, so

Spoiler

it wasn't as interesting to me after they broke up and i found myself losing some interest at the 75% mark. i was still able to enjoy it though once i adjusted, though i found this part pretty depressing. in some ways i understand why she got back together with bobbi (whatever "together" means in the context of their relationship), but for much of the book i found myself really not liking bobbi and the way she treated frances.

in general, though, i thought bobbi was pretty smart and i liked a lot of the conversations she and frances had about class and politics, though i think they could have been integrated into the rest of the story a bit better. overall, i really enjoyed this book, it was pretty easy to read so a very good vacation book, and i thought the ending was satisfying :)