I liked but didn't love Exciting Times. To get the inevitable comparison out of the way, yes, this feels like a Sally Rooney book, but it feels like it's trying to be a Sally Rooney book. To be honest, I found this distracting. Rooney has such a unique style that anyone trying to ape it seems to pale in comparison. Moreover, I feel that Rooney is better at weaving her politics into the story of the book, rather than plunking them in wherever feels good. My issue with Exciting Times was that they didn't feel natural, nor did I feel that they actually interrogated the bigger problems at hand--the problem of white teachers teaching rich Chinese students 'standard' English. The narrator, Ava, discusses this issue as it applies to herself, how she has to control her Irish way of speech to make it something more 'correct', but rarely discusses the effects of this education on her students. For a book that focuses on self-examination, I found it pretty blind to the issues beyond class that are at play in this environment.

I was interested in this book because it was described as witty, and there definitely was enjoyable, razor-sharp wit. But ultimately, I had trouble getting into the story and did not finish it. However, I think it will be a great recommendation for fans of Normal People- the book or the show.

I was instantly taken by the dry wit of the narrator, Ava. She is an Irish expat, living in Hong Kong and testing herself. She’s observant, wry, self-deprecating and struggling. She is struggling financially, socially and doesn’t seem to have a vision for her future. Her job is to teach English to children, despite the fact that she doesn’t really like kids, and the pay is horrible. She befriends Julian, someone who couldn’t be further from her personality and station in life, yet they bond with surprising twists and turns. He is elusive and during one of his prolonged absences, she makes another friend who will challenge her in other ways.

The writing, plot, characters and setting were all sharp and specific. I loved the interweaving of English lessons, rules and usage as opportunities for her to reflect on her past, future and compare her language with Julian and Edith’s, thinking about what it says about them all. What appeared at first to be a cool book that was too clever and distant, soon won me over with the thoughtfulness and reserved emotions.

I enjoyed it tremendously.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a delightful book. The writing and observations were so sharp and precise, and Naoise Dolan was able to create a self-involved character who was still incredibly endearing and sympathetic. Looking forward to whatever Dolan comes out with next.

This book has been compared to “Normal People” by Sally Rooney, but unlike that book, “Exciting Times” has no real plot development for its characters. “Exciting Times” is a character-driven book, and while I did not find myself loving the characters, my main issue was that nothing seemingly happened for or to these characters. There was very little plot, but rather a lot of internal dialogue that was neither charming nor interesting. Despite the short length of this book, I found myself really having to push myself to finish it, which was surprising because I initially was so excited to read this. 2/5 ⭐️ stars for this one.

I Guess This is What the We’re Doing Now
In the first chapter of Irish author Naoise Dolan’s debut novel we find the origin of the title: “We agreed it was an exciting time to be alive”, but not, and waaay more importantly, how Ava, a Dubliner teaching English to Chinese children in Hong Kong, met Julien, a Londoner banker. She calls him her “banker friend” yet as the novel goes on, she has no friends that she doesn’t meet through him. In fact, that’s how she meets Edith, a Chinese lawyer, with whom she begins a relationship while he is in Germany for many months on a work assignment. Comparisons to Normal People will and do abound honestly, as both books are incredibly interior with so much of what’s on the page what was in the head. Fine. Not my favorite.

Wendy Ward
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com/

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

I have to say that I'm really conflicted about how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I found the writing style to be strange, the characters unlikeable and the interactions between them awkward. On the other hand, I read this book straight through in a matter of hours and stayed up until 2am to finish it. This book took a major shift for me about halfway through. For the first half, I was wondering if I was going to be able to finish it at all and I felt absolutely no connection with the characters. However, I hit the middle and I found myself really invested in their lives.

I think this book has a very specific type of audience. There is some very witty dialogue and really intelligently written lines. I can appreciate that Naoise Dolan has a magical way with words. Yet, having those same words come from these characters made them seem like caricatures of witty, pretentious, elite intellectuals. The entire relationship between Ava and Julian is bizarre, particularly their living arrangements. Their interactions are so reserved and lacking in emotion yet there seems to be a strong connection between the two. Ava is a really difficult character to like as she seems to be intent on self-sabotage yet I grew to understand why she behaves as she does and how she and Julian depend on one another.

Plot Synopsis:
Ava left Dublin to teach English to children in Hong Kong. She doesn't enjoy her job and barely makes enough money to pay her bills. Ava becomes friends with Julian, a successful British banker. Soon, she is staying in his guest room for free and he is paying for everything she needs. They engage in a sexual relationship but it's unclear what emotions are involved or if they really care about each other at all.

When Julian's job takes him to London for months, Ava meets Edith and falls for her. The two embark on a love affair without Edith knowing the truth about Julian. Ava enjoys her developing relationship with Edith until Julian announces that he is moving back. Will Ava take a risk on real love with Edith or will she stay with Julian in this not-quite-relationship that has worked out okay for the two of them?

Twenty-two-year-old Ava is eager to leave home in pursuit of independence and new experiences. To that end, she moves to Hong Kong, where she has accepted a position teaching English grammar to children of privilege. Far from her Dublin family and home, Ava finds her job unfulfilling, her salary and living arrangements dismal, and her social circle uninspiring. Things appear to take a bright turn when Ava meets Julian, a posh and affluent British banker with whom she begins a relationship.

Ava and Julian settle into a mutually beneficial living arrangement, but Ava is never completely certain of her feelings for, or future with, the aloof and commitment-phobic Julian. Ava appreciates the lifestyle that Julian provides, but she begins to realize the considerable personal cost she has paid to play it safe when she meets Edith, a local Hong Kong attorney. As she spends more time in Edith's company, Ava experiences the happiness that has previously eluded her. In a coming of age moment, Ava must decide if she is ready to accept vulnerability and take a giant leap to achieve what she really wants in life.

In Exciting Times debut author Naoise Dolan adeptly explores the fluid relationships of modern love and commitment. Her voice is engaging and insightful, and a welcome addition to the contemporary fiction genre.

It is very difficult to like or be invested in a book when the main characters do not appear to like themselves as human beings. Ava is self-absorbed, self-loathing, lacks ambition and direction in life. Julian, likewise, seems to go through life on auto-pilot and lacks enthusiasm. I thought the book would get better when Edith came onto the scene. Alas, it was not enough to salvage the read. While I did finish reading the book I was also not thrilled about the ambiguous ending. I am still not certain why it is titled "Exciting Times" as I found nothing exciting at all with the plots or the characters. Thanks to Net Galley nonetheless for providing the freebie.

"Sometimes I was good at him, sometimes he was good at me, sometimes we were good at each other, and sometimes neither of us was good at anything."

Exciting times is the story of Ava, an Irish 20 something who makes less than minimum wage teaching students English while living in Hong Kong. She finds herself in a relationship that is both unfulfilling and in very subtle ways, almost destructive in nature. She cannot leave this relationship because she is addicted to the way her partner perceives her. Instead of leaving the relationship, she finds herself in a secondary relationship/affair while her partner is away on an extended business trip.

I have a high threshold for unlikeable characters, and I have a high threshold for character driven books without much of a plot to drive the story forward, but it turns out, I do not have much of a tolerance for novels that combine both of these elements.
This isn't a plot driven novel, the intensity of the reading experience is left completely to Eva's power struggle with who she really is when she isn't with someone that sees her as important.

Two or three times I almost put Exciting Times down because I was not enjoying it. I kept reading and wondering why I was still reading and towards the end it finally hit me after being personally attacked by this quote:

"Everyone does that, Ava", she said. You keep describing yourself as this uniquely damaged person, when a lot of it is completely normal. I think you want to feel special- which is fair, who doesn't- but you won't allow yourself to feel special in a good way, so you tell yourself you're especially bad."


Eva is obsessed with belonging. She is chasing the experiences of being important enough to feel known, adored, and relied upon. She assumes often that the reason she has not experienced this in relationship is because something is wrong with her. She cannot identify what the wrong something is and I would argue that she never does in the pages of this story. She cannot see that the real problem is the way she holds people at a clinical distance by using inauthenticity to buoy her own sense of self. I couldn't put this book down because this struggle is such a relatable battle as both a human and more specifically, as a woman.

Exciting times isn't going to be a "stand out" read for me this year, but it is one of those novels that will stick with me in some way because of the deeply personal level of connection I felt to the complexity of emotions. I really applaud Dolan's ability to drive a novel so unflinchingly on the back of insecurities we have all tried to hide in messy, dark corners.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars


Reviewer note: I was given this book free of charge by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

One of my favorite reads of the last year. I loved it and hope she has many more books in her! Clever, incisive, thoughtful. Love love love.

To be honest, I just don’t think that I’m the target audience for this book. I requested an ARC because it sounded interesting, but it became almost immediately apparent that this is something that would probably appeal more to someone in their early 20s. The characters aren’t particularly interesting, and frankly border on annoying most of the time. It’s quite a sullen read, too. I also feel like it immediately jumped into the story with Julian without enough set-up. It felt like I opened the book up on a random page and was sort of jarring. I also didn’t really enjoy how nothing was really described particularly well. I feel like I don’t know what any of the characters look like and wanted more descriptive views of Hong Kong. It’s just hard to invest in a story like that, because it’s almost more like listening to annoying people talk than reading a story. Still, I somehow didn’t hate it. There was something oddly endearing about the whole thing. I’d put it closer to 2.5 stars than 3, but I don’t hate myself for rounding up. I think the intended audience might get a kick out of it. To be honest, this is my first ARC review and I’m not entirely sure who to thank. It seems custom to do so. I believe the publisher is HarperCollins, so I will give my thanks to them, as well as NetGalley for the opportunity.

As this book has received constant comparisons in the media to Sally Rooney's Normal People, I found it difficult to read without measuring the narrative arc and characters from each book against one another and I acknowledge this may be unfair. While I love Normal People for its nuanced characters and what felt like a very accurate description of late adolescent angst and uncertainty, Exciting Times was generally less...exciting. The persistent ennui of the protagonist Ava felt heavy-handed and made her generally dislikable. Being inside her head during her relationships with Julian and Edith was an extended spiral into over-exaggerated neuroticism. Overall a disappointment in a book I had eagerly anticipated reading.

I'm not 100% sure how to rate this book. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. I felt no real connection to any of the characters, but I wanted to know more about them. I kept hoping something, anything would happen. This book won't be for everyone, but I definitely see how folks would enjoy it.

Although this book was well-written, I was not the intended audience for it. Ava moves from Dublin to Hong Kong. She is an intelligent loner and when she finds herself unhappy with her roommates, she snags a wealthy man and moves in with him. When he moves back to London, she meets Mei Ling, a wealthy lawyer from a well-to-do Chinese family. With a new romantic interest, Ava moves into Mei Ling’s apartment. Are all British ex-pats this insensitive to what is going on around them in Hong Kong? Are they all this self-absorbed?

If you're a fan of Sally Rooney, then you'll love Naoise Dolan's strong debut, "Exciting Times." Dolan's novel is set in Hong Kong and focuses on a love triangle between 22-year-old Ava, a British banker she meets named Julian and a surprising Hong Kong native. Ava and Julian's dynamic is interesting because of his wealth and the nature of their relationship (she lives with him). This novel is tender in that it reminds you of what it's like to try to navigate your early 20s while trying to make it in the real world. Dolan's writing is witty and sharp.

“Exciting Times” is the story of Ava, who’s come to Hong Kong from Dublin to teach English to schoolchildren. She strikes up a relationship with Julian, a banker and intellectual, but their exact status as a couple is never quite clear.
I was very excited to receive this ARC, and I am very appreciative, but it did not hold my attention and I had to decide to move on after 30 percent of the book. I very much liked the writing and enjoyed Ava’s perspective but the storyline did not move fast enough for me.

A coming of age tale that is reminiscent of Normal People. Ava is full of self-loathing which might be difficult for readers to take. I found it interesting how self aware she was yet she kept putting herself in situations that would perpetuate her feelings. It’s almost like if we feel a certain way about ourselves we seek out ways to affirm those feelings or justify our destructive behaviors. Often times it’s in a negative way as we navigate our way through life and try to find our way. My heart hurt for Ava but I wasn’t ready to give up on her. This was a journey that was committed to taking with her.

In the likes of Sally Rooney, 'Exciting Times' is a wonderful debut novel from Irish-writer Naoise Dolan. I'll join the masses in praising Dolan's wit and fresh perspectives, as well as the author's ability to perfectly capture the millennial experience. While this is perhaps aimed at a younger audience who can more easily relate to the content, it's a fantastic summer read nonetheless. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy.

I was given this free in return for an honest opinion.

I did genuinely enjoy this book however it was the tale of "which horrible character did I like the most?" I thought that the setting and diversity in characters lended to such a fun journey. I think that this book would be great for someone who is discovering themselves.