This one was just ok for me. I didn't love it, although I did like the way casual mundane conversations sometimes took on more meaning. I had difficulty feeling a connection with the characters. The themes run deep if you have the energy to process it all.

I was so excited when I got my hands on an advance reader copy of Sally Rooney's new book Beautiful World, Where Are You. This is Rooney's follow up to Normal People, which was one of my favourite books in recent years. While Beautiful World didn't quite live up to my extremely high expectations, it is still an excellent novel that won't disappoint readers seeking Rooney's signature combo: flawed young characters, complicated relationships, heartache and heartbreak, ponderous social discourse, and beautiful prose that it surprisingly sexually explicit. Beautiful World follows four characters in their late 20s/early 30s and their search for beauty and meaning in a world that is in decline. One of the characters, Alice, is a highly-acclaimed young Irish novelist who writes racy literary fiction. Sound familiar?

Okay, I had never read Sally Rooney before (yes I'm ashamed to admit it.)
So when I began listening to this audio and the immense detail, first describing Alice and first encounter with Felix, and the narrative style of setting the scene with ALL of the details... I was, shall I say, uncertain. Then,
I quickly became accustomed to Rooney's writing style and her complex relationships and was swept up in every aspect of it. This is a beautiful book, with challenging, interesting characters and an authentic look at friendship and love and trust and that time in your life when the decisions you make hold more heft: pressures mount to "adult" and success and satisfaction looks different to everyone and arrives at a different pace, creating questions and rifts in friendships and romance.
I LOVED this book. Excellent narrator, too.
Okay, I get it. Sally Rooney is a genius.

I enjoyed the overall flow and the character development in this new Sally Rooney novel. The audio presentation of it was okay. I didn't love it, but it wasn't a waste of time.

I received an ARC of this audiobook both on Netgalley and Libro FM, and I loved it. I think this book is perfect for people who WEREN'T fans of Normal People or Conversations with Friends, as this book was significantly different style and character-wise.

The narration was fantastic, and as somebody who prefers audiobooks to reading, this audiobook lived up to my expectation.

I highly recommend this audiobook to anybody who enjoys audiobooks, and this book to Sally Rooney fans and non-fans alike!

This is one of the best books of the year. Sally Rooney lives up, and surpasses!, the hype. I enjoyed the audiobook but I feel like reading the book with my eyeballs would resonate better with me personally.

If you liked Normal People, Sally Rooney will not disappoint. Rooney has a way of taking the ordinary aspects of relationships and making you see them from new angles. Beautiful World, Where are you is the story of two friends and their relationships with each other and their partners. Both couples struggle with their new relationships, if you can even call them that. Somehow Rooney takes flawed, occasionally unlikeable characters, and makes her readers care about what happens to them, even if it's mundane.