Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney Book Review

Title: Beautiful World, Where Are You
Author: Sally Rooney
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Genre: Fiction, Literary Fiction
Year of Publication: 2021
Date of Publication: September 7, 2021
Pages: 368
ISBN-10: 0374602603
ISBN-13: 978-0374602604
Audiobook Read by: Aoife McMahon

Our Rating of This Book

Summary of Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

Beautiful World, Where Are You is a story that follows the lives of four individuals i.e. Alice, Eileen, Felix, and Simon.

Alice and Eileen have been friends for many years. They first met in their first year of college and soon became best friends. In terms of their careers, they are both at different points. While Alice is a successful novelist and a published author, Eileen works longer days as an Editor for a magazine in Dublin, for very little salary. Their friendship is kept alive through emails where they share their thoughts on love, friendship, and the world around them.

While Simon has been in both Eileen and Alice lives for many years, Felix comes into Alice life much later. At the time Alice meets Felix, she is recovering from a mental breakdown. Her breakdown was so bad that she had to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. The novel is about Alice and Eileen’s romantic relationships, their friendships, and their beliefs about the society the live in, art, and life itself.

Main Plot & Characters

Alice Kelleher: Alice has had a great career as a writer. She left Dublin and moved to a large house in a small Irish coastal town after a breakdown. She struggles with the negative side of fame and isolation.
Eileen Lydon: Eileen is 29 years old years. She works as a literary editor in Dublin. She has had a couple of breakups but her most recent one was with a guy named Aidan. She is recovering from a breakup and questioning her own choices.
Simon Costigan: Simon is a childhood friend of Eileen and Alice. He is older than them by a few years. He used to date a girl named Natalie. He and Eileen start seeing each other but their relationship is not defined at the start.
Felix Brady: He is a warehouse worker from Alice’s new town. He meets Alice on a dating app but their first date was a bit of a disaster.
Lola: She is Eileen’s sister, She always felt she was better than Eileen. Lola is three years other than Eileen.

Memorable Quotes

“Maybe we’re just born to love and worry about the people we know and to go on loving and worrying even when there are more important things we should be doing.”— Eileen
“What if it’s not only a small number of evil people who are out there, waiting for their bad deeds to be exposed? What if it’s all of us?”— Alice
“That’s the thing about work, if it was any good you’d do it for free.”— Felix
“It’s still better to love something than nothing, better to love someone than no one, and I’m here, living in the world, not wishing for a moment that I wasn’t.— Alice

Writing Style

Sally Rooney tells the story using the letters and emails exchanged between Alice and Eileen. Through the letters both Eileen and Alice say things they probably would not have said to eachother if they were in person or even communicating by phone. They tell each other ‘harsh truths’, sometimes painful truths, but you can’t help but question if they are truly friends or two people holding on to each other because life hasn’t quite aligned the way it should have.

Another thing you would notice is that all the characters are flawed in one way on the other, which typically makes stories more believable but instead it sort of made the characters not very likeable.

What are your thoughts on this book? Have you had a chance to read it? Let us know in the comments!

Authors

Nathaniel Adebayo

Nathaniel is a Media Content Specialist at Verayea, where he specializes in curating content and gathering data for the company’s extensive book library. He is also dedicated to writing insightful reviews, offering thoughtful perspectives on a range of media. His work ensures that Verayea’s library is comprehensive, well-organized, and informative, providing valuable resources for its audience.
Ufuoma Akpotaire

Ufuoma Akpotaire is a passionate book, movie and music reviewer with a love for travel and culture. She combines her enthusiasm for storytelling with her experience exploring new places and stories. Through her reviews, she celebrates creativity and inspires readers to appreciate the connections between books, movies, music, travel, and global cultures.