H 888

This was my first Sally Rooney book, she is definitely a great writer in terms of sophisticated, clever, descriptive writing. But to me it was the storyline and characters that let the story down. The brothers' characters don't develop much throughout the book and so, it sort of, starts to drag. Things that are central to the story are never expanded on, and Ivan's character may be a chess champion, but it makes no impact to the story or his character, he could have been an introverted bricklayer, it wouldn't have made much difference. In the end I didn't understand what she was trying to say in this story or why it was important to tell it.