I just finished Talking at Night by Claire Daverly and was so disappointed, especially considering all the comparisons to Sally Rooney. I love a more literary romance, but everything about this book fell flat.
The book started out strong, until I realized the author’s only trick for moving the plot along is to introduce a traumatic event and the only character development was done through mental health diagnoses.
The main characters were flat. The periphery characters seemed only to exist to impart cliched bits of wisdom. And there was zero chemistry between the two protagonists who were supposedly in love.
The final half was painfully boring. So much telling, so little showing. So much therapy speak.
There were moments of beautiful writing, I’ll grant it that. But more often than not I found the attempts at poetic poignancy to take away from the scene’s tension, rather than add to it.
So I’ll add this book to my ever-expanding list of disappointing new releases. It’s so rare these days that I actually enjoy a new release. My favorite books from this past year were all written at least 10-15 years ago.
by Odd-Constant2799