Call Me by Your Name

3.5-4.0 stars

???Perhaps we were friends first and lovers second. But then perhaps this is what lovers are.???

I think I was expecting a little more from this book than it gave me. I got it in glimpses and fragments and parts but not in its entirety.

I'm a big fan of communication and dialogue, especially in a novel as character driven as this one. That's also more what I was expecting of it and that's not really what I got. This book is very heavily relies on the internal monologue of 17-year-old Elio, who becomes completely infatuated with the house guest staying with their family for the summer.

That part, the infatuation, comes across very well, to say the least. Elio finds meaning in every look exchanged between Oliver and him, finds whole conversations in tiny smiles and heart-stopping significance in that one time Oliver picks up the glass that Elio accidentally knocks over (honestly kid... it's just a glass).

I think the lack of actual communication we got between the two made it difficult for me to really connect to either of the characters. There was so much of Elio's internal monologue that it became a little overwhelming at times and for me, a bit of perspective might have helped. I felt like it stopped me from actually getting to know the characters themselves more, strangely enough, because Elio was constantly so concerned with Oliver. I think there's a very good possibility that that was done intentionally, because he's a teenager in love and the rest of the world can suddenly seem a whole less important or significant opposed to this one, wonderful person. And yet, the recreation of that feeling left me feeling a little unsatisfied.

I definitely enjoyed parts. I liked the vibrant, summer-y feeling it gave me (especially now when the days are getting shorter and more filled with rain), the kind of feeling that you get when summer has just started and everything seems endless and possible. I'm really curious to see the movie, and maybe that will help me bring everything and everyone to life a little more.

ps. peaches are ruined forever don't talk to me about them nothing happened with peaches i hate everything