Simple and beautiful

Really quite brilliant, a tale of love and obsession, pain and hope. You really feel Sarah’s loss and fluctuate between empathy and compassion to frustration and despair, at her need for one man. A must read.

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3 people found this helpful

Loved it

Loved the narration and the story. Very much draws you in. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Obsession and objectification - dark tale

Any additional comments?

Obsession and its consequences - bleak but biting look at male chauvinism and female infatuation

3.5 stars

"male chauvinism and female infatuation" - that's not to say that these characteristics are gender-related, but they are what the book explores. After the totally amazing debut of 'Only Ever Yours' and the powerful 'Asking For It', 'Almost Love' feels like more standard-genre, a Fatal Attraction-esque 'behind the scenes' of a toxic relationship where both parties use the other. If you look closely at their affair: is either blameless?

At the start, I sympathised with Sarah, the art teacher wooed by a Dad at Parents' Evening, swapping flirty text messages and eventually agreeing to meet. Their relationship, if you can call it that, is one you cry out for Sarah to walk away from. But she doesn't... it's hard to understand what she is getting out of it.

While this is going on, we see Sarah again two years on, in another relationship, this time with Oisin (pronounced Ish-een), a decent sort of bloke who is quite clearly perplexed by her deteriorating amiability as she compares him to what has gone before and can't let go of the past.

I lost my sympathy for Sarah quite early on - Matthew is slimy, controlling and completely undesirable. After one encounter, I couldn't see what made Sarah return for more. She comes across as incredibly immature and still sees herself as a student rather than in a responsible position as teacher (often hungover and late for work). I wanted her to snap out of her peevishness with Oisin as well.

A very different book to O'Neill's others, I was reminded of Elizabeth Haynes' 'Into the Darkest Corner' with the constant back and forth between time periods very close together and the intimate details of a toxic affair. But this isn't crime, and O'Neill she always does, looks at female issues - how men see and treat women, as well as this time what women need from men.

This for me doesn't stand out in the way her first, and to some extent, Asking For It, do. I didn't warm to character or plot particularly, and unlike some others, I didn't really care what happened to Sarah at the end. I felt she needed to grow up. A bit cold of me, I know! For a writer to generate a strong feeling of any sort in a writer denote the power of their writing though, and O'Neill does give Sarah a strong (if not likeable) voice.

I accessed this as an audiobook, and the Irish-accented narrator was well-chosen: a young and slightly frivolous voice at the start becomes a more consumed and jaded woman later on.

This isn't going to be for everyone, and there are some slightly distasteful sexual scenes (though not particularly graphic in content). It is quite dark - not one to take on holiday as a beach read, but it does give a lot of food for thought as to why women (especially) can become 'needy' with partners and how it can affect their lives.

With thanks to Nudge Books for the sample reading/listening copy, provided for review purposes.

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9 people found this helpful

Average

I’ve never wanted to slap someone as much as I have the main character in this book! The description of the book promised more than it actually delivered.

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Not very captivating

Very boring, not sure why I kept listening until I had finished the book. Flat story about a selfish girl not caring about anyone but herself.

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Complex, uncomfortable and utterly brilliant!

Louise O’Neill’s emotional honesty when it come to story telling is only surpassed by how relatable her characters are, especially her protagonist Sarah who balances being abused and abuser so well that it becomes uncomfortable being with her at times. ‘Almost Love’ perfectly walks the line between O’Neill showcasing her characters complexities and flaws for better or worse and highlighting questions of gender, performance and sex in our own political climate, which against the backdrop of #timesup and #metoo, felt very timely and necessary. The sexual politics and gender roles are only one part of an outstanding novel; friendships, art and who is allowed to make it and familial love are all interwoven to portray the human condition in stark clarity.

The narration was brilliant too which was just an added bonus to a truly amazing novel.

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2 people found this helpful

Beautifully written

A poignant and well narrated story taking the listener down a dark path at times, but a masterclass in obsession

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2 people found this helpful

Heavy going

A good piece of literature & character study, but I would prefer something more light. The main protagonist was boring, selfish & saw herself as a victim. (Well I saw her as being portrayed as a victim). I’ve never been so glad to finish a book. It dragged.

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Dull

I kept waiting for this to get better, it almost did but had a disappointing boring ending. Unlikeable characters, especially Sarah & Matthew, the narrator tried her best to make it more interesting.

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1 person found this helpful

Awful narration really let's down the story.

Struggled to finish this audibook. I had to make myself finish listening to it rather than not wanting to stop listening. The story centres around a flawed protagonist who has very few redeeming qualities. The main character is really well thrashed out and you get to understand her well. We all have personality flaws that many will relate to in her character. Unfortunately the rest of the characters are really lacking in depth- in particularly the father and the new boyfriend.
What really let this book down was the narration. I found the 'country bumpkin' accent very intolerable. I had to play the audio book on at a higher speed in order to make it tolerable. I would not recommend the audio book but the story is fine.

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