Stuff I liked: the centrepiece of female friendship was interesting; SR is good at exploring complexities in all kinds of relationships and I enjoyed reading about the friendship/family conflicts. The characters are all 29+ which was refreshing as previously they’ve all been younger. The last chapters (about 2.5 hours in audiobook) were written particularly well imo.
Stuff I didn’t like: lots of sex scenes which mostly end in drama* (it got boring); unnecessary conflict that just felt stupid; a particular character was so unlikeable but in a way that made me wish they’d just disappear rather than loving to hate them; the ending didn’t feel like SR at all. Some of the academic talk got a bit too pretentious and long winded and reading her characters basically talk at each other gets annoying even if that is ~the point~.
*
I listened on audible and while the female narrator got into character for the women in sex scenes, she gave no fucks about the men. At one point she acted out the man saying “is it okay if I come?” in the same tone as he might say “have you put the bins out?”. Had to laugh at that.
Generally speaking I find it odd that SR is currently so popular among the younger generation. I’m 27 and find some aspects of her work quite dated. The extreme thinness and hints about disordered eating that is consistent across her female characters has been picked up on a little, but not the relationships with men which are quite… questionable. Many of them date much younger women who are financially unstable (while they have steady careers) and the power imbalance is something SR makes really obvious but she never seems to attempt to unpack it like she does with class, therefore I think her younger readers don’t really either and it all feels a bit weird.
This is why I found CWF depressing