On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

Book 19/30.

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Welp! My first 1 star read of the year 😐
This was so soo sooo fucking BORING!!!!!!!!!! The blurb on the front cover by Independent on Sunday describes this book as ‘WONDERFUL…EXQUISITE…DEVASTATING’

I knew I was in trouble a few pages in when I noticed I was reading chapters without really being aware of what I was reading. I would finish a chapter and realise I have no recollection of what I just read, so I would reread it again only to find my eyes still glazing over the words and my mind thinking about anything and everything other than what I was reading. Rinse repeat. Eventually I gave up and decided to skim read the book because it is only 166 pages long meaning there was no need to dnf it as I would be put out of my misery before long.

That said, two things stood out to me in this book:
1) (view spoiler)[the implication that Florence was sexually abused by her father when she was twelve years old, which might explain her aversion to sex. (hide spoiler)]
2) the fight the newlyweds had on their wedding night because it took them so goddamn long to finally TALK!!!

However, I do not fucking care enough about the book to give more detail as to why those two things stood out to me, so I will leave it at that.

View all my reviews

** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing