Title: Talking at Night
Author: Claire Daverley
Synopsis (from Goodreads): Will and Rosie meet as teenagers.
They’re opposites in every way. She overthinks everything; he is her twin brother’s wild and unpredictable friend. But over secret walks home and late-night phone calls, they become closer—destined to be one another’s great love story.
Until, one day, tragedy strikes, and their future together is shattered.
But as the years roll on, Will and Rosie can’t help but find their way back to each other. Time and again, they come close to rekindling what might have been.
What do you do when the one person you should forget is the one you just can’t let go?.
Rating: 4/5 stars
This review contains SPOILERS!
Content warnings (might contain spoilers): death of a brother, alcoholism, cancer, grief, OCD, eating disorder, mental illness.
I’m so happy I was able to enjoy this book, it was such an entertaining story and I liked most of the things that were presented! But let’s talk about it better.
First thing first, the writing style was pretty good in my opinion. It never bored or got heavy even in the most delicate parts of the story. I have to say that the choice of not using punctuation to signal the dialogues reminded me of Sally Rooney’s “Normal People” but, at the same time, I think that it helped making the story even more fluent.
The two main characters were so well constructed, even their narrative arcs were developed perfectly. Will and Rosie are such a great couple and their relationship was so interesting to read. I deeply rooted for them since the first time they met and I couldn’t be happier about how the story ended. Even though the ending is quite open to interpretation, I still think they finally managed to stay united.
Between the two of them I liked Will better, because I had some difficulties here and there to bond with Rosie. I found her character to be too passive for my taste and the main example I always use, that still bothers me, is when Will tells her in the third part that they should stay apart and she agrees with him. I still can’t wrap my head around Rosie’s lack of reaction. But this is also a positive connotation for me, because it shows how true and believable these characters were.
This book is divided in three parts and I must say that I really appreciated how they were structured. Time passes at some points of the story but it never bothered me, because the author was able to give continuity to the story without dividing it into single episodes. The first two parts were probably the most heart-breaking and difficult to read because of what happens to Josh. Before picking this book up I read the plot on Goodreads, but then, when I started reading this story I didn’t remember what I was getting into and Josh’s death really tore my heart into pieces. In my opinion, Daverley did an amazing job in portraying Rosie’s grief and life after that tragic event and even though I can’t fully understand what it is like to have a sibling, she was able to make me feel Rosie’s feelings.
Anyway, going back to the story in general, I do think it was always very interesting to read and I loved witnessing Will and Rosie’s love bloom and develop throughout the pages.
So, these were my opinions about our book club pick for the month of May, I hope you liked reading about them. And before you go, I think it’s time to announce our new pick for July, which is: “I Hope This Finds You Well” by Natalie Sue. The plot seems very interesting and we can’t really wait to know more about this story! Thanks for reading.
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