Exceedingly disappointing. Hard to believe the same person who wrote Neapolitan Novels wrote this.

The story hooks you from the beginning. Ferrante’s language is a perfect mixture between poetic and simple. It seems like a light read but then all of a sudden you are deep in reflection about life, about humanity, about family and friendship. I didn’t like the end but don’t let that stop you from reading it.

Not a great choice unless you like listening in on the inane chatter of teenage girls. Boring. Hard to get through.

I struggled to like or admire or even identify with the adolescent angst of Gianna. She not only was a rebel without a cause, she lacked humanity for me.

My first time reading this author. In fact not even close to my usual reading fare (I was seduced by an excerpt in a magazine and was immediately intrigued: you won Madison Avenue). But I’m intrinsically interested in the relationships we develop in life; how those relationships define us and aid in our overall growth in life, including the awkward teenage years that challenge most of us in the cruelest way. This book follows an Italian girl as she navigates the world in that most sensitive time by the relationships with adults she has. Poetic and lyrical; the writing helps underline the hardship of the human experience.

I can’t even give this book one star... After the four Neapolitan Novels, this novel is a disgrace. Ferrante goes back and forth with a few characters who take turns in being good, bad, smart, dumb, crazy, sane, atheist, believers, etc. And she fills pages and pages of a book that is nothing more than a cheap soap opera.