Name: Find Me
Rating: 3.058695652173913 (230 reviews)
ISBN: 9781250263407

André Aciman

Michael Stuhlbarg

A Novel

Find Me

Anna Marija

Sophie

Patricia Melova

Eva Marquant

Withers

Sometimes I think that my life stopped here and will only restart here.

Perhaps I wanted to be in love and feared I wasn't ... Perhaps I preferred to doubt rather than to know.

In this spellbinding exploration of the varieties of love, the author of the worldwide bestseller Call Me by Your Name revisits its complex and beguiling characters decades after their first meeting. No novel in recent memory has spoken more movingly to contemporary readers about the nature of love than André Aciman’s haunting Call Me by Your Name. First published in 2007, it was hailed as “a love letter, an invocation . . . an exceptionally beautiful book” (Stacey D’Erasmo, The New York Times Book Review). Nearly three quarters of a million copies have been sold, and the book became a much-loved, Academy Award–winning film starring Timothée Chalamet as the young Elio and Armie Hammer as Oliver, the graduate student with whom he falls in love. In Find Me, Aciman shows us Elio’s father, Samuel, on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, who has become a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train with a beautiful young woman upends Sami’s plans and changes his life forever. Elio soon moves to Paris, where he, too, has a consequential affair, while Oliver, now a New England college professor with a family, suddenly finds himself contemplating a return trip across the Atlantic. Aciman is a master of sensibility, of the intimate details and the emotional nuances that are the substance of passion. Find Me brings us back inside the magic circle of one of our greatest contemporary romances to ask if, in fact, true love ever dies.

Very beautifully written, Aciman has such a way with words. I loved Call me by your Name and was surprised to see that there was a sequel. I was very confused about the beginning bc I didnt quite understand which perspective was the first one. 

Marie

The only truly admirable aspect of "Find Me" is its peculiar ability to feel both rushed and prolonged simultaneously.

While Aciman's intentions are evident - painfully so - I find myself disinterested in sequels that seem to be desperate attempts to recapture the magic of their predecessors.

Initially, I doubted whether Aciman had actually written this book. By the midpoint, it was unmistakably his work, a realization that brought me absolutely no pleasure.

It's obvious that Aciman is playing us. We want to see Elio and Oliver again - a fact that he uses to tease us.

He named the kid he had with the woman who is the same age as his son after his son's lover from 20 years ago?! And we're supposed to like the ~symbolism of this~!?

Callas

The only truly admirable aspect of "Find Me" is its peculiar ability to feel both rushed and prolonged simultaneously.

While Aciman's intentions are evident - painfully so - I find myself disinterested in sequels that seem to be desperate attempts to recapture the magic of their predecessors.

Initially, I doubted whether Aciman had actually written this book. By the midpoint, it was unmistakably his work, a realization that brought me absolutely no pleasure.

It's obvious that Aciman is playing us. We want to see Elio and Oliver again - a fact that he uses to tease us.

Then: 

He named the kid he had with the woman who is the same age as his son after his son's lover from 20 years ago?! And we're supposed to like the ~symbolism of this~!?

Abbie Duggan

Hasty while simultaneously dragging, greedy and over romanticized, bordering cheesy... the endearing parts were only when getting to spend more time in Elio’s world, and even that left MUCH to be desired. There is even a strange mystery plot line, left unfinished, introduced in the middle of the story...? I’m at a loss for words. 

Found myself wishing this story hadn’t been written and we could have left Oliver and Elio where they were. Amazed at how deeply moved I was by Call Me By Your Name and how, frankly, disgusted I am with this follow up.

This book was disappointing, absurd, boring, and a waste of time.

shadee

kept on reading just to wait till the end that maybe Elio and Oliver would be more focused to the story.

but i just kept on reading with hope that this will be a great book... but Elio and Olivers relationship here was just..i did not feel anything..asdafhsbaj idk the book kept on focusing on other things that was just not relevant for the ending ?? 

the ending wasnt a climax i didnt feel any climax throughout this book. some parts confuses me and made me actually question my reading skills but yeah in conclusion idk how to feel about this book because i wasnt sure of the whole stories point. 

anyway still pay my respects for authors out there

This book was okay, not that interesting as I thought it would be because I’ve watched and read Call Me By Your Name. The story didn’t make me feel much but I cannot say it was bad. It was just missing a lot.

Lila R E

this is fine??? i guess???

obviously aciman is a pretty gifted writer and that’s what he gets three stars for, it’s just a shame that such beautiful writing isn’t really used in this book to do anything that groundbreaking. or interesting. 

not a terrible read by any measure but not incredibly impactful either.

taryn

Mia Caven

Despite all controversy, my love for the first book and film, my literal LIFES DEDICATION TO IT (currently listening to mystery of love)… I wanted to light this book on fire. Listen I dislike andre aciman more than the next person okay, but I cannot deny his beautiful writing. What I CAN DENY is his RIDICULOUS PLOT. this is not the book we ASKED FOR SIR. spoilers ahead but… did we ask for a book on his dad? No. Did we ask for his parents to divorce? ABSOKUTELY NOT. this just feeds into the weirdness that was originally UNDERSTANDABLE. his dad going after a young woman and having a child with her who when he’s like 8 from what I remember correctly is when elio and Oliver return to each other???? SO THEYRED LIKE WHAT 100?? NOT TO MENTION HIS NEW SON BEING CALLED LITERALLLLY OLIVER. madness. Light it on fire. The only reason this book gets 3 stars is because I have an unhealthy attachment to the Perlmans and if they were real id ask to be buried beside them:)

A New York Times Bestseller In this spellbinding exploration of the varieties of love, the author of the worldwide bestseller Call Me by Your Name revisits its complex and beguiling characters decades after their first meeting. No novel in recent memory has spoken more movingly to contemporary readers about the nature of love than André Aciman’s haunting Call Me by Your Name. First published in 2007, it was hailed as “a love letter, an invocation . . . an exceptionally beautiful book” (Stacey D’Erasmo, The New York Times Book Review). Nearly three quarters of a million copies have been sold, and the book became a much-loved, Academy Award–winning film starring Timothée Chalamet as the young Elio and Armie Hammer as Oliver, the graduate student with whom he falls in love. In Find Me, Aciman shows us Elio’s father, Samuel, on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, who has become a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train with a beautiful young woman upends Sami’s plans and changes his life forever. Elio soon moves to Paris, where he, too, has a consequential affair, while Oliver, now a New England college professor with a family, suddenly finds himself contemplating a return trip across the Atlantic. Aciman is a master of sensibility, of the intimate details and the emotional nuances that are the substance of passion. Find Me brings us back inside the magic circle of one of our greatest contemporary romances to ask if, in fact, true love ever dies.

I have to say I liked "Find Me" more than "Call Me By Your Name". The way "Find Me" is divided and organized to tell the stories of other characters other than Elio and Oliver was a great development since it was really enlightening to see the way that this love also touched other people that, somehow were also living the feelings flowing between them. The story of Sami and Miranda was precious, and once again, very similar to Elio and Oliver's in a more mature way. The different vigils were a beautiful depiction of memories that last forever. The story of the Greek colony in Italy (Poseidonia) was a perfect representation. I really enjoyed seeing the person that Elio became, and despite the ending not being the one that I was expecting, it left me very satisfied and for that reason this book deserves five stars.

Ani Velasquez

Elio believes he has left behind his first love - but as an affair with an older man intensifies, his thoughts turn to the past and to Oliver. Oliver, a college professor, husband and father, is preparing to leave New York. The imminent trip stirs up longing and regret, awakening an old desire and propelling him towards a decision that could change everything. In Call Me By Your Name, we fell in love with Oliver and Elio. Find Me returns to these unforgettable characters, exploring how love can ripple out from the past and into the future.

Beatriz Aguiar

4.5
i can see why fans of call me by your name wouldn't like this book but i don't know if i liked this less than cmbyn.
it's the wait tho... u wait and u read about other people - which for me was fine, i enjoyed it - and never get to elio and oliver and when u finally do... well...

Since this book came out, I’ve been actively been avoiding spoilers on the plot. So I could reread cmbyn, and then read Find Me straight after. Although I knew that this book has had some negative reviews I went in with an open mind, and I can say I was pleasantly surprised. I loved it. Simple as. It wasn’t as brilliant as the first book but it was pretty amazing. I enjoyed all four parts and would recommend this to people. It wasn’t what I expected for the sequel but it was perfect.

Chloe Galea

Sequels are usually bad, this will ruin Call Me By Your Name for you. Read Klye‘s review in comments before you think of reading this book.

the first section was a solid 4 stars but good lord when you get to Elio and Oliver’s sections it just…. goddamn. SO beautiful. I will say, story wise, it’s brilliant. the connections and the cycles make me want to sob. It’s more supplemental to CMBYN than a required sequel in my opinion, but i’m so in love with Oliver and Elio i had to know what happened. and now i do and my heart is just… whew. 

castor

evy 

** spoiler alert **
           This book seems like a CMBYN fanfiction that accidentally got published. Actually, scratch that. A 13 year-old girl on Wattpad could write a better sequel. 
I'm so mad that the first half of the book was focused on Elio's father and a random, much younger woman. Nobody cares. We only got 11 pages of Elio and Oliver interacting when we could've so much more, in a book that is supposed to be about them and their story. 
Miranda seemed like the author's fantasy and I hated it.
Elio's chapter was the best one to be honest, but that isn't saying a lot. The whole "Léon" investigation was the only mildly interesting part.
Call Me By Your Name is a masterpiece, both book and movie. This is not.

paulina bug

** spoiler alert **
           It’s definitely a slow read and I can’t even really explain why I enjoyed it as much as I did. I love his writing style and I would say about 80% of the book consists of inner-thought monologue and conversational dialogue. And even though it was a happy ending, I still felt sad at the end. I think it’s because it isn’t really the same Oliver and Elio from the first book (“Time.”) but that’s okay. But I loved the parallels between Miranda and Samuel and Michel and Elio. Not a perfect book, but I kind of really liked it. But also i’ll probably never read it again. I have mixed feelings, I guess. Also I think maybe it would have been better without a sequel, ‘Call Me By Your Name’ was solid on its own even with that ending. Anyway, my final takeaway is that everything makes so much sense once we learn Elio is a scorpio.

Kira L

really did not like the pretentious manic pixie dream girl sequence in the first half from the pov of an old man who had many regrets but didn't act on them until he saw this young girl, like it's just gross. was not a elio/oliver shipper but did read the first book and thought it was okay, but the first half of the book made me gag a lot. elio hasn't changed, the characters are all horny and wondering if the person they've been in contact with wants to bang, it is as if all the characters in this book had a growth stunt mentally when they hit teenage angst and never grew out of it.

Emma-Luna Riegsinger

In this spellbinding new exploration of the varieties of love, the author of Call Me by Your Name revisits his characters' complex lives in the years after their first meeting.

Sabrina Skou 

Took me six months to finish, as I didn't care about 60% of the book's content. 

The writting was great, and if Aciman had just elongated the last twenty chapters (or so), having the rest of the book being smaller 'memories' and 'rethinkings', the book would have been great too.

Overall, I was glad I read it, although, I think I would have liked it way more, if I had been in my early thirties, and not in my beginning twenties. I'll reread it when I turn thirty, and see if I like it any better.

I was a little dissapointed.
After I reread Call Me By Your Name, I was eager to finally read the sequel. It was a long time ago since this book came out and I read the first one, so I didn't actually remembered why I haven't had read Find Me in 2019 in the first place.

And then I read both books. I realized that for me, Call me by your name always be a modern gay Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy wrapped in beauty, with a painful and real ending.
Some books do not need a sequel. If it is a tregedy, a sad endig then so be it. For me Find me, with it's ending just ruined the whole Call me by your name experience, and I'm really sorry to write such a thing, because I did not hate this book, I even loved the first two parts. 

It was splendid idea to put this story somehow before the end of Call me by your name and after as well. I liked that the last part of Call me by your name is a bridge between the first two and the last two parts of Find me. Amazing work. But somehow throughout the book I lost more and more interest for the characters, and I'm not sure that that is because of the length of the parts or something else, but the ending didn't bring any emotions out of me, and I am an emotional reader. No tears happy nor sad tears. 

All in all André Aciman did not dissapoint me, I love his style of writing, and I love how he show us life, it is so unique and moving. For me the plot is important, but all the beautiful quotes highlighted in my copy compensates, so I still consider this book 4 star read.

that i am giving this 3 stars instead of 2 is saying something about how much the second half of the book made up for what i really didn’t love in the first half. 

i liked how it started, but it quickly rushed into two love stories that are probably plenty of people’s cup of tea, but after a bit i was absolutely over them and couldn’t be finished with the book soon enough.

both relationships developed a pretty unrealistic immediate level of trust and depth that honestly was way too earnest and sentimental, for too long, for my taste. both relationships had extremely similar if not identical patterns of dialogue and communication styles. I’M OVER IT! find a new tone! lol. bleh.

eventually some interesting minor subplots gave us a breather and moment of intrigue. the second half was way more my speed. made me want to smoke a cigarette, in a good but problematic way. and of course by the end i didn’t want it to end. 

Kat Albanese

that i am giving this 3 stars instead of 2 is saying something about how much the second half of the book made up for what i really didn’t love in the first half. 

i liked how it started, but it quickly rushed into two love stories that are probably plenty of people’s cup of tea, but after a bit i was absolutely over them and couldn’t be finished with the book soon enough.

both relationships developed a pretty unrealistic immediate level of trust and depth that honestly was way too earnest and sentimental, for too long, for my taste. both relationships had extremely similar if not identical patterns of dialogue and communication styles. I’M OVER IT! find a new tone! lol. bleh.

eventually some interesting minor subplots gave us a breather and moment of intrigue. the second half was way more my speed. made me want to smoke a cigarette, in a good but problematic way. and of course by the end i didn’t want it to end. 

wildemononoke

It's fine. It's fine. but I like the first one more. Also, the train scene gave me a heavy 'Before Sunrise' vibe. I like it. But as I already said, I prefer the first one more.

bronte

3’5 ⭐️

all he needed when the time was right was simply to come and find me.
“and you did”
“and I did”

*PAPERBACK NOW AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER* In this spellbinding new exploration of the varieties of love, the author of Call Me by Your Name lets us back into his characters' lives years after their first meeting In Find Me, Aciman shows us Elio's father, Samuel, on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, now a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train upends Sami's visit and changes his life forever. Elio soon moves to Paris, where he, too, has a consequential affair, while Oliver, a New England college professor with a family, suddenly finds himself contemplating a return trip across the Atlantic. Aciman is a master of sensibility, of the intimate details and the nuances of emotion that are the substance of passion. Find Me brings us back inside the world of one of our greatest contemporary romances to show us that in fact true love never dies.

Sine

böyle arada kaldığım kitaplarla ilgili review yazarken çok geriliyorum. 

biraz spoiler olabilir, tam da emin olamadım, read at your own risk. 

yani... kitap bir yandan dev bir cringefest. dört bölümden oluşuyor: elio’nun babası samuel, elio, oliver’la ilgili üç bölüm ve kısa bir kapanış. bi defa elio’nun babasına kitabın yarısını ayırmak dev bir facia benim gözümde -ki cmbyn’deki karakterine hayran olmama rağmen. samuel’in hikayesi de inandırıcılıktan hayli uzak. temalar birbirine karışmış, diyaloglar çok zorlama, miranda karakteri tam bir yaşını başını almış erkek hayali gibi. offfff neyse. elio’nun bölümünde ise yine yan karakteri sevemedim, hatta miranda’dan bile itici geldi bana. yine okuması en keyifli, hikayesi en inandırıcı olan oliver’ın bölümüydü; ki o bile tam değil de neyse artık. 

ve bu yaş takıntısı nedir nedir nedir. elio ve oliver’ın ilk kitaptaki yaş farkından kalma bir hikaye desek, onların arasında 6-7 yaş fark vardı ve o ilişki öyle devam etse, on sene sonra hiç yok gibi olacaktı. burada sürekli bir şeyler ebeveyni yaşında birine aniden aşık olma teması vardı ki olabilir, asla yargılamıyorum; ama bir kitapta iki kere de yapmazsın sayın aciman. biraz aciman’ın YAŞLILAR DA VARDIR atarı gibi geldi bana ahahkdjs. bi de bu yaşlıların yanlarındaki gençleri şurada evim var, bak sana şimdi elli yıllık viski açayım yavrum şeklinde etkilemesi de yani ahaha. cmbyn’e hayran olma sebeplerimin tam terslerini okudum gibi geldi sürekli bu kitapta. orada konu ne yaştı, ne gelir düzeyleriydi, ne bi şey; sadece iki insanı okumuştuk. burada sürekli anlamsız imalar. 

yazdıkça coşuyorum ve nefret etmişim gibi geliyor ama öyle değil. sonuçta bir aciman kitabı. ve dolayısıyla inanılmaz akıcı. okurken “en fazla beş sayfa okumuşumdur” gibi hissettirip aslında yirmi sayfa okuduğunu fark ettiren kitapları seviyorum. bence bu müthiş bir yetenek. öte yandan lokasyonları çok gerçekçi yaşatıyor okura. roma’da geçen yerleri okurken roma’da, paris’teki bölümleri okurken paris’te hissettim kendimi. şehrin renkleri gözünüzün önüne geliyor sanki. 

eğer bu kitaptaki karakterlerin hiçbirini tanımıyor olsak daha çok sever, daha yüksek puan verirdim. bu haliyle 2/5’tan oliver’cığımın hatrına 3. sakın daha fazla devam etme aciman.

Aciman’s way of writing is as always beautiful and reflects the story in an artistic way. However, the story itself was not as good as I would expect from a writer like this. Find Me felt more like an extended epilogue to Call Me By Your Name than an actual continuation of the story. Mostly it just felt like an homage to endings and while it can be a wonderful thing to write about, I do not think this was the intension with Find Me and thus the book felt somewhat stuck between two different ways of storytelling. It simply did not have the same astounding impact that Call Me By Your Name had on me. 

Find Me A Novel

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