Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan - 5/5

Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!

I absolutely loved this story. It was gifted to me by a friend as a good summer read, and boy did it deliver. I'd never read anything by Françoise Sagan before (in fact, I hadn’t even heard of her), but I’m so glad I was introduced. The fact that Sagan wrote Bonjour Tristesse at just eighteen feels downright unfair, it gave me the same stunned admiration I felt when I learned Mary Shelley was the same age when she wrote Frankenstein.

I read the whole book in a single day. I was that hooked. The pacing is fast but never too rushed, and it perfectly matches the tone and emotional current of the story.

What struck me most were Cécile’s conversations with Anne. There’s so much happening beneath the surface, unspoken tensions, subtle power plays. And their spoken words heavy with context. The dynamic between Cécile, her father, and Anne is both fascinating and unsettling, especially as it veers into Oedipal territory. Cécile’s psychological turmoil, shaped by her father’s neglect and indulgence, is portrayed with such modulation.

The novel balances everything so well, it trusts the reader, never overexplains, and its confidence shines through. The symbolism is rich and layered; you could spend hours unpacking it.