28 questions is both the title and format (each chapter is a question) of this intriguing book.

Amalia and Alex are both Australian but meet at Oxford University - this is their relationship in 28 questions. I'm always a fan of novels that mix up the format a little and this was an engaging way to get to know these characters and explore their relationship.

I will say that at times their conversations tipped into pretentious territory for me, but they are Oxford students so it did feel in keeping with their characters. While I didn't always relate with them, I enjoyed reading about their intense relationship and how it developed. The sense of foreboding that ran through added to this for me, also.

Right from the start of this book we know that it’s about a love story which ends in heartbreak, so this knowledge colours everything, but the relationship we read about is really absorbing and sweet and intense and interesting.

28 Questions follows two Australians, Amalia and Alex, who are both studying at Oxford University. I completely related to the Amalia starting at Oxford, feeling a fish out of water, trying to become the version of herself she wants to be. I thought it was a very true reflection of a student experience at university: learning, growing, experimenting, shaping an identity, falling in and out of love. It’s a coming of age story that chronicles Amalia’s friendship and romance, with all the ups and downs with Alex. The story unfolds over a four year period, covering their time at Oxford and post-Oxford life working in London.

I loved the structure of the book 28 Questions - 28 chapters answering 28 questions to fall in love. I also liked the way letters, texts, social media posts and conversations were used. It feels very “now” and of this time - and I thought it mirrored the way in which young people communicate and relate to one another.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Simon and Schuster for making this ARC available to me for a fair and honest review.

Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster for letting me read 28 Questions in advance. I started reading this a few months ago as I thought it was a rom-com but, realising very swiftly that it wasn't and it had more depth than I had anticipated, I put it aside to read at a later date. I really enjoyed those first few chapters: set at Oxford, littered with culture references, complete with an interesting way of delivering speech, a promising complicated love story, and intriguing depictions of characters and dynamics. I don't think the rest of the book quite lived up to the promise of those first few chapters, but I still really enjoyed it!

Amalia is a first-year student at Oxford, and when she meets fellow Australian Alex, she is immediately attracted to her. 28 Questions is all about their relationship – their fluctuations from best friend to maybe something more. But I have to admit that I didn't really care about Alex: I was sympathetic towards her as she struggled with her sexuality, but once the book reached its halfway mark and things ~developed~ I found that I wasn't invested in their relationship one tiny bit. My only other complaint is that I felt the atmosphere was lacking – part of the book is set in London but it could honestly be set anywhere, which is something that always annoys me.

Otherwise, though, I would recommend this. I liked the observations and character details; I really enjoyed reading about Oxford students in a non-romanticised way; I liked the periphery characters, particularly Eve and Cate; and I liked the slow and steady way the narrative unfurled, taking Amalia from an insecure eighteen-year-old to an adult not sure about the choices she has made. The slow build felt very realistic, even if not everything was to my taste. 4 🌟

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. I enjoyed it and found the premise of exploring a relationship through 28 questions interesting. I felt the characters could have been developed a bit more but overall a good read!

An Australian Coming of Age at Oxford

In Amalia’s first year studying Music at Oxford she meets fellow Australian, Alex. Their friendship ripens into an intense love affair.

The comparisons with ‘When Harry met Sally’ and Sally Rooney are over-egging this offering. Nevertheless, an easy-going read for those wanting to read about first loves, and finding one’s identity.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK Ltd for the ARC.

This is a really intense and deep book delving into the life of Amalia and her friendship / relationship with Alex. Each chapter is one of the 28 questions and the story covers a wide range of topics and conversations, (some that I couldn't even get my head around) and offered really deep insights into about love, relationships, stress and so much more. This book had a lot to take in but I really loved Amalia and Alex's relationships and how they both acted so differently but loved each other so strongly. A really interesting premise for a book, I also loved how it was set up; the conversations she has and then repeats in sections later on, and the constant relation to music was really unique and allowed me to think about music in a completely new light.
Overall, a fascinating read about love and relationships beautifully written.

Amalia leaves her Australian home to study music in Oxford. She has only just arrived when she meets Alex, another Australia in her third year already. They befriend immediately and spend more and more time together philosophing, questioning life and sharing everything. It is an intense but perfect friendship. Yet, things become complicated when their friendship turns into love. What was easy and carefree suddenly becomes complicated, misunderstanding after misunderstanding, unexpressed and unfulfilled expectations turn the perfect friends into the worst lovers.

“(...) every so often, I come across a new piece of music and getting to know the music kind of feels like falling in love. And the idea of spending my life falling in love over and over again... who wouldn’t want that?”

The title refers to a study by psychologist Arthur Aron which postulates that a certain set of questions can lead to more intimacy and a deeper relationship between people. The protagonist of Indyana Schneider’s novel asks “28 Questions” which actually bring her closer to her first friend, then lover but they cannot help untangle the complications they have to face. It is a kind of college novel about becoming an adult, about love and about identity in an ever more complex world.

“I just don’t get how it’s possible to be such wonderful, compatible friends and so ill suited as lover.”

This is the central question. How can two people being that close, sharing the same ideas and attitudes simply be so incompatible as lovers. They are fond of each other, there are butterflies and they even match physically – but the relationship doesn’t work out. Over years, they have an on/off relationship because they can neither live with nor without each other.

Yet, the novel is not a classic heart-breaking love story. What binds Amalia and Alex is an intellectual love, they get closer over the questions which address core human topics, from social interaction over social categories of identity and the definition of themselves. They grow with each other, reflect upon their convictions and finally enter the real world of adulthood for which they are still not quite prepared.

A wonderfully written, intense novel about love which goes far beyond just being attracted by someone.

I really wanted to love this book as I loved the concept of a love story over 28 questions. However, I thought the characters felt empty and a lot of dialogue was predictable and devoid of emotion - particularly the texts from Amalia to her mother.

This is a difficult book to review because I'm not overly sure how i feel about this book.
I found the premise really intriguing so was excited to get reading.

The writing style was a little bit too flouncy and literary for me, but overall I enjoyed the plot and felt connected to the characters. I liked my reading experience, but it did drag a bit at times with the pacing. Too much description and not enough plot at times.

I finished this one a few days ago and I am still thinking about it. I absolutely loved it. It's a lovely story of self-discovery and coming of age set in Oxford University. We see Alex and Amalia's (the narrator) relationship evolve through friendship and romance over 4 years, starting with Amalia's first year in uni. Each chapter has the name of a question that gets answered by the characters in that chapter (I don't think these are the real questions to fall in love from the original experiment though).

At first I was put off by how fake and pedantic the conversations between the university students were, but I think this relaxes over time and becomes more natural. The characters were, as in real life, not perfect, and it was precisely that what made the book (and them) come to life for me. There were lots of feelings involved in this book and, although the ending is predictable (to be fair, Amalia foreshadows it multiple times through the book), that didn't take away the experience of actually "living" it. You won't necessarily love the characters, but do book characters need to be likeable for you to enjoy the book? (Open to debate)

Let's talk about the form... Much of the story is told through messages and letters that Amalia and her friends send to each other, and there are occasions in which Amalia breaks the 4th wall a few times and addresses the reader directly (see the note on foreshadowing above).. But what makes the book (even more) distinct is the way the music theme was embedded in the story. Sadly I have no idea what those notes would sound like in real life, but perhaps in the audiobook they actually play the sounds.

As for the comparison to Sally Rooney... Well, I don't typically like Rooney's books, and I clearly loved this one, so I wouldn't say they are similar at all. However, there seems to be a love-or-hate situation with this book, so maybe there is something in the comparison... :-)

This is an honest review based on an ARC of this book. Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the e-ARC.

This book is described as "When Harry met Sally for the Sally Rooney generation". Well I have never seen When Harry met Sally but I do like Sally Rooney so I thought I would give it a go and I wasn't disappointed.

I felt the author really brought the characters to life in this coming of age novel and whilst I may not be the exact target audience for this book I still really enjoyed it.

The books mixes relationships with music, academia and many other themes and whilst the writing style may not be for everyone, again it was a style which really worked for the book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

there is nothing in this to draw the reader in I just cannot bear to read any more - read only 5% I cannot say any more not an author i will look for again

Coming of age in Oxford. Although I enjoyed the musical theme, I struggled to finish this book. The blossoming of friendship and romance between Jewish Amalia and Alex in Oxford was so slow as to be painful and the fact that most of the text was either dialogue or reported speech was irritating. My favourite part was the Shabbat dinner scene.

This is a novel of discovering self and what binds us together, makes us love another person as well as the types of love a person can feel. It’s all wrapped up in a questionnaire and a clipped text type response and quirky font type and loads of other styles and voice to see this poignant relationship develop with Amalia and Alex. There is a lot going on both directly indirectly. You have to see beyond the voice and style and I wanted to like it, but somehow it fell short for me. It became quite challenging, so that the poignancy at times got lost. It’s a shame, really because I think these questions are important and the characters’ story is too. I felt like I couldn’t quite reach them. But overall, many will like it and take it under their wing, I think. I’m just not one of them.

I finished this one a few months ago, but I was a bit too book-struck to write anything about it. I read it, and then I talked about it almost constantly and recommended it to everyone I met, and now I'm probably on some kind of blacklist, but I don't even care. I adored this book. I can't wait to buy a copy in print and highlight the absolute hell out of it. I read it in one sitting whilst at work, and the backlog was absolutely worth it.

Schneider writes so authentically and beautifully about the process of reconciling your own queer identity and stepping into it, and even though we know exactly where the story is going, there's still such a great 'will they, won't they' dynamic between the two of them that it really does leave you wondering what's going to unfold. There's a definite inevitability that looms over everything, a foreshadowing, but it doesn't weigh the book down. The moments of lightness and joy feel just as real for the awareness that they're finite. Possibly more so.

I think this one may possibly end up garnering a few comparisons to A Very Nice Girl by Imogen Crimp, which is written by an author with a very similar background, is coming out at the same time, also uses non-standard dialogue structure, and revolves around the unstable relationship between an opera student and her partner, but these are two totally different books. A Very Nice Girl is very closed and interior, almost thriller-esque in its focus, whereas 28 Questions is much more intimate, and lets you get much closer not just to the narrator but to Alex, her lover, and I absolutely loved that it let us fall in love with her at the same time that Amalia does. The characters here feel so real and well-drawn that I do, quite honestly, feel like I've met them.

I just don't have anything bad to say about this one at all. My one critique is that it had to end.

I did not like this book at all. I found it very stereotypical and predictable and did not like either protagonist. The writing style did not appeal to me at all.

I enjoyed this book but didn’t love it!

It contained lots of important questions and provided some very poignant thought provoking moments but I just didn’t manage to feel connected to the characters, which is a real shame.

I also didn’t love the style in which is was written but understand that is the main point of the book and probably more of a me problem and just down to personal taste.

A novel about a modern gay relationship set in Oxford university where the main characters are undergraduate students
I was intrigued by this novel set in Oxford particularly as for me it clearly showed the similarities differences between the live lives of students now and those when u was at uni in the 80s ( not Oxford I should say )
Mixing affairs of the heart with a rigorous academic life seems to remain one of the main difficulties and you felt for the characters as they tried to find time for both in their busy lives
Oxford the university and the city play a huge part in really firmly rooting this novel .I liked the way 2 characters were Australian overseas students as this allowed the author to change location and and tone of the book on occasion
It may be my age but I did find the constant will they won’t they element of the romance a trifle irritating
The prose is well written and the book keeps your attention throughout
I would recommend this book to those who enjoy knotty relationship drama .Having said that this is not a fluffy romance there is plenty of young adult angst plus themes of gay sexuality

The premise of 28 Questions is the evolving relationship of Amalia and Alex as they navigate friendship, sex and romance.

The title is based around 28 questions to fall in love - this was the first thing to throw me off, as I'd always thought it was 36 questions. I don't understand why this was changed - were the characters simply incorrect from the start? Is there already too much media around 36 questions?

The book was mostly nicely written, and there are some fantastic metaphors in there. But the majority is made up of dialogue or reported speech and this can become wearing after time. Much of the dialogue comes off unnatural and awkward, and spoken word is often undistinguishable in tone from the way the characters write to one another. The conversations are all very Deep which reads often a philosophical text.

I did enjoy the musical themes (motifs if you will). They are probably the most idiosyncratic element of the narrator's personality, and I like the idea that you could play chords or songs to support the reading of the text.