In little more than a decade, Sally Rooney has emerged as both a literary celebrity and a central reference point in discussions of millennial subjectivity, intimacy, and the contradictions of late capitalism. Her novels – Conversations with Friends (2017), Normal People (2018), and Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021) – have achieved international acclaim, with Normal People further extending her cultural reach through its widely praised television adaptation. Academic engagement with Rooney’s work, however, is only now beginning to consolidate. The Routledge Companion to Sally Rooney, edited by Angelos Bollas, constitutes the first sustained scholarly effort to survey and critically assess Rooney’s fiction and its reception, marking an important moment in the emergence of Rooney studies as a recognisable field of inquiry.

Bollas’s editorial approach lends a distinct degree of coherence to a diverse collection of essays. The introduction situates Rooney within a range of literary, cultural, and theoretical contexts, while the arrangement of chapters examines both the thematic focuses and stylistic features of her literature, placing them in the context of post-Celtic Tiger Ireland and global societal changes. Rooney is presented as a significant voice in contemporary literature, reflecting on complex themes such as modern relationships, identity, class differences, and the social upheavals in Ireland following the economic boom of the Celtic Tiger. The volume avoids both celebratory accounts of Rooney’s popularity and dismissive readings that frame her work as a transient cultural phenomenon. Instead, it presents Rooney as a writer whose fiction merits sustained critical attention. Including work from both experienced and early-career researchers highlights the field’s growth and broadens the volume’s methods.

One of the Companion’s principal strengths lies in its broad interdisciplinary scope. Several chapters examine Rooney’s portrayal of young adults navigating precarious labour conditions, economic instability in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland, and complex forms of intimacy. The volume also addresses persistent difficulties of communication and self-articulation in a world increasingly characterised by digital (non-)communication. Thematic concerns such as gender, sexuality, and space are explored in depth. Essays by Sofia Alférez-Mendía, Elvira Aguilera García, Kübra Özermiş, and others focus on constructions of masculinity, female sexuality, and intimacy, demonstrating that Rooney’s female protagonists navigate emotional vulnerability, power imbalances, and societal constraints. These works address the discrepancy between feminist theory and lived reality, questioning the dichotomy of action and suffering in intimate relationships and advocating for the recognition of vulnerability as the basis of genuine intimacy. Chapters by Marion Bourdeau, Melina Pereira Savi, and Alinne Fernandes attend to the representation and transformation of social and domestic spaces in Rooney’s fiction.

In addition to these more familiar critical trajectories, the Companion includes essays that open up less expected avenues of inquiry. For instance, Sara Romero Otero’s chapter on endometriosis in Conversations with Friends offers a nuanced analysis of embodiment and illness, extending existing discussions of gender and vulnerability and illuminating the physical and social challenges of chronic illness and its impact on identity and relationships. Paddy Brennan’s examination of thinness, food consumption, and capitalism across Rooney’s novels similarly demonstrates how bodily practices are embedded within broader critiques of neoliberal culture. At the same time, Bollas ensures that central areas of Rooney studies are well represented.

“The Dark Turn of Chick Lit in Sally Rooney’s Works” by Eva Marie Heimers explores the underlying themes and ethos in Rooney’s novels, analysing how Rooney deconstructs traditional romance narratives to reveal darker psychological and societal undercurrents. It is just one example of how the Companion does not shy away from including popular culture references and turns them into academic interest. The violence and negativity that pervade Rooney’s novels are highlighted as the female protagonists are depicted as having destructive self-images and pessimistic outlooks on life. This negativity is not explained directly in the novels but is understood as a survival strategy in a sexist and fragmented world. Rather than offering a cure-all through romantic relationships, Rooney’s novels destabilise the concept of romance and reject uncomplicated happy endings, focusing instead on the psychological development of characters.

Discussions by Zélie Asava and Elvira Aguilera García of screen adaptations further provide a valuable cross-media perspective, while Pilar Iglesias-Aparicio’s feminist reading of the first three novels foregrounds contemporary Irish women’s experiences, with particular attention to gender inequality, emotional abuse, and social expectation.

The organisation of the volume, however, occasionally results in abrupt shifts of focus. For example, Laura Vázquez González and Keah Amy Dixon’s analysis of trauma in Conversations with Friends appears directly alongside Elvira Aguilera García’s discussion of masculinities in Normal People. While this arrangement highlights the comparative scope of the volume, it occasionally disrupts the thematic continuity. A division of the volume by the individual novels would not have been feasible, given the comparative scope of many contributions, but some additional thematic clustering might have enhanced navigability.

In sum, The Routledge Companion to Sally Rooney represents a timely and authoritative contribution to contemporary literary criticism, offering an interdisciplinary, in-depth engagement with Rooney’s work. The volume paints a multifaceted picture of Rooney’s literary output, linking personal experiences with societal challenges and reflecting the complexity of young people’s lives in the twenty-first century. By situating Rooney’s fiction within an Irish literary context as well as broader debates about economics, intimacy, and media, the volume establishes a solid foundation for future scholarship. As it firmly positions Rooney in the context of Irish Literature, it will be of particular interest to scholars of Irish studies, contemporary fiction, and cultural studies, and it confirms Rooney’s work as a significant object of ongoing critical inquiry for years to come.