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Normal People

Sally Rooney (Goodreads Author)

3.86 · Rating details · 495,735 ratings · 41,942 reviews

Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in rural Ireland. The similarities end there; they are from very different worlds. When they both earn places at Trinity College in Dublin, a connection that has grown between them lasts long into the following years.

This is an exquisite love story about how a person can change another person's life - a simple yet profoun ...more

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Paperback, 273 pages

Published May 2nd 2019 by Faber & Faber (first published August 28th 2018)

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Sep 04, 2018 Anna Luce rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, 2018-reviews, disappointing-reads, insufferable-protagonists, 6-so-so-reads

★★✰✰✰ 2 grungy stars

If you believe that characters who dislike themselves, shrug a lot, and say "I don't know" 24/7, are very deep and realistic, well this may be the perfect read for you.
Or if you enjoy reading about "in" authors...look no further. After all, Rooney is "defining a generation".

If you are thinking about reading this novel, I suggest you listen to the following song instead, since it will take you less time and you will get the same story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjMwd...

W ★★✰✰✰ 2 grungy stars

If you believe that characters who dislike themselves, shrug a lot, and say "I don't know" 24/7, are very deep and realistic, well this may be the perfect read for you.
Or if you enjoy reading about "in" authors...look no further. After all, Rooney is "defining a generation".

If you are thinking about reading this novel, I suggest you listen to the following song instead, since it will take you less time and you will get the same story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjMwd...

While I enjoyed Rooney's style, the way in which she interweaves ordinary moments with emotionally charged ones and the uncertainty that pervades her story, I was also annoyed by how artificial her novel is. I had the impression that Rooney was trying to conjure a certain millennial "vibe" through her characters and their experiences.
However, the central figures of her novel, Connell and Marianne, lacked depth and, as stupid as it might sound, character. Their looks were emphasised in a way that made them "stand out" from others: they are skinny and beautiful, they smoke, they make languid movements, they are smart, and unlike their peers they actually care about world politics. Throughout the course of this novel we are told how DIFFERENT and SPECIAL they are.
Marianne comes from a wealthy and abusive family (we are supposed to feel bad for her), Connell was raised by his mother and suffers from bouts of anxiety and depression (we are also supposed to feel bad for him). That they have issues that they can't cope with is realistic, but what I didn't appreciate is the romanticising of their difficulties. What I didn't like is that being "alienated" is synonym of "cool" and that seeking sadomasochistic relationships is understandable/inevitable if you come from an abusive family.
Rooney handles serious issues (eg. an abusive family, depression, etc.) very badly. A book that handles trauma and self-harming incredibly well is What Red Was by Rosie Price. There we see why the characters behave in self-destructive ways, but in NP these things seem merely props.
Marianne and Connell aren't terrible people but god, they are so self-involved. Their relationship is made to appear fraught but I didn't always understand why. Drama for the sake of drama? They enter forgettable relationships with equally forgettable people but they remain fixated on each other. Why? No one knows...
Marianne is depicted by the author and the other characters as being the sort of person who does not to care about others' opinion of her but soon after a breakup with a cliched dick boyfriend she is obsessed with what people are saying about her...Connor is...intelligent? Indecisive? As interesting as a stale sandwich?!
Secondary characters and family members are barely sketched out, they have little to no purpose other than creating more "drama" for the main characters. Marianne's family was so badly written that I had a hard time taking any of them seriously. Her brother is laughably cruel and her mother is uncaring and snobbish (they are rich so...). Friends from college serve very little purpose, other than making the main characters seem "different" and "real" (they are special, not like other people).
What I disliked the most is that by the end neither Marianne or Connell show any sort of character growth. Not that I always want to read about characters who learn from their mistakes or gain some sort of insight from their experience, I can appreciate characters who keep perpetuating their 'bad' behaviour or even those who get worse or regress into 'bad' habits/behaviour. But they have to be believable. Marianne or Connell were not. They were merely an 'aesthetic', more befitting as subjects of a black and white grunge photo than anything else.
The only reason why I finished this novel is that I listened to the audiobook and the narrator managed to make this otherwise unappetising storyline sort of okay. ...more

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Anna Luce Alison wrote: "I disagreed with quite a few points you made, but your take on Marianne's brother is what really bothers me. My impression was that he ...more
13 hours, 11 min ago

Lola Alison wrote: "I disagreed with quite a few points you made, but your take on Marianne's brother is what really bothers me. My impression was that he ...more
8 hours, 51 min ago

Jan 18, 2019 Emily May rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, contemporary

No one can be independent of other people completely, so why not give up the attempt, she thought, go running in the other direction, depend on people for everything, allow them to depend on you, why not.

This is going to be a polarizing book. I mean, I think I liked it. And I say "liked it" in the sense that it made me very miserable. It is a quiet character study, almost a YA novel but not quite, and it is a profoundly lonely and depressing love story.

I didn't begin by liking it. Normal Peo ...more

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Sarah Enjoyed your review, but didn't enjoy the book. I really felt no empathy for Marianne. Maybe that is the skill of the writing? ...more
Feb 23, 2021 10:27AM

Lola @Sarah: I felt no empathy for Marianne either and I wondered why a lot while reading this. I think it is because the majority of the POV was (oddly) C @Sarah: I felt no empathy for Marianne either and I wondered why a lot while reading this. I think it is because the majority of the POV was (oddly) CONNELL. I mean, its a romance by a woman writer, with a very vulnerable female protagonist -- a victim of bullying and abuse -- and in a very erotic relationship with a man she loves -- but all we hear are HIS THOUGHTS. I think that's why when Marianne -- about 60% through the book! -- suddenly tells Connell she wants to be tied up, beaten and punched in the face -- it's a shock to us. We never see her having these fantasies or perhaps going from very playful sex bondage to out-and-out abusive sex. We never get the connection between her older brother beating her up, and why she'd want violent sex -- there's no hint that her brother has sexually assaulted her.

Speaking of that: if my brother beat the crap out of me, broke my nose and gave me two black eyes, so that I had to go to the hospital -- first off, the HOSPITAL WOULD REPORT IT as an assault, that's the law in the US. Second, I would want to report it -- it's despicable and outrageous! that man is a violent, sadistic threat to public safety. I don't care if he is your brother or not! And if she didn't do this, the hospital should or a social worker or CONNELL THE MAN WHO LOVES HER.

At the minimum (again, in the US), her brother would be removed from the home, jailed and if released, on an ankle monitor, would be under a restraining order to keep 1000 ft away from Marianne. So....why is this not done? heck, it isn't even discussed. I thought she had some female friends -- they said nothing. Ever been hit in the face? I once tripped and smashed my face into a fence post (all by myself!). I had two HUGE black eyes and my face swelled up like a pumpkin. I had to wear sunglasses for two weeks. I think this assault is not taken nearly seriously enough in the novel, and nothing ever happens as a result of it. (On top of that, we have no idea why the brother is so violent towards his sister -- they are adults -- there's no sex involved, no incest -- they have piles of money, so that's not it either. Jealousy? no idea. It's just presented as having happened, then dropped....like nearly everything else in the novel.) ...more
Feb 23, 2021 02:46PM

Sep 07, 2018 Marchpane rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 19-20-19, book-club

Sally Rooney is the real deal

Normal People has been lavished with praise from critics, longlisted for the Man Booker prize and adapted for television by the BBC. And that's just in its first week of publication!

All that attention will, no doubt, attract quite a few readers who would not ordinarily touch this subject with a barge pole. Because this book:

A) Is about young people
B) Is a love story (but not a 'romance novel')
C) Contains a fair bit of sex (which is crucial to the storytelling, btw, ...more

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Sep 04, 2018 Bernard O'Keeffe rated it did not like it · review of another edition

On the second page of Sally Rooney’s universally acclaimed, Booker- longlisted novel is the following paragraph:

‘He puts his hands in his pockets and suppresses an irritable sigh, but suppresses it with an audible intake of breath, so that it still sounds like a sigh.’

What?

I get the hand in the pockets bit, but how the hell does the rest of it work? A sigh is an exhalation and I have no idea how any attempt to suppress a sigh by inhaling could possibly sound like one. I’ve tried hard to imagine ...more

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Sep 24, 2018 Trudie rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: booker-18

I am not sure how to write this review because I seem to be so far beyond the pale on my antipathy to this book. In simplest terms I didn't connect with this work at all and I would be best to chalk this up to a "reader/writer" mismatch and move on but I will try and articulate some of my reading experience.

Some of my perplexity with Normal People is that I just couldn't relate to the twenty something, highly educated, politically aware and cynical young adults that populate this novel. I am not I am not sure how to write this review because I seem to be so far beyond the pale on my antipathy to this book. In simplest terms I didn't connect with this work at all and I would be best to chalk this up to a "reader/writer" mismatch and move on but I will try and articulate some of my reading experience.

Some of my perplexity with Normal People is that I just couldn't relate to the twenty something, highly educated, politically aware and cynical young adults that populate this novel. I am not sure how reflective these voices are of young Irish making their way in the world, but as presented here I found them exasperating to listen to and not particularly nuanced.
It is possible that even if I didn't enjoy the novel I might like the writing but in actual fact Rooney's style is perhaps the single biggest thing that bugged me. I found some passages of interest sandwiched between a lot of wooden dialogue and these flat descriptions ...

Marianne goes inside and comes back out again with another bottle of sparkling wine, and one bottle of red. Niall starts unwrapping the wire on the first bottle and Marianne hands Connell a corkscrew. Peggy starts clearing people's plates. Connell unpeels the foil from the top of a bottle as Jamie leans over and says something to Marianne. He sinks the screw into the cork and twists it downwards. Peggy takes his plate away and stacks it with the others

This kind of writing really gives me nothing.

Others have cited the two dimensional nature of her secondary characters and I would concur. Barely any of them made much of an impression on me. Alan - Marianne's brother, seemed particularly badly drawn. He appears to be a key part of understanding Marianne and yet he warrants only a few pen-strokes of unexplained malice and cruelty. The opening of a wine-bottle and pouring of cups of tea receives much more page space.

I tried to understand Marianne, who seems to be both ugly and beautiful, popular and friendless. Her hinted at troubled family life was suppose to underpin her need to be a submissive. I remain unconvinced that this is really how dominance and submission works and I would think experts in BDSM might strongly take issue with some of the cliches here.

The relationship between Marianne and Connell should have kept this book afloat at the very least. The intense emotional and physical connection, the will they / won't they stay together, all the drama of YA love is here but it is in an eye-wateringly navel-gazing form. I found it all exactingly po-faced. The number of inexplicable break-ups, largely based on mis-communication was about three or four break-ups too many for me. I just wanted to yell at this novel most of the time. Say what you mean and stop being so insufferably difficult !, either split up or stay together, both your friends and I really don't care !. Marianne and Connell were of most interest to me when they started emailing each other, discussing novels and politics thus preventing them breaking up over some new emotional minutiae. Perhaps this should have been a novel of their email exchanges.

Oh well, I guess I will never be a Rooney fan and I have doubtless missed the point of this book entirely but that is ok not every book is for every reader. ...more

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May 30, 2019 Justin rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Whoa... guys... I just finished Normal... man, I just... I don’t know... what am I, what am I, uh, missing? This, uh, this... this wasn’t good. Not good at all. I’m so confused. This is, um, this is... this book is everywhere right now, being highly praised and all that. Websites I trust are telling me this is, this is one of the best, one of the best books of the year so far. But, guys... wow.

I’ve never felt more disconnected from a story. I couldn’t care less about either one of these charact Whoa... guys... I just finished Normal... man, I just... I don’t know... what am I, what am I, uh, missing? This, uh, this... this wasn’t good. Not good at all. I’m so confused. This is, um, this is... this book is everywhere right now, being highly praised and all that. Websites I trust are telling me this is, this is one of the best, one of the best books of the year so far. But, guys... wow.

I’ve never felt more disconnected from a story. I couldn’t care less about either one of these characters, and I definitely didn’t care about anyone else in the book because, man, I don’t think the author cared either. This whole thing just felt lifeless to me, like it wanted to be something huge (and it sure is being pushed like it is), but there is really nothing about this book I found redeeming. I hung around until the end thinking something would resolve or the story would progress somehow, but it just kind of fizzles out and it’s done. I wish it would have at least ended with an apology for taking up too much space in the crowded book world.

Seriously, the whole back and forth of I love you, let’s have sex, do whatever you want, we’re different, I can’t tell anyone about you, I love you, I’m seeing someone else, I’m so sad, life is hard, being 20 is tough... that is basically the book. It just kind of bounces around those themes over and over again. There’s nothing in the book to make me care if these kids are in love or not, and it really feels like this should be a YA novel, but it pushed the characters ages up just a bit to say “Nope, no no no... adults here. We have adults coming through! This is Adult Fiction folks! It reads like Twilight without the vampires, but someone give this bad boy a Man Booker prize! Adult book here, ladies and gentlemen! Don’t get it twisted!”

I don’t get it. I didn’t connect with this at all, and I would recommend steering clear of this one and moving on to something else on your list. As my old librarian used to say... “So little books, so little time”. He’s the only person who has ever said that. I think he trademarked it. He’s right. Skip this. ...more

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Nov 23, 2018 Dem rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: bookclub-reads

Man booker prize long list nominee and Costa book awards nominee This is a book that has many admirers and sadly it didn't work for me and while I would love to agree with all the judges on this one I only struggled to the end because it was a bookclub read. It is difficult to go against the grain on a book that is nominated for so many awards. So as always you need to judge for yourself because books fit people differently

Quite simply this book didn't Fit Me. I really have no interest in r ...more

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Oct 26, 2020 Emily (Books with Emily Fox) rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

Whoever was responsible for the marketing of this book deserves a raise because they managed to make 400k+ people read this incredibly boring story.

I've been joking around and explaining not loving most Memoirs/Autobiographies and some Contemporaries by stating that "I just don't really care about people".

Clearly, it's far from the truth but... I'll make an exemption for these people.

Didn't care one bit.

Not sure if I'll watch the tv show... ...more

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Oct 29, 2018 Caitlin rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2018

I picked up my cup of coffee and took a large gulp, swishing the liquid around in my mouth a little before swallowing. Two stars, I think. I touched my hand to my face and rubbed my nose. I clicked the two star rating. I closed my eyes and nodded, breathing out slowly. Yes, two stars.

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Apr 29, 2019 jessica rated it liked it

wow. one of the most frustrating, but humanising, books i have read in a long time. for sure. i feel so exhausted after reading this, but i think that may have been the authors intent. its shows that normal people living normal lives can be quite tiresome. for example:

- the writing lacks quotation marks, which makes the dialogue difficult to decipher. which could be seen as support for the idea that life is just as messy as the books formatting and communication sometimes takes effort to underst ...more

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Sep 09, 2018 Portal in the Pages rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Goddamit Sally Rooney and now I'm crying. ...more

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Jul 24, 2020 Cindy rated it liked it · review of another edition

The book aims to hit emotional poignancy by showing how people weave in and out of your life and exploring themes of first love, class differences, and depression; but ultimately the narrative boils down to two co-dependent people hooking up throughout the years, which doesn't really add anything new. Turn to your social circle IRL and you'll find the same story. ...more

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Apr 17, 2019 Chelsea (chelseadolling reads) rated it liked it · review of another edition

I genuinely have no idea how to rate this. I LOVED the first half, felt lukewarm towards the middle, and then hated the ending????? The characters had so much chemistry but they refused to communicate I just 😤

TW: sexual assault, domestic violence, depression, suicide

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Apr 27, 2020 Ali Abdaal rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Started reading at 11pm while on an evening shift at work. Drove home at midnight, arrived at 00:40. Got into bed and kept reading, finished at 04:15. I’m kicking myself for ruining the next day but do I regret it? Absolutely not.

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May 30, 2019 emma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, couldn-t-wait-to-read, auto-buy-authors, beautifully-written, reviewed, recommend, owned, i-love-these-characters, non-ya, 4-stars

i am swiftly abandoning this reread because i'm not enjoying it and i'm scared.

---------------------

“Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything.”

The first time I read this, I rated it three stars. While this can be considered relatively high for me (don’t check my average rating, it will only bring despair to us both), it is approximately two stars lower than what I expected to rate this book.

I adore Rooney’s prior novel, Conversations with Friends, to a degree that is almost disturb ...more

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May 21, 2019 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I had been influenced by a friend - whom I adore & respect - by her 1 star review.... way before this book started gaining momentum and hit the stores a month ago.
This book wasn’t for my friend - but it sure was for me.

I’ve own an ‘Advance Reader’s Edition’, of Sally Rooney’s paper copy for a year and a half. It sat on my shelf, unread.

Rooney’s first novel “Conversations With Friends”, was wonderful.

I admit having a thing for the type of writer Sally Rooney is:
*Addicting* thought-provoking r ...more

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Jun 22, 2020 Danielle rated it it was ok · review of another edition

What?! The.... what?! 😬😬😬😬 This book has been very publicized with the new Hulu adaptation and all. I for one, was looking forward to reading this one. Along with everyone else (judging by how long I waited in the library queue😡). Sadly, it didn’t live up to the hype for me. ☹️These characters were not likable. They both have clear issues, but I’ve read plenty of books where the characters are flawed but you still root for them in the end. And don’t even get me started on the ending. 🙄

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Jan 23, 2019 Nilufer Ozmekik rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Wow! Check out Hulu’s marvelous adaptation! They did amazing job by adapting this lyrical, poignant, sad and realistic story with remarkable, heartfelt performances! It is a real soul crusher, heartbreaker! Get ready to set your ugly cries free!!!!

This really reminded me of those tear jerkers, Oh God I cannot breathe, all my happiness swept away by emotional vampires vacuum cleaners inc., come on, that’s kind of nerve bending story that one of the protagonist has to die from a deadly disease ( o Wow! Check out Hulu’s marvelous adaptation! They did amazing job by adapting this lyrical, poignant, sad and realistic story with remarkable, heartfelt performances! It is a real soul crusher, heartbreaker! Get ready to set your ugly cries free!!!!

This really reminded me of those tear jerkers, Oh God I cannot breathe, all my happiness swept away by emotional vampires vacuum cleaners inc., come on, that’s kind of nerve bending story that one of the protagonist has to die from a deadly disease ( or both of them needed to die sometimes! Oh no another crying torrent coming up! I cannot hold it! I can’t)or one of them has to commit suicide kind of, depressive, sad, exhausting, giving you anxiety attacks kind of John Green books. (After looking for Alaska, I felt the a dark cloud always following me for one month and my husband fed me with soap and Chardonnay, as you can imagine I couldn’t eat solid food at least two months because I bit the pages of the book and chewed so hard, destroyed my dental implements!!!)

So yes this book is sad, horrifyingly bringing your dark clouds and vultures above your head and interesting fact is nobody dies! But yes there are so many heavy, harsh, heart wrenching, brain cell boiling issues make you feel like hit by a truck several times, then suffered from waterboarding and torture conducted by American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman and finally thrown away into the swamp,eaten by crocodiles. The characters deal with drug addiction, bullying, sexual assault, suicidal thoughts, severe depression and it is really heartbreaking to see them not to have a regular teenager lives.

And you know what after all those torturous feelings, my kindest part of soul( also my masochist brain cells and my vulnerable heart) loved those two characters, Connell and Marianne and witnessed their literally growing up, their adolescence and early adulthood times, forming friendship, special- sensitive bound. At first when they were in high school, Marianne is outcast, social pariah, bullied by mean girls as Connell is shiny, popular star of the school community. The part he didn’t take her to the prom was harsh, mean move and Connell lost his all his brownie points and earned slapping contest championship’s high rated asshole statue.

But when they were in college, the balances were changed now Marianne is intellectual, independent, smart social queen and Connell loses his spotlight and sentenced to be an ordinary, invisible college boy which makes him more depressed and lonely.

Their friends-lovers- again friends- again lovers kind of complex relationship and their story’s revelation should be called : “Restrained screams” or “Unsaid Words” , or “Bottled Up Emotions!” or “I think I’m really pissed off those two characters so much for breaking my heart !”
I know the realistic conclusion was necessary, logical, reasonable but it doesn’t mean it is not hurting you so much!

As a result, if you can deal with feeling blue by reading sad, sad, sad, OH GOD WHY THE HELL I CARED SO MUCH ABOUT THOSE CHARACTERS kind of book, this is just for you.

I liked the captivating, realistic, poignant story telling and I truly accepted those broken, flawed, complex characters but I think sometimes their story made me suffocated a little. This is a good book but not my first choice of reading

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Aug 24, 2019 Meredith ( on Semi-Hiatus until February) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: overdrive

Uncomfortable and Provocative

In Normal People, Sally Rooney tells the story of two deeply damaged people who develop an intense relationship that transcends the norms.

Connell and Marianne start a secret romantic relationship while in high school. Connell is the popular jock who secretly cares what everyone thinks about him. Marianne is the school pariah--the girl who people create myths about. While they both feel alone and misunderstood, together they understand not only one another, but a ...more

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May 03, 2019 Adam Dalva rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book is amazing, kinetic, insightful, and fun. It feels ferociously of the moment, yes, but it also has a timelessness all its own. Cut through the hype - cut through the show. Rooney's time management is stellar (every new chapter is a time jump ahead), both perspectives are great (every chapter alternates between our two leads, with the attendant misunderstandings of a really good rom-com), and the characters behave like real humans. Excellent supporting cast too, which is a rare treat. T ...more

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Nov 16, 2019 Paul Bryant rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

I thought I’d do the Goodreads Summer Reading Challenge, even though it’s just about winter here in Sherwood. But I think I’ll get away with it, you never see any police around here from one year to the next. Anyway, standards really aren’t what they were, I don’t even think anyone would care. In the old days if you did a summer reading challenge in winter you’d be out the door so fast your feet wouldn’t touch the ground. But these days people have neck tattoos and name their children after bran ...more

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Sep 16, 2018 Peter Boyle rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: booker-nominee, irish

I wanted to like this book more than I did. How thrilling that the author hailed as "Salinger for the Snapchat generation" is Irish, and from my own province of Connacht at that. There are moments in this novel that would certainly back up such a bold claim. But I believe that she is a writer still honing her craft. Not quite the finished article just yet, but with all the potential to become a literary heavyweight.

In the beginning we meet Connell and Marianne, two young people growing up the we I wanted to like this book more than I did. How thrilling that the author hailed as "Salinger for the Snapchat generation" is Irish, and from my own province of Connacht at that. There are moments in this novel that would certainly back up such a bold claim. But I believe that she is a writer still honing her craft. Not quite the finished article just yet, but with all the potential to become a literary heavyweight.

In the beginning we meet Connell and Marianne, two young people growing up the west of Ireland. Marianne comes from a wealthy family and Connell's mother Lorraine is a cleaner in their lavish house. At the start of the book, the pair are in their final year at school - Connell is a popular sports star while Marianne is a social outcast. They are close despite operating in completely different circles. Roles are reversed once they move to Dublin for college - Marianne falls in with a group who appreciate her wit and intelligence, and a taciturn Connell finds it difficult to make friends. The story follows their on-off relationship over the years - they go from being pals, to more than that, to who knows? They are a huge part of one another's lives, no matter what their romantic status.

Rooney is strong on the intricacies of relationships - how the influence of one person can shape another person's whole life, and how little misunderstandings can snowball into major heartbreak. At one point Connell discovers that becoming part of a couple can even validate one's existence: "To be known as her boyfriend plants him firmly in the social world, establishes him as an acceptable person, someone with a particular status, someone whose conversational silences are thoughtful rather than socially awkward." She is also extremely perceptive about the journey from adolescence into adulthood, that point in your life where you fly the nest to take on the world and finally meet people with the same interests as yours - confident, excited and apprehensive all at once: "They were coming into college every day to have heated debates about books they had not read."

However, there were a couple of things that bugged me. For one, Marianne's family despise her, yet we are given no reason for this. The actions of her brother Alan, in particular, become more ridiculous as the story goes on, and without proper context they just feel ludicrous. And I'm afraid I found the dialogue quite flat at times. For two people like Marianne and Connell, who know each other so well, I kept thinking, is this how they would really speak to each other? Their exchanges are so earnest and dry. For example, there's one part where they are about to have sex after missing one other for so long, and the atmosphere is charged. They kiss. Marianne says that she wants this so much, and Connell goes: "It's really nice to hear you say that. I'm going to switch the TV off, if that's OK." The description of the scene makes it sound passionate but the conversation dulls its effect.

Maybe I'm nitpicking. There were many aspects of the book I really admired. It's just that when I see publications like The Guardian declaring Normal People a "future classic", I expect a bit more from it. I do think that Sally Rooney is massively talented, and her gifts of observation and empathy will serve her very well in her career. She may have the literary world at her feet right now, but I reckon her best work is yet to come. ...more

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Mar 28, 2020 Ariel added it · review of another edition

There were lines that swept me away, the way the timeline was structured moved the story forward in such a powerful and exceptional way, reading the story felt like the way we tell our lives to ourselves, highlighting the moments we've decided are pivotal, but all together I felt depressed and frustrated with the characters and their repetition and their decisions. But I will definitely try Rooney again! ...more

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May 05, 2020 Thomas rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction, realistic-fiction

Let it be known that I found this book both exhilarating and almost unbearably frustrating. About halfway through the book I literally lied down on my couch and screamed to my empty apartment, “Connell, you are such an incompetent communicator, I swear to God herself if you don’t help yourself I’m going to loathe every person named Connell I ever encounter for the rest of my life.” Even though I’m giving this book 2 stars, it’s more out of how invested I felt in the characters and how little I f Let it be known that I found this book both exhilarating and almost unbearably frustrating. About halfway through the book I literally lied down on my couch and screamed to my empty apartment, “Connell, you are such an incompetent communicator, I swear to God herself if you don’t help yourself I’m going to loathe every person named Connell I ever encounter for the rest of my life.” Even though I’m giving this book 2 stars, it’s more out of how invested I felt in the characters and how little I felt Sally Rooney capitalized on their potential, and not out boredom – I felt anything but bored reading this novel.

I will start with what I liked about Normal People before I continue roasting Connell. Now having read both Conversations with Friends and Normal People, I find Rooney’s dialogue so, so sharp and entertaining. It’s witty and interesting and realistic, smart yet sincere enough so that it rarely feels pretentious. Some combination of how she writes dialogue and scenes is just so compelling, like I felt propelled to keep reading even when I felt tired of Connell and Marianne and their poor choices. Rooney also weaves in astute commentary about class and socioeconomic status. A few of the passages about class really made me pause and reflect on my own socioeconomic privilege, which I appreciate. At the same time, my best friend pointed out how ultimately Marianne and Connell’s whiteness both afford them the opportunity to be continually mediocre in ways that people of color are often not given, which I agree with.

Which brings me to my main critique of this book: Connell and Marianne’s relationship felt so, so annoying and inhibiting. It honestly felt like reading an interpersonal train wreck that I could not look away from, even though I would have much rather looked at anything else (e.g., attractive actors like Steven Yeun, BlackPink music videos, the ceiling of my apartment, etc.) On one hand, I totally get and appreciate that people miscommunicate with one another and experiencing or working through miscommunications is part of life. But Connell and Marianne’s miscommunication literally drives the plot of this book for like, the first 200 pages, and even after that they never really have an explicit conversation about their communication and its indirectness? The majority of this book felt like: Marianne and Connell are intimate, then they have a miscommunication (probably caused by Connell), then they somehow reunite and are intimate again, but then they have another miscommunication (also probably Connell’s fault, like yes I get class factors into this but dang he’s a poor communicator), then they’re intimate, then they miscommunicate, etc. until the end.

Finally, I felt like Marianne’s character had so much unexplored depth and potential. She goes through so much: abandonment, familial abuse, trauma and disordered eating, to name a few. Rooney did such a nice job showing some of the effects of her experiences on her psyche and view of relationships. Yet, instead of really going deeper into her struggles or her potential path to healing, Rooney dedicates the majority of the book to Marianne’s relationship with Connell, which I found almost insulting to Marianne’s character. I recognize I may be being a bit harsh here, on one hand I get that Marianne is desperate for some form of healthy connection as we all are to some extent, yet I so, so wish Rooney had given Marianne the chance to heal or develop more within the scope of the novel, so we could see that on the page and feel that hope for her. Instead, toward the very end of the book, Marianne essentially attributes all the goodness in her life to Connell, which made me blanch a little (while sitting on the same couch in which I cursed Connell’s name).

Despite my 2-star rating of this novel and my 3-star rating of Conversations with Friends, I still feel somewhat compelled to try out whatever book Rooney publishes next, just because of the sheer addictiveness of her dialogue. There is some quality content in Normal People, about consent and power within sex, about mental health and help-seeking as well. I wish there had been more growth for these characters, outside of their relationship, especially for Marianne. ...more

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May 09, 2020 Melissa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horrible-ending, library, mind-fuck, 2020

It's not like this with other people, she says. Yeah, he says. I know.

I wanted to love this book but, truth be told, my feelings landed somewhere closer to like. The numerous accolades and glowing reviews this novel received from multiple outlets led me to believe I was destined to adore this awkward tale of first love. And on some level, I did. Yet, part of me feels underwhelmed. Mostly with the storyline arc or lack-thereof, which translated to a frustrating conclusion.

My introduction to Sally Rooney’s writing was a bit of a rocky one. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why an author would choose not to surround dialogue with quotation marks. Is this some sort of artsy statement? My distaste stemming from the simple fact that it’s a trying task deciphering if a character sharing a scene with another is speaking their words aloud or running through an internal monologue. There were a lot of stunted moments for me initially when it came to Marianne and Connell’s interactions.

Once I found my footing with Rooney's style, I began to see the fascinating direction she was taking things. Namely, with the role reversals. When readers meet Marianne and Connell, two high-school classmates, she's a bit of an outcast, while he's a popular jock. They fall into a friends-with-benefits scenario, and naturally, he wants to keep things hush-hush. Marianne, not recognizing that she deserves better, goes along with the situation. There are underlying feelings there, but an acknowledgment from either, not so much. When the friends cross paths again at college, Marianne has a newfound confidence and a host of friends, while Connell is alone and wallowing in uncertainty. Through these two characters, Rooney examines how relationship dynamics and outlooks on life can shift as circumstances evolve.

While readers are privy to their inner thoughts, Marianne and Connell rarely own up to the feelings they have for one another. Each crippled by self-doubt when it comes to voicing their desires for more—an actual relationship. The entire novel is propelled by the deep-seated hurt they each lug around. Hurt that feeds into their miscommunication and impedes their forward progression. And just when you think, yes! It’s finally happening. The maddening cycle starts all over again.

I recognize that Rooney took a bit of a risk here, going for something other than the typical happily ever after ending, yet it almost felt like the journey was a throwaway. What was the point of trudging through the muck with Marianne and Connell if they were just going to end up right back where they started?

*Thank you to the FCPL for the borrowed copy and all the librarians who ensure we have access to an outstanding selection. ...more

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Sep 19, 2018 Sam Quixote rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: best-fiction-non-fiction-2018

Oooof. Alright - a disclaimer before I start. Normal People by Sally Rooney is superb. I’m gonna gush about this one (warning to those in the splash zone!) and I honestly feel that the less you know about it, the better the experience will be for you. So, to those of you who’re thinking of reading it, don’t bother with any reviews about the book - just read it. It’s a contemporary story about a boy and a girl who fall in love. That’s all you need to know. And when you’re done, come back and we c Oooof. Alright - a disclaimer before I start. Normal People by Sally Rooney is superb. I’m gonna gush about this one (warning to those in the splash zone!) and I honestly feel that the less you know about it, the better the experience will be for you. So, to those of you who’re thinking of reading it, don’t bother with any reviews about the book - just read it. It’s a contemporary story about a boy and a girl who fall in love. That’s all you need to know. And when you’re done, come back and we can hi-five each other in joy over its excellence!

…

Why did I begin with “Oooof”? Because I genuinely feel like I’ve been punched in the gut. Repeatedly. This is such an emotionally exhausting and draining read! Sally Rooney’s created a remarkably compelling pair of characters in Marianne and Connell and I felt their love so intensely it was like I was experiencing it with them.

Which makes it sound like a romance, and it has some of those elements, but if it’s anything it’s a classic Bildungsroman (just a fancy word for “coming of age” story). Marianne is the awkward loner in high school, brainy but socially isolated. Connell is the good-looking popular boy, inexplicably drawn to Marianne - star football player falls for nerdy girl. The two begin seeing each other secretly - god, it sounds sooo fucking cheesy doesn’t it? I promise you it’s anything but. From there it’s a rollercoaster of emotions as the characters grow and develop. I loved it pure and simple.

Here are some critiques to anyone who didn’t enjoy the book: Marianne’s brother Alan is a laughably one-dimensional villain. There’s no plot (which is very typical of this type of story) - the story just starts and then ends. The occasional phrase feels hammy and clichéd (stuff like “so few people have what we have”). Connell is written as this genius but he does some super-dumb things - and if he is so brilliant, would he care so much what others thought of him? Also, given how unbelievably connected Connell and Marianne are on every conceivable level, the number of times they misunderstand one another seemingly purely for dramatic purposes could be seen as contrived as fuuuuck.

And, though I know almost nothing about Rooney, it feels like a very autobiographical novel - most young writers tend to write about themselves to start with, after all. She’s a young Irish woman who went to Trinity College, Dublin, on a scholarship, like Marianne, and the novel ends with the characters in their mid-20s, which is the same age I suspect Rooney was when she stopped writing this (she’s now 27 years old). In that regard you could say it’s somewhat unimaginative.

Listen: none of that matters. I noticed those things and I didn’t care. Because it’s so well-written, so damn compelling, so enthralling and honest and… real. If I gave this anything less than the highest possible rating, I’d be lying about how much I enjoyed this book.

It’s also impressive that she didn’t shy away from writing the sex scenes given how tricky they are to write with most writers publicly embarrassing themselves. She’s such a confident and skilful writer – already, at such a young age! - that she pulls them off admirably and, yes, sensuously.

If you’ve ever heard someone trying to convince someone else to start reading books, one of the points they’ll make is that you get to live lives you never would. Most books do this on a superficial level but Normal People actually achieves this viscerally. This is one of those books that effortlessly draws you into it and lets you experience the intensity of Marianne and Connell’s heart-achingly, tender, complex relationship in a totally believable way - it’s powerful stuff. Truly, I felt more and more anxious as the book went on until I was actually dreading the end - this novel turned me into a wreck!

The Guardian review, which drew me to this book in the first place, mentioned something like “this is a novel for and about the Millennial generation” but it’s not really. In a literal sense the characters and author are Millennials but besides that there’s nothing about this book that makes it distinct for this specific time - it could easily be set at any point in the last 50 years and still work perfectly.

I’m not really sure what the book was trying to say - if anything - but it’s left a deep impression regardless. Maybe that’s it - the whole labelling of generations is a fruitless exercise in misnomers, we’re all the same and love is a complicated, weird thing for all of us? Maybe it’s trying to define what “normal” is for this generation but isn’t that something every generation goes through? And I’m not exactly sure what conclusions Rooney comes up with could be uniquely ascribed to Millennials.

I’ll leave it with this because I’m spent: Normal People isn’t just the best novel of the year, or even the best novel of the last few years, but it’s one of the best I’ve ever read in my life. Maybe I’m just a sucker for coming of age stories? W. Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage told a similar type of story that left me just as devastated - but in a good way (sort of). A beautiful powerhouse of quiet, extraordinarily potent sensations that indelibly captures an important part of the human experience, Normal People has made me an instant fan of Sally Rooney’s - and thank you for writing it. ...more

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Jul 24, 2018 Britta Böhler rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, 01secondshelf-read, 2018bw-read, femlit, fiction, kindle-scribd, 2019, 2booker2018, 2womenprize2019, 01secondshelf-prizeworthy

I have to admit I wasn't taken with Rooney's debut Conversations with Friends but I tried to read her second book with an open mind. The writing was good and some of the themes were interesting but I was rather bored by the selfabsorbed, cliché-characters: women who just want to 'get the man' and who always question their self-worth after a break-up, and men who are behaving as if they come straight out of a 'boys-will-be-boys'-movie. So 1950ies. And the ending is just plain cheesy.

2.5* (mainly ...more

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Apr 24, 2019 Caroline rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: man-booker-nominee, ho-hum, literary-fiction, so-much-potential, overrated, waste-of-trees, she-wrote-it, botmc, womens-prize-nominee

***NO SPOILERS***

This is one of the most overrated books I've read in a long time, and I'm stunned it was long-listed for the Women's prize and the Man Booker (but then, I usually really dislike what's chosen for that). The critics are gushing over it too. A professional review I saw in “Book Page” calls it “wise and wondrous.” I ask this: How? How is Rooney’s message “wise”? Show me what’s “wondrous.” I’ve read wondrous and wise many times before. Those are the transportive books I never forget ***NO SPOILERS***

This is one of the most overrated books I've read in a long time, and I'm stunned it was long-listed for the Women's prize and the Man Booker (but then, I usually really dislike what's chosen for that). The critics are gushing over it too. A professional review I saw in “Book Page” calls it “wise and wondrous.” I ask this: How? How is Rooney’s message “wise”? Show me what’s “wondrous.” I’ve read wondrous and wise many times before. Those are the transportive books I never forget. They overwhelm me in the best way. Everything about Normal People underwhelmed me.

Though Rooney’s simplistic prose makes Normal People very easy to read, the book is poorly organized, overly sexual, plot-less, and ultimately, never comes together in a satisfying way. Considering how ordinary, often boring, most people’s lives are, her book actually is about “normal people,” but I expect authors to dress up the everyday. I expect tension, some drama, maybe even a little suspense. I need a plot with a compelling reason for being. Normal people’s lives don’t make for good stories as they are; they require tinkering. A story about two friends-with-benefits who are confused about what they mean to each other isn’t a story. It’s merely the rough outline for a layered, more meaningful story.

Rooney’s intention was a story about miscommunication between close friends as they grow and have various life experiences--except there is no miscommunication. The characters are clear about how they feel. They profess their love for each other more than once. They have sex all the time. They show each other care and consideration. What I saw was inexplicable hesitance. In high school, Marianne is unpopular and rich; Connell is popular and poor, so early on, this difference drives their hesitance and makes sense. I thought then that Normal People was going to be an exploration of how class and social difference can harm a relationship, a kind of contemporary “Romeo and Juliet.” Instead, Rooney dropped this as soon as the characters move on to college, and their previous hesitance no longer makes sense.

Where these characters’ class differences are concerned, development is very shallow. Rooney didn’t illustrate how Marianne is unpopular and Connell popular or how Marianne is rich and Connell poor. She said that Marianne lives in a big house; she showed Connell’s housekeeper mother working for Marianne’s family a few times. That’s it, and Rooney could just as easily have made them the same level of popular and of the same class.

I was continually confused about or forgot entirely most of the secondary characters because none have distinguishing features or much, if anything, to do. Marianne’s mother isn’t shown, just talked about matter-of-factly a few times. A cruel brother pops up here and there to dole out cruelty, then disappears. A boyfriend is callous and doesn’t stick around long enough to do anything interesting. A sub-plot about abuse is mildly intriguing but is apropos of nothing and ends in a flash. They all tease, hinting at Normal People’s unrealized potential to be phenomenal.

Of course, normal people have lives that can change drastically and in unpredictable and sad ways, but translating that to the page necessitates a concrete story arc. I understand why some critics have called this book “stream-of-consciousness.” Rooney didn’t employ that writing technique, but the events, jumping as they do from one disconnected thing to the next, flashing backward and forward confusingly, are stream-of-consciousness in plot form. As a writing style, stream-of-consciousness is horrible, but in plot form it’s disastrous. I’ll go ahead and give Rooney another try with Conversations with Friends but with the lowest expectations. ...more

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Jul 07, 2020 Jaidee rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: under-two-stars-books

1.5 "banal, extraneous, pretentious" stars !!!

2020 Read I was Most Afraid to Dislike Award (not quite hate this year)

I will likely piss some people off with this mini-review but WTF was that ?

I am really astonished that this has been nominated for so many prizes. The writing was plainer than brown paper, the psychologies were moderately inconsistent and the minutiae were so utterly unnecessary.

This went on and on and on about two insecurely attached teens that try desperately to love and gro ...more

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May 01, 2019 JanB rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: buddy-read-with-marialyce, netgalley, 2019-reads

How do two damaged people, who long for nothing more than to be “normal”, navigate the intricacies of a relationship? This book tore my heart out and stomped on it, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Marianne and Connell become acquainted when his mother is the housekeeper for her family. Marianne’s family is wealthy, but she is the smart, nerdy, unattractive girl who is an outcast at school while Connell, also smart, is the popular jock. They enter into a relationship that he wants to kee ...more

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About Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney

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Sally Rooney was born in 1991 and lives in Dublin, where she graduated from Trinity College. Her work has appeared in Granta, The Dublin Review, The White Review, The Stinging Fly, and the Winter Pages anthology.

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“It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about.” — 626 likes

“Marianne had the sense that her real life was happening somewhere very far away, happening without her, and she didn't know if she would ever find out where it was or become part of it.” — 517 likes

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