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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's incredible Marianne's ability to find a guy worse than the last, now, that being said, I think it's hard to give it a high rating considering I didn't enjoy this book very much, I feel like the ending was left half-finished and doesn't leave me with a clear resolution of Marianne and Connell's mental and emotional state, however, I do think that Sally managed to make the reader feel enough empathy for these characters despite their flaws and bad decisions. It's not a bad book, but I couldn't connect with it the way others did.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This has been on my TBR forever, but after listening to the song “Connell” I felt compelled to read this novel. I watched the Hulu show last year because Paul Mescal (need I say more? I loved Aftersun, All of Us Strangers, and The History of Sound). Sally Rooney handles these two desperate characters with such a gentle hand.
Review can be read at In Between Spines
Me:
I’ve heard and read very mixed reviews of Sally Rooneys, Normal People. So of course, I am adding mine to the pile.
“Most people go through their whole lives, without ever really feeling that close with anyone.”
I’ve seen some saying you’ll either hate it or love it, and whilst I didn’t fall into either extreme I can see why that sentiment has come up again and again with regards to this one.
Normal People has a very strong style about it with regards to the topics, messages and writing.
“Connell wished he knew how other people conducted their private lives, so that he could copy from example.”
The first and most obvious is the writing style. We have no “dialogue” persay. Of course, people talk in this book, it’s just not written how you would normally expect. This makes the language both whimsical and confusing at the same time. I can very much see how this way of reading can become jarring and push people out of the book. I got used to it after a chapter or so a didn’t actually mind it, it gave the language a lushness to it that allowed us to focus more on the meaning of what was being said rather than getting bogged down in the details of dialogue syntax.
“I don't know what's wrong with me, says Marianne. I don't know why I can't be like normal people.”
The second thing I’ll focus on is the style of the plot. Normal People follows the story of Connell, Marianne and their tumultuous on and off again relationship. This last years, as the two of them grow, both together an apart, and undoubtedly change who they each become. Both were really interesting, and very flawed characters to read and I enjoyed my time spent with them. I also really liked the dynamic of their relationship, as frustrating and messed up as it was at times. We get to know a lot of the side characters and are with them as a lot of different things happen. Some events and people seem important, while others flitter in an out.
“Lately he’s consumed by a sense that he is in fact two separate people, and soon he will have to choose which person to be on a full-time basis, and leave the other person behind.”
That’s kind of it. It’s just about lives and there is no ending as such. Those things that seem important don’t really culminate to anything. I guess that is how real or “normal” life is… but it made for a mixed feeling read for me, where part of me wondered what the point was? Could it have been made better with a different resolution? This is really what earned this book a three-star rating from me. I just felt liked I’d missed the last couple of chapters and tapped out early.
“I' m not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me.”
Lastly, I’ll touch on the messages and language. For me this is where the real enjoyment was, and these elements are what I think is pulling out all those glowing 5 star reviews. The language was super lush and full of all the profound feels I want to be hit with by a book with this kind of reputation. This is the stuff I was expecting and in this particular regard it didn’t disappoint.
“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.”
Normal people is essentially about the lives of two normal people who by not being normal at all, teach us that there is no normal. This, along with a lot of other moments and musings in Normal People delivered some fantastic and thoughtful messages that hit deep. Sometimes they were nice, flattering to the characters and sometimes they were so brutal, so real and hard to read.
“Marianne had a wildness that got into him for awhile and made him feel that he was like her, that they had the same unnameable spiritual injury, and that neither of them could ever fit into the world. But he was never damaged like she was. She just made him feel that way.”
This was really the hero of the book for me, it got me thinking and feeling along with them. That being said, I still wished for a stronger purpose to the narrative, rather than just all these feels and evocative moments wrapped in beautiful prose.
“And hopefully I have changed, you know, as a person. But honestly, if I have, it's because of you.”
If you’re on the fence I’d say give this one a shot. I can see how it can be polarising and I think that will be based on whether you are a plot or language/message driven person. If you want to be made to think you will love this. If you struggle with no narrative arc you will hate this. If you froth over twisted characters and their development this is for you. If you like to get to the meat and don’t like waffling probably not going to love it. If you all these things sound both good and bad you’ll probably be like me and find it enjoyable but just ok!
Let me know your thoughts!
“It was culture as class performance, literature fetishized for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterward feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about.”
Blog | Instagram
Me:
I’ve heard and read very mixed reviews of Sally Rooneys, Normal People. So of course, I am adding mine to the pile.
“Most people go through their whole lives, without ever really feeling that close with anyone.”
I’ve seen some saying you’ll either hate it or love it, and whilst I didn’t fall into either extreme I can see why that sentiment has come up again and again with regards to this one.
Normal People has a very strong style about it with regards to the topics, messages and writing.
“Connell wished he knew how other people conducted their private lives, so that he could copy from example.”
The first and most obvious is the writing style. We have no “dialogue” persay. Of course, people talk in this book, it’s just not written how you would normally expect. This makes the language both whimsical and confusing at the same time. I can very much see how this way of reading can become jarring and push people out of the book. I got used to it after a chapter or so a didn’t actually mind it, it gave the language a lushness to it that allowed us to focus more on the meaning of what was being said rather than getting bogged down in the details of dialogue syntax.
“I don't know what's wrong with me, says Marianne. I don't know why I can't be like normal people.”
The second thing I’ll focus on is the style of the plot. Normal People follows the story of Connell, Marianne and their tumultuous on and off again relationship. This last years, as the two of them grow, both together an apart, and undoubtedly change who they each become. Both were really interesting, and very flawed characters to read and I enjoyed my time spent with them. I also really liked the dynamic of their relationship, as frustrating and messed up as it was at times. We get to know a lot of the side characters and are with them as a lot of different things happen. Some events and people seem important, while others flitter in an out.
“Lately he’s consumed by a sense that he is in fact two separate people, and soon he will have to choose which person to be on a full-time basis, and leave the other person behind.”
That’s kind of it. It’s just about lives and there is no ending as such. Those things that seem important don’t really culminate to anything. I guess that is how real or “normal” life is… but it made for a mixed feeling read for me, where part of me wondered what the point was? Could it have been made better with a different resolution? This is really what earned this book a three-star rating from me. I just felt liked I’d missed the last couple of chapters and tapped out early.
“I' m not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me.”
Lastly, I’ll touch on the messages and language. For me this is where the real enjoyment was, and these elements are what I think is pulling out all those glowing 5 star reviews. The language was super lush and full of all the profound feels I want to be hit with by a book with this kind of reputation. This is the stuff I was expecting and in this particular regard it didn’t disappoint.
“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.”
Normal people is essentially about the lives of two normal people who by not being normal at all, teach us that there is no normal. This, along with a lot of other moments and musings in Normal People delivered some fantastic and thoughtful messages that hit deep. Sometimes they were nice, flattering to the characters and sometimes they were so brutal, so real and hard to read.
“Marianne had a wildness that got into him for awhile and made him feel that he was like her, that they had the same unnameable spiritual injury, and that neither of them could ever fit into the world. But he was never damaged like she was. She just made him feel that way.”
This was really the hero of the book for me, it got me thinking and feeling along with them. That being said, I still wished for a stronger purpose to the narrative, rather than just all these feels and evocative moments wrapped in beautiful prose.
“And hopefully I have changed, you know, as a person. But honestly, if I have, it's because of you.”
If you’re on the fence I’d say give this one a shot. I can see how it can be polarising and I think that will be based on whether you are a plot or language/message driven person. If you want to be made to think you will love this. If you struggle with no narrative arc you will hate this. If you froth over twisted characters and their development this is for you. If you like to get to the meat and don’t like waffling probably not going to love it. If you all these things sound both good and bad you’ll probably be like me and find it enjoyable but just ok!
Let me know your thoughts!
“It was culture as class performance, literature fetishized for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterward feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about.”
Blog | Instagram
Not sure if Gigi or Julie recommended. I believe they both liked it more than I did. Interesting but angst read for me. The two main characters were both likeable but it was painful for me to go through their growing pains.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced