Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Normalni ludzie

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Normalni ludzie by Sally Rooney

593 reviews

sydneythekydneybean's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

In the words of Taylor Allison Swift, "I think I've seen this film before, and I didn't like the ending."

Can someone please tell me how to talk about a book that they loved reading, but also hated every painstaking moment of it? Because I have no idea. Normal People is such an interesting book because it feels like something everyone is going to have a different opinion about and no one is especially right or wrong. Everything feels so nuanced, like every shade of grey in the color wheel. Do I love it? Do I hate it? Do I love it for the parts I hated or do I hate it for the parts I loved? Take the main characters, Marianne and Connell, for example. I feel so deeply connected to them, like I know them like my own heart and see myself in them, but I don't necessaily like them. But do I not like them because I see myself in all their "bad parts?" Yeah, I think so and that's uncomfortable as fuck. Their understanding of privilege and wealth, their view of what love and self-worth looks like, the submission and sometimes humiliation in their love. It's all so fucking uncomfortable, but I think it's all necessary to explain "normal people."

People hate uncomfortability. I'll admit that I hate it. I turn my back on anything I know will make me overly sad, but I also recognize that that mindset will only keep me stagnant. Connell is uncomfortable at the idea of other people knowing about him and Marianne. Marianne is uncomfortable about Connell seeing all the bad parts she's hiding from him. But because of this, they make no progress. They stay stagnant in their uncomfortable relationship and only when they begin to leave their comfort zones do they truly grow. Honestly, the ending of Normal People is the most beautiful part of the whole book, if only for the fact that it is dripping in hope.

Connell is leaving for NYU. Marianne wants him to go, to do great things, even if she is not there to witness them. This may seem sad to most, but to me, I see nothing but promise.

Over the course of four years, I watched these two get better, get worse, hit rock bottom, lose each other, rely on each other, and love each other. That love does not come easy and it is not lost quickly. In my mind, there is not world where Connell is without Marianne and vice verse, even if that only comes in the form of the part of them they left behind in the other.

(before we finish up, may i present a mini rant. although i loved this book, i cannot, in good faith, give it five-stars solely based on how the dialogue is written. nothing feels more pretentious then writing dialogue in any way that's not with traditional quotation marks. you're not making it artsy, you're making it harder for me to read and decipher what is speech and what is action. anyway, i just needed to get that off my chest.)

Normal People crawled into my skin and made a home there, and I do not believe it will be leaving any time soon. I feel like there are any number of reasons I could have hated this book, but I didn’t. I actually kinda loved it. It's weird, it's awkward, it's depressing, but you might find yourself in the pages of that book and it might have you look back on every decision you've ever made for the sake of being comfortable.

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court3sy's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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felishacb's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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feodora's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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semporina's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Would only listen bc of the lack of quotation marks in the book. I actually liked normal people more

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rachellen's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Admittedly I had watched the show multiple times before reading the book today, so I’d lacked the urgency to actually read it. I am so very glad I have now.

The show does follow the book but I found it so much more emotional as a whole to read the words said between Connell and Marianne. Particularly, when Marianne says ‘most people go through their whole lives, Marianne thought, without ever really feeling that close to anyone’. Also - ‘Marianne, he said, I’m not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me.’

The reason as to why I love this story, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it or the writing, is because it is flawed. The characters are flawed through and through, constantly making their lives difficult because of the intrusion of their desires and emotions and hate. This is what it means to be a sentient human being. That is why I love this story.

I found the power play between the two characters incredibly multifaceted, it evolved constantly. Marianne belongs to a different social class with more money and her mother is her family’s cleaner which in turn funds Connell’s family home. Yet neither have fathers, they are not present or deceased, when they meet. On the other hand, Connell has power over Marianne, particularly in their school relationship, as Marianne is incredibly vulnerable and abused at home leading to insecurities where she is wanting to please Connell to (possibly) make him stay (the secret relationship, university conversations and so on). In school, Connell is popular, Marianne is not. In university, Marianne is popular and even gets Connell a job so he can pay rent, whilst Connell is not popular and works jobs. Marianne has a paid for flat with her own room and so on, Connell works to pay for a shared room in a house. When Marianne leaves home, she relies on Connell and his family, and is no longer wealthy, so they also both become equal (?) financially after they win scholarships, possibly bending more to Connell’s favour as he worked. The power play constantly changes, I believe it balances out in the end, yet the ending infers that there are more power imbalances/balances to occur.

When I found myself on the final page I felt panicked at Marianne’s coolness, particularly after a bicker between them, but when she ends with saying ‘I’ll always be here. You know that.’ - it was probably the most devoted, unprompted, purest thing that Marianne says to Connell in the entire book. It is a pledge.

I could go on for days. But I won’t bore readers of this review any longer.

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