Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Normal People by Sally Rooney

407 reviews

xveronica_fx's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Grief, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Bullying, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Child abuse, and Death of parent

felishacb's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Blood, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Eating disorder, and Drug use

Minor: Bullying and Suicidal thoughts

cadence_e's review against another edition

This book felt as if I was witnessing two not normal people mess up a terrible situation ship repeatedly, all while being helpless to stop anything cause I am seeing everything through a fuzzy haze of word vomit. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Classism, Death of parent, and Child abuse

annasph's review against another edition

sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Really really good book that I finished faster than anything I tried to read in the past 5 years which have been a reading slump. I could not identify myself in the least bit with either character but it was a really good insight into other people? I cannot stress how much I loathed some of the things both of them (but particularly Marianne) thought and said, not from a moral highground (at least I hope so), but more of a really really exhausted spectators perspective.

What made me really uncomfortable was Mariannes constant need to submit herself to the men she has sex with. I can see how it is part of her characterization in the book, but I would have appreaciated a trigger warning these parts made me want to hurl my guts out. Again this does not make it bad, it is very very well written just very heavy material.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Bullying, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

diegor's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

An excellent study of a pair of flawed characters. Not a revolutionary as a lot of people make it out to be but a read worth your while nonetheless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual violence

maximbouch's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

bookishbrenbren's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

4.0

This review is going to sound silly but here goes

I don't think I've read such a captivating book in a long while. I was completely immersed in the inner workings of this tiny little polarized world. It was engrossing, I couldn't put it down and when I did, I kept thinking about it. I feel invested in these characters and I think the author did an incredible job of bringing them to life and capturing what life is like when you're a teen/new adult. Especially the internal life we live inside our own heads. 

on the other hand I fully agree with almost all criticisms of it that I've read 😂 the book is pretentious bordering on delivering a campy teenage movie (he's 17, a soccer star but he's top of his class but he's incredibly shy but he also recommends The Communist Manifesto to peers) and the not-like-other-girls girl even gets a makeover but not before she's read Swann's Way by herself at lunch. 👀 ok. Then also the treatment of disordered eating, classism, abuse and masochism and some light racism-makes-the-bad-guy-bad could also have been better handled. and honestly like on a very literal level, I feel silly caring who Connell Waldron asks to high school prom. But isn't it a sign of a strong writer that she can make me care about something like that? Ugh idk I am so torn. The characters are slightly cliche but nobody can write internal thought like this. I just don't know, send help 🏳️ I can't deny the pull that this book had on me and the fact that it made me feel things. I am a Marianne loyalist and I feel like I genuinely know her. She came to life for me. 
But idk I guess I also expected something more serious (but less self-serious?) than this 🫣 for all the hype and marketing it got 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Grief, Mental illness, Violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual content, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Racism, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

harper11's review against another edition

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

1.0

One star because the only thing that pushed me through the trenches of this book was Rooney’s writing style. This book was completely and absolutely not for me, which is a shame considering the hype. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Bullying, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Child abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Racism

emilycrowleyyy's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Mental illness

Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Alcohol, and Death

Minor: Body shaming, Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

withlivjones's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I really wanted to love this book, especially considering all the hype that surrounds it. And there were definitely things that I enjoyed about it. I thought Connell and Marianne were really interesting as individual characters, Sally Rooney is very good at creating these very flawed but nonetheless relatable and sympathetic characters. Both Connell’s struggles with his mental health and Marianne’s abuse at home which leads her to pursue toxic friendships and relationships outside her home were very interesting to read. It’s a real shame that the relationship between the two was the most boring part of the book. The sentiment of two characters whose lives are intimately tangled together is a very intriguing one, but when their relationship ends up being a continuous cycle of miscommunication after miscommunication, it gets old pretty quickly. If it’s a trope you enjoy, this book will probably be right up your street. But for me, I’ve come to realise that no matter how well written (and this is a very well written book), it’s a trope that I really don’t enjoy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, Alcohol, and Death of parent

Minor: Racism