Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Normal People

Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Normal People by Sally Rooney

342 reviews

louise_mc2's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

The writing was really engaging and insightful, and the characters also feel engaging at first but unfortunately it feels like it doesn't go anywhere

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maislily's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

great book! theres a stylistic choice to not use quotation marks with speech which can be sometimes a little difficult to keep track of but doesn't interrupt the flow of the book really. the pacing and dating use in the chapters is easier to follow if reading the book quite consistently which is something to keep in mind. i read this after watching the BBC adaptation and have to say its very well translated. i find it to be a very raw representation of young relationships without belittling the emotions of being young, acknowledging the importance that comes with any and all relationships we experience especially at a time when emotions are so high and the world feels so small yet so large.

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flohbeutel's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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ellislilylovestoread's review against another edition

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2.75

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perleerose's review against another edition

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emotional 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

2.75

I don't really get the hype behind this book...I didn't like either of the main characters. Connell was an ass and seemed to use his mental illness as an excuse. Marianne just made me fucking sad as she lets the men in her life hurt her because she thinks she deserves it.
There were some moments that I did like where Rooney steps away from the characters and just dishes out wisdom for early adult life to her own characters. Her physical writing is also very impressive.
"Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything."

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ljghazin04's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

the sort of book you have to reread at different points in life to fully internalize everything it has to say. cant wait to rediscover this story in a few years. loved the aoife mcmahon audio version!

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booitsnathalie's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

A compulsive and brutally nihalistic romance novel. This is my first Sally Rooney and not at all what I expected, but it's very easy to see why she has become so highly regarded. She writes her characters with such tenderness and empathy, in spite of their confounding decisions and cycles of self alienation. At the same time they possess an acute, almost meticulous physical awareness that nevertheless only makes their pain more acute.

This book is predominantly about an inability to connect to others, of superficial interactions insufficiently standing in for a deeper connection the two protagonists crave. The conclusions they arrive at are frustrating, but so deeply articulated that they make a sort of sense. Nobody is capable of unpacking their adolescent (and ongoing) trauma because it requires a vulnerability that frankly terrifies them. So they dissociate, attempt to mirror each other, cling to the closest approximation of happiness they can find. It is unrelentingly bleak and I admire the willingness to refuse an easy resolution.

The degree to which this articulates an actual worldview of impossible codependency is murkier for me, with a lot of baggage of outdated psychology being inserted as an inherent cause of the isolation everyone feels (rather than, say, the class disparity that is crudely gestured at but far outside the novel's interests). I cannot begrudge it too much as it is well in line with characters who themselves have very little awareness of the reasons they are so unhappy, but I am skeptical about the ways that viewpoint inevitably gets expanded to be some sort of social truth.

Mostly I am surprised by the book's coldness. I devoured it in a few days and came away feeling profoundly empty. I do mean this as a compliment of sorts.

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