Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Normale mensen

Normal People portrays very well how two people's lives can sometimes intertwine. Marianne and Connell have a messy relationship, with fights and breakups, but they always find eachother back. As friends or partners, or something in between.
The messiness feels real; somehow I didn't want to scream at them to talk it out like I usually do with romance books. I just understood. It was refreshing to see a young adult romance feel so realistic.

This books tackles with darker subjects and sexuality pretty well; none of them are the point of the book, but they are present and can be messy. May I even say...like in a normal person's life

Overall the book was a fast read and grasped my attention more than I thought. While it was not a fantastic read and the prose was not remarkable to me, I definitely appreciated the freshness of it.

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arxchiell's review against another edition

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emotional fast-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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gaby_readsss's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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? Yes

3.0

Normal People is not a book you read for enjoyment. Its story will break your heart and frustrate you to no end.

I had wanted to read this book after hearing so many polarizing opinions on it. To be honest, I don’t even know how I feel about this book yet. Part of me wants to love it but I mostly hate it. Like, I get it, but why does it have to be so complicated? If you guys love each other and are miserable without each other why do you keep letting each other go? 😭 I know that this is more than just their relationship but man, I don’t even know if these characters had any personal growth.
Also, that ending was so frustrating. I get the point but I don’t get it at the same time. 😩

I’ll go watch the show now to try and make sense of what I just read.

Content Warnings

keiiiiiiii's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Sally Rooney had this way of writing intimate moments and realization in a matter-of-fact, that I surprisingly enjoy. Not a lot of writers can achieve that. I personally think its a form of internalization of how having someone effortlessly saying they love you and appreciate shouldn't feel so exclusive or something you have to grind for, and if you're a decent person then yeah, you should have at least one person who cares for you, simply because they care for you, not because you are sone characters in novel/film/TV. I think this kinda correlates with how connel doesn't feel that he deserved good things and marianne feeling that connel doesn't love her after all the years they spent together.

The writing just can be inconsistent tho. Sometimes you're in the middle of something mundane then suddenly Rooney is ranting about some random politic shit that I don't care and I can't think how it reflects to the characters or the themes of the novel. And sometimes I just can't stand how the dialogue feels like the fantasy of white college-educated elites who scream on class or revolution without an ounce of self awareness, which makes sense considering Rooney was in a debate club and she studied in the irish ivy league's eviqualent.

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