Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Normalūs žmonės by Sally Rooney

174 reviews

juso's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Classism

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

michaelion's review against another edition

reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

These people are literally, as I'm sure others have said, so normal. I don't mean that derogatorily. I really enjoyed the book. I like slice of life even though I don't read or watch it as much as I should. Not as much attention is put into this genre even though it's just as important as any other.

My only issues are with the way it was written. That's more of a personal thing though. I find dialogue to be the most important part of a piece of media involving two or more people and in this book there are no quotation marks. The writing is very, very good, so the issue was when it flipped from being internal and external. Although I'm sure that was intentional. My other issue is I didn't like how their stories went. But that's another personal thing! If only they knew how to just talk to each other! Even still I think they're the kind of people who will get married in the future whether or not they work on themselves. They're it for each other. I like that, but I wish they were healthier!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Bullying, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

Minor: Drug use, Grief, Biphobia, Antisemitism, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, and Blood

tatjanasbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Bullying, Abandonment, Classism, Death, Gaslighting, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcohol, Medical content, Drug use, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Eating disorder, and Blood

paulaks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-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

4.0

Something that came to my mind while reading, was that this book (the way it´s written and curated) gives me major: artsy depressed feministic not like other girls traumatised literature student vibes. I do not know if this makes sense at all but in my head it does. Now decide by your reaction if you´re intrigued or annoyed. Now to my thoughts:

This book is A LOT while being quite uneventful. Being character driven, it follows 2 characters over 4 years. Documenting my life for that long would be the most boring piece of literature but Connell and Marianne are SO complicated and traumatized. That has to be my first warning: The amount of triggers that are passively talked about is worrying. Please check those before reading (I tried to list some). Overall the reading experience was quite intense. Since there are no quotation marks, the thoughts, storytelling and conversations blend in together which can be confusing but makes for a really intriguing experience. The writing style was 10/10 so no need to continue on that.

Honestly, you can categorize the people that read this novel by their rating into two groups: The group that didn´t build a connection, were annoyed or angry or aren´t empathetic (= ratings lower than 2.5). And the ones who identified themselves with character traits or are just really empathetic (= rating 2.5+). Just a little thesis of mine, don´t take it to seriously. But what you should take serious is the fact that if you can´t build any connection with one of the MCs by the 50% mark, there is little to no point in reading this. I was quite invested so here´s my experience: Their decision-making had me on my toes, even tho the way they continued making wrong choices was exhausting. But it´s definitely interesting how trauma can shape a human being. This aspect shocked me a few times and made me question my own behaviour.

Lastly, the title choice is well done. Who is normal? Are we normal people? Do we want to be normal people? At least I was trying to answer that question.

My rating right now would be a 4 star. The potential was there and maybe I´m the problem but sometimes there were illogical moments and situations that made me uncomfortable (most of the time with Marianne). As you can guess by my long review, this is a great book for a group discussion but be aware that this would reveal a lot of personal stuff since Normal people is an intimate story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Body shaming, Classism, Drug use, Abortion, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Blood, Eating disorder, and Gaslighting

clazbee's review against another edition

reflective slow-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

1.5

I’ll be honest: I only read this book as it was part of my required reading. It’s not the sort of book I typically seek out, so perhaps I’m being overly harsh on it. However, this book was boring. The prose is simple, the lack of speech markers infuriating, and the plot revolves entirely around a lack of communication between the characters which I personally cannot stand. The few plot points that could be interesting- both Marianne and Connell seeming to lie on the ace spectrum, the introduction of BDSM, eating disorders- are all superficial and lack any real depth. Equating BDSM to being abused as a child/feeling worthless just feels cheap and harmful without any surrounding discussion. The only issue handled remotely well is that of mental illness, but even that just… happens. Everything in this novel simply is. And then it ends.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Blood, Bullying, Drug use, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

mel_s_bookshelf'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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Racism

divingforroses's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Mental illness, Death, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Grief, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

nadiaherondale's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

3.75

I was expecting more, to be honest, while I liked the narration and the writing I hated the way dialogues where handled as a big monologue. Nevertheless I liked the exploration about Connell and Marianne's lives, personalities and relationship, I just was expecting for this book to be a favorite since it's so reverenced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Drug use, Death, Physical abuse, and Suicide

Minor: Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent

fairyofprocrastination's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.0

Safe to say I completed this book because I had already bought it at full price and rest assured, I will most likely be giving it away for charity!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying and Sexual assault

Minor: Drug use

tessagush's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.25

Couldn’t put this down the writing style and story telling is captivating. However a very hopeless sad book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol