Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Normalūs žmonės by Sally Rooney

48 reviews

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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

I read this book for the first time somewhen last year. Didn't enjoy it much, thought it was boring and way too sexual & I then even proceeded to sell it.

Out of curiosity though I recently bought it once again, because I've been really into contemporary adult-novel stuff. And wow, I am positively surprised.

Not gonna lie, it's still too sexual for me, but this time I was able to look past that and explore the message behind it, observe the lives of two people unable to go their seperate ways, their lifelines intertwining in unexpected and unforgiving ways.
This book dealt with several topics, some of which include mental illness and modern relationships.
Normal People is wise in a sterile way, unpredictable and really hits you with the reality of life and growing up. Not an easy book, but when is the truth ever easy?

People can really change one another.

Looking forward to reading Beautiful World, Where Are You. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Body shaming, Pregnancy, Blood, and Cursing

aguattery's review against another edition

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

It felt like the story relied a little too heavily on the miscommunication trope. But it was so easy to root for Marianne and Connell the whole time. Just an easy read despite some difficult topics. I think the author has an ability to write about mundane things in a poetic way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Sexual content, Mental illness, and Suicide

Minor: Pregnancy, Abortion, and Death of parent

ireneb2006's review against another edition

emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Classism

Minor: Death of parent

virdix14's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

Warning: This book does not contain quotation marks. While there is literary value to this, it definitely took getting used to.
At times it was easy to get annoyed with characters for their lack of communication, but they actually communicate quite openly with each other. They themselves are confused, shy, or repressive about whatever they're feeling. It was pretty dark, but tentatively hopeful and nicer than I'd expected.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Violence, Blood, and Pregnancy

hannibanani29's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Sexual content

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Classism, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, and Bullying

Minor: Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cursing, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Eating disorder, and Drug use

maggieed's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, and Eating disorder

Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, Pregnancy, and Suicide

rory1387's review against another edition

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

2.0

This book was just fine, honestly. I was just expecting a lot more from what I'd heard online. 
My issues with the book:
- no quotation marks (just a personal red flag)
- third person, present tense (my least favorite)
- there were only really two characters, Marianne and Connell, and they didn't really have any personality

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Sexual content

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Sexual assault

Minor: Domestic abuse, Suicide, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

kaireading's review against another edition

funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

Such a lovely and thought-provoking book. Rooney’s writing style is beautiful: clear, bold and just shocking at times (as if, no one ever says that because it sounds so weird but the book somehow makes it sound quite mundane) but at the same time nonchalant. It flows so beautifully and it’s easy and satisfying to read. The characters in the book are very realistic and relatable, they are not idolized in any way, they just… exist. Sally describes them in a neutral way so that she encourages the readers to develop their own opinions. The book touches on many real-life topics and is overall a very pleasant and comforting read, because the heavier topics are presented in an easily digestible  way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexism, Suicide, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Eating disorder, Bullying, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Cursing, and Body shaming

Minor: Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Panic attacks/disorders

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.25

ugghhh. i went into this really wanting to like it, but it was just not for me. that's partly my fault. i had decided to take a hiatus from reading The Song of Achilles because i knew it had a tragic ending and i'm not in the best mental state rn and wanted something uplifting, when i discovered both the ebook and audiobook of Normal People immediately available to borrow on Libby. don't know what i was thinking to not check the moods and content warnings if i wanted something lighthearted—that's literally what storygraph is for, totally on me.
in a word, this book was upsetting. i've heard someone (specifically, booktuber emmie) describe reading The Goldfinch (haven't read it myself) as having a kind of second-hand depression effect, and i understand it now because Normal People had this very effect of me. three particularly disturbing scenes come to mind:

Connell's former economics teacher attempting to sexually assault him, Marianne's entire relationship with Lukas, and the otherwise-nondescript scene ~88% through when Connell and Marianne have sex for the first time since their first year in college

. this latter scene was the worst of the bunch for me because they both felt so hollow—not in their characterization, Sally Rooney could never, but in their mental states. it's like they're both desperately grasping at something to give them a sense of fulfillment, but their desperation is so painfully undisguised that i found it genuinely depressing. from the very beginning there's a vague sense that the two will end up together in the end, so for it to amount to (at the time) this bleak scene makes their love seem more like inevitability, futility, rather than destiny. the ending doesn't do much to dispel this pervasive hopelessness. of course, this isn't an inherent downfall of the book, Sally Rooney is allowed to write a modern tragedy, it just very much wasn't for me, unfortunately.
with that main point out of the way, it was objectively well-written with lovely prose. i really liked its pacing, jumping forward in time but catching readers up with flashbacks. its general concept reminded me of The Namesake, following a character or characters across years of their life and focusing mainly on romantic relationships, and i prefer Normal People's execution over The Namesake's. 2⅜ stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Blood, Bullying, Classism, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Violence, Alcohol, Infidelity, Abortion, Body shaming, Death, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Vomit, Self harm, Addiction, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Sexism, War, Drug use, Racism, and Toxic friendship

bhopeu's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

The fact that I used to HATE this book and gave it 2 stars and now after rereading it after 2 years & then almost gave it 5 stars is crazy. I think the main reason why I used to hate this book was because I read it at the wrong time in my life and now that I can finally understand the characters and the decisions they’ve made better and now that I am in the right state reading this book made the reading experience so much better and enjoyable. And maybe because I read this now physically and annotated a lot, I noticed things I used to not notice in the past.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment

Minor: Pregnancy