Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Normal People

read the trigger warnings ppl!
honestly i was not really expecting to like this but i did. it does what it says on the tin - just feels very real. i liked that the book is called normal people and yet the MCs wish they were normal as they feel other bc that’s just it - there’s no such thing as “normal”.

i do this the depiction of BDSM is quite problematic like !!! safe words !!! pls !!!

i do think it would have been more powerful to have C & M end up engaging in properly safe & actually consensual BDSM at the end vs going from abuse disguised as BDSM to “vanilla” sex. but then again i also think Rooney was very clever when she hinted that C might actually want to be dominant in that way (can’t remember where or what exactly he thinks but it’s the bit where he’s like “i could hit her holy shit”) and then ar the end he’s seemingly the “good guy”. i should really go back and check my kindle highlights but i’ve got shingles and feel like shite so that’ll have to be good enough 😂

i thought the mental illness bits were very realistic, including the fact that M’s ED is never really addressed and seemingly flies under the radar other than a couple comments about her being very thin these days.

the ending makes sense because:
a. life’s events are rarely neatly tied off with little bows. shit happens & keeps going until we die. in this sense it’s very realistic
b. it just makes sense with their character development. i wouldn’t have believed a HEA with where they’re at in their lives they’ve just got so much unhealed trauma & unresolved issues. and yes they've grown but not enough to break the perpetual cycle they’ve been stuck in.

but i absolutely hated it. i’m an open ending hater to my core and it was just SO annoying! these kids need so much therapy and honestly idc what people say, they’re toxic together. ITS NOT HEALTHY!!!

i reckon this is one of these books that’ll just stay with me which is defo props to the author. still mad about the lack of quotation marks tho

Content Warnings

jazzuar's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful 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

4.5

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ipurdia's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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doramak's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective relaxing 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

5.0

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ahubitsky's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

if sally rooney is a leftist, and this book is imbued with marxist themes, i’m a reactionary conservative

this was genuinely really bad on multiple fronts. the most glaring problems are the stunning lack of character development, you’d think with several years of education and life under both marianne and connell’s belts by the end of the story they would’ve changed at least in some regard, but neither of them did. further, i fail to see how the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of a woman makes a compelling plotline, because make no mistake, this plot is purely abuse porn. it’s astounding the lack of agency that marianne has (willingly!). her rich background just makes her come off as a whiny bitch who can’t experience hardship in any way other than by inflicting it on herself, so she does, and in the process convinces herself shes oh so horrible.

not to mention (going back to the alleged “marxist themes”) in this book, it’s extremely interesting how this work is supposed to be marxist, but marianne LITERALLY commodifies herself as a piece of property to be transferred among owners. im pretty sure that commodification of property is something marxists are inherently against? seems like rooney either forgot the marx she read, or just proclaims herself a marxist to the media to give her work the flavor of quirkiness.

the synopsis on the back is also pretty bold, describing the book as a journey of “love and friendship,” when it’s really just a pornographic journey through self-deprecation by a girl who can’t help but act like a craigslist item to be transferred between abusers.

strongly recommend looking up trigger warnings, but even more i recommend avoiding this book altogether.

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ampeckham's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful 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

3.0

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waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-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

3.0

Rooney is such a good writer, and I love her style! I just wish the ending wasn’t so ambiguous and abrupt, and I wish I had gotten to see Marianne blossom at least as much as Connell since the book was supposed to be about the both of them growing up, growing apart, finding each other again, etc. But it was pretty much all about Connell and then sometimes Rooney remembered that Marianne has thoughts and feelings, too.

Marianne and Connell’s relationship is so fascinating though. It is so incredibly toxic, yet they clearly belong together at the same time. I think that their relationship is realistically portrayed, and I could sympathize with one or the other of them at different stages in their lives and their relationship. I think that is a testament to Rooney’s writing: feeling like I want/need to evaluate the characters, to pick a side, and to sympathize and empathize with them and why.

However, I hated the ending. Ambiguous endings infuriate me, especially when the ambiguity suggests what it suggests here. We’re really ending with

Marianne staking her worth on her on-again, off-again boyfriend and putting him above her and “letting him go” so he can, what? Some bullshit about how she’s a springboard from which his life can “truly begin”

?

Before I read the last ⅓ of the book, I was expecting to give it a 4 out of 5, but seeing Marianne’s storyline and the ending get fumbled leads me to give it a 3 out of 5.

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strawbert's review against another edition

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emotional 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

3.5

The book is written very well and has many great memorable quotes. As another reviewer wrote, Sally Rooney makes the mundane spectacular. I enjoyed reading this book very much but I’m not sure what I got out of it. It felt like the characters did not grow and that each chapter was the same thing over and over - which seems like the entire point of the book to be honest. Nevertheless, the book kept me interested to the end. I think the hype for this book is based on how relatable certain parts may feel. I am now excited to read other books from Sally Rooney.

Summed up: Attemping to strike a balance between hope/understanding/independence and misery/shame while coming-of-age.

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