Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - Normal People

Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Normal People by Sally Rooney

94 reviews

varnikap's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

This was such an enjoyable read!
The writing is so beautiful and the lack of quotation marks didn't spoil that at all. Sally Rooney writes so clearly that the reader never has a problem distinguishing who's speaking.
I wish some of the plots were explored more though
A few important and interesting things were mentioned and then never spoken about at all again.
But overall, such a lovely piece of literature.
It captures young people, relationships, dilemmas, friendships, etc. so well
It also gives an insight into people just discovering sex and relationships and also trauma and abuse.
My favorite part of the book has to be its commentary on class, especially at a university where people of different backgrounds are all put in one place.
These characters are not perfect in fact sometimes the things they say or do feel so bizarre and off-putting but just stay with the story.
Definitely recommend

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shavaunmac's review against another edition

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dark hopeful 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

3.75

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hannibanani29's review against another edition

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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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maia_cat's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

gabrielleclarke05's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective sad 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

5.0

“I’m not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me”. Crying and throwing up

I related to Connell too much 👩🏻‍🦯👩🏻‍🦯.I don’t have one negative thing to say about this book, obviously there’s the whole quotation dialogue thing but I didn’t mind it after the first bit. I love Connell so much. The story is just a deep character study on how relationships are affected through simple communications and the drastic changes it can cause in life. The title is literally the plot like it is just about normal people doing everyday things with a lack of communication due to trauma and how things can end up

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annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

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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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