Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Persone normali by Sally Rooney

95 reviews

s1dn37's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.25

The cover of the French version is HORRIBLE, but the story is really good even if I expected a little more than that. It is clearly very well written, but I didn't like the story more than that. Since I found it a little redundant. There were a lot of REPETITIONS and the protagonists exased me by force

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Cursing, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Body shaming, Racial slurs, Bullying, Child abuse, and Death of parent

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

brandie_abbie19's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Classism, Physical abuse, Suicide, Alcohol, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Emotional abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

annavandersmissen's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment and Injury/Injury detail

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

thedambookshelf's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring sad 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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Racism, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Abandonment, Alcohol, Bullying, and Suicidal thoughts

victoria_elaine's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective fast-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

Debating giving this 4.75 or 5, but I went for 5 starts because Sally Rooney’s writing style is truly one of a kind. The lack of quotation marks, the huge jumps in time, the strong and seemingly out-of-place statements. It’s all so unexpected but so necessary. Thank you for this. It changed how I see things, how I feel about myself, how I feel about books. Eye opening. 

Marianne represents all of us who feel misunderstood in a big world. Connel represents those of us who feel the weight of expectations at every turn. They find each other and realistically experience the ups and downs of life which we see at certain pinpoints in time through both yet neither of their eyes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Domestic abuse

tkibbee17's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Sexual content, Abandonment, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

abibliophobic_nerd's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

1.25

May or may not be dense, but it wasn’t that deep.

This book made a 9 hour flight with crazy turbulences even longer and stressful.

I do want to give it another chance… I think.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Mental illness, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Abandonment, and Rape

Minor: Alcohol and Blood

zenizage's review against another edition

dark sad 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

3.75

With Sally Rooney the core of the story is always the character(s) she creates and I find her writing really easy to follow, while the subject she writes about is often rather hard (TW: there is some abusive behaviour and violence in Normal People). 
We jump around a bit in time and in POV in this one. We learn about what happens through what Connell or Marianne respectively experience or how they remember an event, an interesting way to convey how misunderstandings can and will happen between two people. The essence is in what wasn't said, the very real problem of (not) communicating while also still trying to figure things out as a teen or young adult. It lacks in depth sometimes, but the characters are still very young, so it is almost fitting.
Since the story is told from the perspectives of two different people and is specifically about their relationship the reader doesn't really get to dive that deep into the world and deeper thoughts of a character–but it makes for a fast read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, Classism, Grief, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, and Bullying

Minor: Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent