A review by m_hates_reading
Normal People by Sally Rooney

challenging 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

5.0

5/5 I wasn’t sure until I finished it, but I absolutely love it.

It’s a surprisingly heavy read, emotionally exhausting. 

Connell and Marianne are both incredibly unlikeable characters once you get to really see the way they treat each other; not without love, but without kindness. They both resent each other an awful lot, and you as the reader grow to as well. They both have experiences leading them to struggle expressing affection, which creates a chain of events causing them both to think the other doesn’t love them, they make decisions assuming what the other feels without asking. 

As much as I dislike the characters, and find them pathetically immature, that’s sort of the point. They’re not perfect, and their relationship is messy, chaotic, and at points exhausting - “Normal”.