A review by nora_knight
Normal People by Sally Rooney

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book is so... much. It ebbs and flows through Marianne and Connell's complicated relationship, displaying their desire to connect with each other but also their inability to stay together. This novel feels very raw, and somehow both like a universal experience and something very foreign. Sally Rooney had some beautiful prose and I thought the lack of quotation marks was a very unique choice that I didn't mind. I definitely felt a little weird about parts of Marianne and Connell's relationship that were informed by Marianne's
abuse, as I can't relate to that and have no idea if it's portrayed accurately. I think that Rooney handled the complicated themes of mental illness and abuse pretty well considering how confused both Marianne and Connell were by these topics at times. However, again since I have not experienced these things, I would listen to people who do have firsthand experience with this to see if it is handled correctly.
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