A review by lilahs_literacy_corner
Normal People by Sally Rooney

challenging dark emotional reflective relaxing sad tense fast-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

This book is phenomenally well written, the pacing amazing, and the characters entirely relatable!! My only point of contention with the book is that there seems to be a lack of real full development of Marianne. I'm not saying she needs to have a complete change overnight or even change in the same ways Connell does. But it feels like Connell was given permission to shift and to change, even when it meant him returning to his old self, in a way Marianne was not. Although they are both tethered to each other, for Connell he's allowed to be something outside of that relationship, for Marianne, it seems her characterization only serves as a way to show her impact on Connell but not the other way around. Connell is given the grace to develop his own personhood, something we never see Marianne devleop. Sometimes it felt as though she was just a character that was only activated by Connell, nothing more nothing less, which isn't fair to her or the book because she deserved to have nuance as well as be unchanged. I think part of this comes from the fact that I hoped Sally Rooney, as a female author, would understand the significance of very nuanced and dynamic female characters, but she seems to fall out a little bit with how she wrote Marianne.
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