Reviews

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Only show reviews with written explanations

kgorinshteyn's review

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emotional funny reflective 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

4.0

asolitaryfanclub's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

4.0

moonvers3's review against another edition

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3.0

Was it enjoyable to read? Only at times where the angst was pulling at my angst-loving heartstrings.
I honestly think had I not been also listening to the audiobook I would have put this down or read it another time. I don’t know if it’s an Irish thing, or just a stylistic choice, but the lack of quotation marks or any sort of differentiating marker between when a character is speaking or not would have annoyed me within a few pages.
That ending let me completely unsatisfied, and I felt like the purpose of that ending was very…. angsty tumblr in the mids 2010s and maybe that’s why I didn’t enjoy reading it now. There was absolutely no resolution ?? Was there ever any proper character development? Like I would have loved to have seen Marianne work through her shit, instead we got a time jump and an offensive ending. Offensive to my feelings and my expectations of an actual arc happening. We don’t find out why her mother hates her, why her brother abuses her, or why she needs to be hurt to feel something during sex. Her mother is just a rich bitch, her brother is just an abusive asshole (but is somehow scared of Conell) and she just needs to submit. I’m gonna say Marianne’s character borderlines manic pixie…. And Connell sometimes as well. Idk I was very unsatisfied, but hey, it made have strong feelings about it enough to write this lol.

steelcutoats's review

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emotional funny 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

hicklit's review

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5.0

Well I can't beat all the acclaims, whose eyes, prestige, and proximity afforded them the pleasure of gifting the obvious but, I will add to the weight of this text. It was insurmountably a perfect moment in time. Rooney will never know -well unless we meet, how many pages of unquoted dialogue, word-for-word, splayed out the timeline of my life four years ago now; but in it's entirety, start to finish, I have arrived at the same conclusions of both Marianne and Connell. I can say this now and it will be true to the end of time, this is one of my favorite pieces of literature. The challenge, will be starting the next book after this pint size of a whole life.