Normal People by Sally Rooney
Published by Hogarth on April 16, 2019 (originally 2018)
my rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads avg: 4.08 (as of 2019-05-09)
Spoiler-free Review
Goodreads | IndieBound | Author’s Website
At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers—one they are determined to conceal.
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.
While I knew from the start that this book would be different than anything I had experienced before, I had no idea how much I would love it. Normal People tells the story of Connell and Marianne, two very different people who somehow just keep meeting. It begins while they’re in secondary school and spans the course of their university careers. At its heart, this is the story of two people whose lives cannot untangle.
Even in memory she will find this moment unbearably intense, and she’s aware of this now, while it’s happening.
While their relationship is often not quite healthy, I really rooted for them to be together. Sally Rooney writes in such a way that you can understand them both even while condemning their actions. Oftentimes their conflicts are the result of miscommunications that could have easily been avoided by pressing one another further rather than making assumptions. Deep down, they both care quite deeply about each other and none of the hurt is intentional.
Is the world such an evil place, that love should be indistinguishable from the basest and most abusive forms of violence?
I found myself repeatedly caught up in the depth of emotion I felt while reading this. Sometimes I would have to put it down for a moment, breathless, as I contemplated the characters and their situations and the parallels I was able to draw to my own life. I nearly wept at the closing page, but at the same time felt buoyed by its message. I’d say I thought my reaction to this was just me, but everyone else in my Women’s Prize group also gave the book 5 stars.
Life offers up these moments of joy, despite everything.
Sally Rooney is really something else. I was worried my expectations for her were a bit too high, but she still managed more than I could have even hoped for. I have a copy of Conversations With Friends sitting on my shelf at work that I cannot wait to dig into. If you were thinking about picking up Normal People, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
More Women’s Prize 2019 Longlist reviews:
The Pisces
Ghost Wall
Ordinary People
Circe
Lost Children Archive
Praise Song for the Butterflies
An American Marriage
My Sister, the Serial Killer
Normal People
Freshwater
The Silence of the Girls
Sarah Ames-Foley 
You know a review is good when it makes you want to run and buy the book.
Thank you for bringing ‘Normal People’ to my attention.
~Ingmar Albizu
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Thank you! I really hope you love it. 🙂
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Yay for the Sally Rooney love! I can’t wait to read Conversations With Friends now as well!
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Yay!!! ❤
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Sally Rooney is AMAZING at making you root for dysfunctional relationships – just wait until you read Conversations With Friends oh man!!!! In the hands of any other author the main male character in that book would be total garbage but she actually made me care and root for him it was unnerving.
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She is sooooooo good omg I both fear and highly anticipate my eventual Conversations With Friends experience.
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Great review! Sally Rooney is simply brilliant, isn’t she? Her characters are flawed but so compelling, and it’s so easy to see bits of yourself in each of them. I hope you enjoy Conversations With Friends just as much!
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Thank you! I really am so impressed with her, she’s probably going on my auto-read list. I’m sure I’ll adore Conversations With Friends but am putting it off a bit so my heart can recover from Normal People!
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Ooooh, I’m so glad you loved this! I have an (overdue, oops) eARC that I requested AGES ago and then, afterwards, was like, “eh, is this really for me?” and after reading your review I think, yes, it just might be. 😊
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Ah, I hope you love it as much as I did! There is some domestic abuse throughout so I definitely suggest making sure you’re in the headspace for that.
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Beautiful review! I have heard so many great things about Sally Rooney. I have this book & Conversations w/ Friends on my TBR List. I must get to them ASAP!
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Thank you so much! I cannot wait to get to Conversations With Friends, I’m soo sold on Sally Rooney’s writing now. 🙂
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Beautiful review! I am the black sheep that gave it a mere 4 stars, but that is mostly because a lot of the miscommunication felt to me a bit too much. But yes, I felt the same way – although both characters are so different from me, their feelings and experiences resonated somehow. I was quite touched by this book and cannot wait to get to read more from her!!
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That’s fair!! Unfortunately I felt like the miscommunication was quite realistic, but I’ve also known some pretty dysfunctional people haha.
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I guess it’s realistic… I mean, I’m 28 and used to being a foreigner in where I leave, so I’ve gotten used to being awfully frank and clear. So obviously I have a different approach to relationships than teenagers who already have a complicated history… maybe that is why I got a bit exasperated.
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