Title: Normal People 
Author: Sally Rooney
Genre: Literary fiction
Publisher: A. Knopf. Canada
Publication Date: 2018
Format: Hardcover
Length: 273 pages

Read if you like: Coming-of-age stories, will they won’t they, miscommunications, different backgrounds, second chance romance, mental health rep, grappling with trauma

Rating: 

The only Sally Rooney book I’d read before this one was Beautiful World, Where Are You? and I remember loving her very unique writing style and narrative. I knew Normal People would be a hit for me, but I underestimated just how much.

I loved this book. It was heart-wrenching and difficult and lovely and beautiful all at the same time. The characters were messy and unlikeable, but living through situations and traumas and issues that still evoked a lot of feeling and empathy out of you as the reader. In some ways, they’re kind of grandiose and unattainable, but how they feel and the way they mismanage those feelings is very familiar and human. 

Rooney is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me. Her work is superb and I always leave having spent a great deal of time in my feelings. Normal People was no exception and it’s a novel I’ll recommend on repeat.

The Book Synopsis: Normal People by Sally Rooney

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.

The Review

I know Rooney isn’t everyone’s style, but wow, I could not put this book down.

This was such an achingly vulnerable look at growing up, processing emotion and trauma and development, and trying to find your place in the world. Rooney manages to explore the nature of class, first loves, and the complexities of relationships in a way that evokes the feeling of the situations. I found myself constantly thinking about the way that these dynamics intersected in the narrative and the impacts that they had on the characters and the way they behaved. 

Speaking of which, Connell and Marianne were such incredibly well-designed characters. I didn’t find either of them to be likable, but they did feel real, and I felt myself aching for them as they tried to figure out who they were and what they needed. They come from such different backgrounds and experiences and grow through that true awkwardness of adolescence where much of what they say and do with each other is a bit of a show, never really letting the other see the full extent of who they are and what they’ve been through out of the fear they’ll be rejected or judged. Predictably this creates a lot of difficulty in their relationship, though the underpinning bond they have brings them back together time and again, even when it doesn’t seem healthy to do so. 

Rooney also handles anxiety and depression with exceptional authenticity in my view. It’s painful and uncomfortable and desperate, and it feels all the more accurate for it. There are moments where the despair and anguish that the characters feel as a result of their unresolved traumas and mental health issues are so overwhelming and potent that I had to put the book down. I did also feel she handled the issues with care though, and it was gratifying to see the characters make even tiny steps in their health. 

I loved the love story, particularly because it never really felt like a love story. It was two people who can’t stop gravitating towards each other, who know and understand each other on such a deep level, and yet lack the real self-awareness to understand why they constantly get in their own way. They alternate from being bad or good for each other and I thought the relatively open ending was suitable. You’re never quite sure if they’re meant to be together or if they’d be good for each other in the right ways, and I think that’s reflective of a lot of relationships, particularly at the age that the characters are at where everything is almost constantly in flux. 

This novel completely gripped me. Rooney is an outstanding storyteller and I’ll continue picking up her works because wow, do they ever make you feel. This skyrocketed to my favourite book of hers easily.