Normal People by Sally Rooney Review

I found Normal People to be very unique and interesting, I thought it was well done for I interpreted as what Rooney was trying to convey, but isn’t personally my favorite book or piece of literary fiction I’ve ever read. The writing style many have heralded as the next big thing, and account for their love for her works was very sparse, so much so that I caught myself accidentally skimming at times. The most minute of details of their days and relationships are displayed, as the teenage to twenty something year old characters move through their life throughout the span of the book. Being struck by random nuggets of deeply impactful lines and moments between Marianne and Connell throughout was a pleasant surprise, I love when a book has moments that really make me stop in my tracks mid-read

Despite the widespread success of Normal People as Rooney's most popular work, I can see why people criticize this one, the characters fell a little flat at times and I was left for wanting Marianne’s family to be fleshed out a more, as her past of being abused and current situation with her mother and brother is only briefly mentioned despite it accounting for much of her behavior and life decisions in the present. However, I commend Rooney for including Connell's mother as a larger part of the story, she was definitely one if not the only voice of reason in the story and she called Connell out on his ridiculous and toxic behavior at times, leading to at least some form of catharsis for me, albeit not much; The ending was not satisfactory in the least regarding Connell and Marianne's frustratingly on and off relationship. A lot of the problems they ran into seemed quite trivial such as pride and miscommunication, always “missing” each other, hence the two main characters feeling unlikable and not very worthy of sympathy. But the connection between them felt quite profound, and I'm very fond of the “it’s only ever going to be you” type theme in stories, so it was not a net loss to read this one.