Normal People by Sally Rooney Book Review

Book Title: Normal People

Author: Sally Rooney

My Rating: 2*

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Publication Date: 28/08/18

Genre(s): Contemporary/ Literary Fiction

Pages: 266

Format Read: Paperback

Trigger Warnings: Depression, slight mentions of suicide, physical and mental abuse

Goodreads: 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.



This book has won so many awards including the 2018 Costa Novel Award, Waterstones Book of the Year Award and was also long listed for the Booker Prize and the Women’s Prize for Fiction so I definitely had high hopes.

But... What?

I must be missing something because I really did not enjoy this book! I genuinely don’t know what all of the fuss is about. The two main characters are definitely not ‘normal people’ and if this is what people call a love story then is it really this bleak? In reality this is a very depressing story about a man and a woman (Connell and Marianne) who keep gravitating back to each other no matter the terrible things that they go through.

The story spans 4 years where every 4 months or so there is another meeting between the two main characters. The continuous angst between the two lovers throughout the whole book constantly put me on edge and I didn’t know if I wanted them to finally concede their true feelings and get together and live happily ever after or if I wanted them to never see each other again because the relationship was so obviously very toxic for the both of them constantly being in this state of in between. 

The two lovers never communicated properly but if they spoke about their true feelings just once then I think a lot of problems will have been solved relatively easily. Marianne had a troubled background at home and she really believed that she was unlovable and so constantly put herself in terrible situations such as being in a relationship with dominating and horrible men just because she thought she deserved the bad things they did to her. There are quite a lot of sex scenes but they aren’t explicit and are relevant to the plot in the sense of how both characters react to this level of intimacy each time. Even at the beginning of this ‘relationship’ Connell treated her badly and kept her secret from his friends because he was ashamed to be seen with her and I think this sets up the rest of the book for how Marianne thinks she always should be treated. If someone who says he loves you treats you like that then it must be normal, right?

One of the main plot points of the story is the affects of social status and class on relationships. In school Marianne is wealthy but seen as an outsider by all of her classmates unlike Connell who is working class but is very popular. Connell wants to keep the relationship a secret because he fears what all of his friends will think of him causing the relationship to fall apart. The two meet again in college where Marianne has suddenly become the popular one and Connell feels left out and this is when he begins to feel depressed. The pair are always brought back to one another time and time again but the lack of communication keeps driving a wedge further into their relationship.

The ending of the novel is rather abrupt and finishes with another moment that is sure to change their relationship forever. It leaves so many unanswered questions, almost as if the author is expecting the reader to make up their own mind on what the future entails for the both of them. After finishing the book I didn’t really know what to feel, I felt both relieved but also a sense of uncomfortable sadness from the majority of the scenes I just read through.

I randomly decided to read this at the weekend and then I found out that there is a TV show adaptation that is airing right now! I hope that the series is much better than the book and I am going to start watching it soon!

Have you read this book?
What are your thoughts?
Let me know in the comments!