Normal People – Review

After three weeks of complete silence, I have managed to show myself again. Online school started again, I only have my main courses and exams in school and that was such a stressful arrangement for me… So I didn’t have any time to read for three weeks up until Tuesday after finishing my last exam: and then I power-read Normal People by Sally Rooney in two days. Here are my thoughts!

Synopsis:

Marianne is a loner at school, while Connell is a popular football player. The two could not be more opposite, but when they eventually start talking when Connell picks up his mother (she works as the cleaner for Marianne’s mother), something draws them closer. A relationship develops, but Connell wants to keep it a secret. A story of two friends, or more than that, through high school and college, finding oneself or losing the person you thought knew you best…

Genre: contemporary romance

Publication Date: April 19th 2019

Pages: 273

My thoughts:

The plot was absolutely remarkable: it tells the story from senior year to a few years into college, always skipping months until something important happens. I have never read a book that works like this: one chapter, one certain event, and then months skipped and then a new development. I was hooked from the first chapter on, it’s super fast paced and has literally almost no setting description, just dialogue and inner feelings. One thing I loved: there were no quotation marks – and that was super unique!!!

The characters were to die for: Marianne was an incredibly strong protagonist: smart, witty and strong-minded, who didn’t care what other people thought of her, she knew she liked Connell and that he liked her. Connell was a great character as well, but he did annoy me a bit at the end… What I loved however, is that the book deals with mental health more than expected and reveals dark inner thoughts and doubts and we practically get to live through a complete character development in just over 200 pages! And the ROMANCE – I AM DEAD, what an astonishing story!!!!

The writing was spectacular: Sally Rooney doesn’t waste time with unnecessary descriptions and scenes, but sticks to what’s actually important and that made the book incredibly easy to read and a gripping story! I did wish to maybe get a bit more of the Irish feeling because it’s set in Ireland, but that’s only a minor detail.

The book overall was fantastic: I loved the pending relationship between the characters, how they learned from one another and grew together! A little sad was the open ending, but it didn’t destroy me entirely, so I’ll forgive that 🙂

Recommendable: 100% a must read!

I’m so happy I bought this on a very random thought and started reading right away! I felt so drawn to the story, it enchanted me and I felt out of this world while reading!