Book Review: Normal People - Sally Rooney

Book Review: Normal People - Sally Rooney

Synopsis

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.

Review

Where do I even start with this book?! I loved it! I couldn’t help but fall in love with Connell and Marianne - Sally Rooney creates her characters so cleverly and vividly that you will either love them or hate them!

This book follows two teenagers in Ireland over about four years and explores how their relationship, sexuality and mental health changes and grows over the course of the book.

I think this is the best book I’ve read so far this year and the TV show is definitely worth watching whether you have read it or not!

[originally posted on Jan 17, 2022]

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