Normal People

I read this book in a few sittings. That’s how hooked it had me. There’s something about the delicacy and complexity of the relationship between the two protagonists that makes this book stand out. I love the book for this. I felt connected to the characters, invested in their future, and even furious at their inability to make things work at times (they were made for each other!). Their insecurities and feelings of inadequacy are so relatable yet so often not talked about.

I loved the way the book explores deeper male emotions and the pressure felt by men in… show more.

I’m not even sure this fits in my category, but I loved it so much that I am going to force it to fit. I love a good love story, and this one is one of the best. I love that I both love and hate the two main characters and that their flaws allow me to engage so fully with them that I WANT them to be real people. I wanted to write them letters, saying, “Aw, pet, it’ll get better.” But here, it really doesn’t, and a kind of truth prevails. Love is not eternal, but it sure… show more.

As a feminist and attorney, I think and talk a lot about the legal boundaries of consent. This “coming of age” story takes all that and puts it in a blender.

Through the story of one young couple’s on-again, off-again journey through high school and college, Rooney brilliantly shows how complicated and entwined the personal and political are when it comes to relationships and consent, power and class divisions, and more.

It’s a brilliant he-thought/she-thought that enmeshes you in that stage of early adulthood independence when one has to learn to navigate sex, money, alcohol, family, and more.  

This is a great coming-of-age love story, and although the characters are a little old for the YA category their problems are the same as those that many younger people face.

Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in the west of Ireland, but the similarities end there. In school, Connell is popular and well-liked, but Marianne is a loner. However, there’s a mutual attraction and the two find themselves drawn to each other. They move on from school to a prestigous university, and although they try to stay apart they keep being drawn together. There are… show more.

There’s no logical reason why the two main characters can’t be together, yet they’re in a push-me-pull-you dance until the last page—one of the best-selling dances of recent times. Marianne and Connell meet at high school, but the cracks in their home lives and the pressures of adolescence have led to a mutual sense of internalised shame that threatens to rupture their connection, from school to university and beyond. It’s hard to be a bystander to their intimacy, observing the way low self-worth is affecting their behaviour, but Rooney’s capacity for natural dialogue and capturing the discomfort of people becoming… show more.