Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read and review this ARC. Full review to be found on Goodreads and on my website.

I really wanted to like this book. The synopsis held so much promise, but the book failed to deliver as much as I hoped for from it. I enjoyed it well enough, but with a few tweaks it could have been an even more enjoyable read.

In short, I find this book to be refreshingly real. Never have I read a young-adult romance book that feels so realistic to what happens in real life sometimes. It's not always boy meets girl and they live happily together with hardly any issues. This book has depth and complexity, which sometimes is lacking in romance books. The interactions and conversations that Rooney writes about feels so real and true. I loved how she touches on real issues that young adults experience as they enter a new era of life (college). While reading I kept wondering.. "Will they even end up together?" Both Connel and Marianne (the main characters) are exploring new intimate and sexual relationships outside of their own. This is a compelling modern love story, one that deserves all of the attention it gets.

‘Normal People’ by Sally Rooney was an understatedly, beautifully written novel that had this almost melancholy ambiance to its love story. I was definitely moved, and left feeling unsure of how I feel, lol. It was messy and so real in the best way, the pacing is slow, and when you least expect it, the story will slam you in the gut. I felt a roller coaster of emotions reading this, and definitely recommend giving it a try.

Though it took me a long time to read, I do understand what the hype is about. Normal People essentially provides what the title would suggest, and yet, in this deep observation of two people Rooney manages to capture something of what it means to grow up, what it means to feel untethered and in love and lost and much more. Her style is astute and thoughtful, but never descends into dramatics for effect. This is not a gripping book, at least it wasn't for me, but it was a book that I don't think I'll forget very soon. The characters seemed real and I felt for them in they vulnerability and cringed for them when I saw them sabotaging themselves. I'll definitely give Rooney's other book a try as well.

Marianne and Connell coming together and screwing it up over and over again plus their hard and messy lives is a lot, but them together is right and good and hopeful.

The premise seems tired: a will-they-won’t-they romance between two young adults from different social classes. The novel is deceptive in that way, because the psychological nuance of the characters is so on point, and the writing is so good that the story far transcends what could have been trite in another’s hands.
Sally Rooney’s prose is one luminous sentence after another, flawless without being showy. The kind of novel that I find myself thinking of, and wanting to return to, years later.

A realistic, heartbreaking, and poignant story about two people in Ireland struggling to connect and figure out their place in the world. The book explores the relationship between Connell and Marianne, who start a secret romantic relationship in high school and weave in and out of each other's lives for the next several years. Both Connell and Marianne have insecurities and struggle to communicate their desires and needs to each other, leading to a complicated relationship. I found this relationship to be an accurate representation of many millennial relationships: unnecessarily complicated, closed-off, and inconsistent. But ultimately, these are two flawed human beings who care deeply for each other. Normal People is one of my favorite books because of its simple prose, well-developed characters, and simplicity.

I saw somewhere that you either love or hate this author. I didn't love the book and I just felt like I didn't understand what was going on. I kept waiting for something to happen that never did. I get why people like this book but it just wasn't for me.

I really enjoyed this book set in Ireland that follows two children from their youth to new adulthood. We learn about depression, bullying, compassion, empathy, suicide and helping one another. The author explores some very delicate issues with finesse. Really good book.

I received an e-ARC of this book by the author and publishing via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Normal People starts when Connell and Marianne are in high school in a small town in Ireland. Although Connell poor (his mother cleans Marianne’s mother’s home), he is athletic and popular in school. Even though Marianne comes from a wealthy family, she’s kind of a weirdo and doesn’t have any friends. She and Connell strike up a friends with benefits type situation but Connell insists they keep their relationship a secret, worried that if it gets out he’s sleeping with Marianne, it will lower his social status.

They both head to Trinity College, an elite private school in Dublin. There the tables are turned. Marianne fits in with the other wealthy students, while Connell feels like an outsider. My favorite line in the book is Connell’s observation of the other students at a party:

“It was culture as class performance, literature fetishized for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterward feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about.”

Throughout college, Marianne and Connell break-up and get back together a few times, dating other people in-between. Their break-ups are usually precipitated by some sort of misunderstanding. The kind that makes you want to jump in the book and shake them. Just communicate with each other for goodness sake!

Some of the reviews I read after reading Normal People indicate that its theme is class. While that didn’t jump out at me as the theme while I was reading it, looking back on it now, I can see that it is about class to some extent. Marianne and Connell are definitely of different classes and it does have an effect on the way they each see the world and relate to one another.

Normal People has also been called the first great millennial novel. Speaking as a Gen Xer, I can see why it’s been called that but I think that anyone can appreciate it, although maybe not as much as a millennial might. My book club that is made up of mostly baby boomers were lukewarm on it overall. I enjoyed it enough that I plan to read Rooney’s first novel, Conversations with Friends, which is supposed to be fairly similar and just as good, if not better. Normal People has been made into a limited series on Hulu which I also plan to check out. I’ll keep you posted on what it’s like.

I had heard great things about this book and knew that I wanted to read it before I watched the limited series on Hulu (excellent casting choices, btw). The emotional ups and downs of Connell and Marianne's friendship/relationship were both joyous and heartbreaking.

I can't remember another book where I have disliked and rooted against characters more. This book annoyed me so much. If you too are irritated when people are incapable of basic, straightforward communication, then skip this one. This is not the book for me.

This book wasn’t what I expected it to be and I’m actually kinda glad about that. While it was lacking in areas I was looking forward to it gave me so much more that I didn’t even know I needed.

Absolutely loved this book. Quirky characters in a timeless coming of age story. It does take a few chapters to get moving, but then moves quickly.

Really loved this book. It's smart and witty and a beautiful coming of age story. I think the third person omniscient narrator really worked well. I enjoyed being privy to the inner thoughts of both Connell and Marianne.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishing house for providing a review copy of this novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’m a read-it-before-you-watch-it person and have been dying to see the Hulu series that was adapted from this book.  I had heard such mixed reviews on this that I’ve, honesty, been unmotivated to read it.

It seems that people either fall in the camp of loving it or loathing it. 

For me, this one is a hard one to really review, because the writing was so descriptive and well-done.

This complicated love story is set in a small town in Ireland.

Connell and Marianne attend high school together and they are the perfect, “opposites attract,” love story. She comes from a wealthy family, but struggles to fit in at her school. Connell is popular, but has to work for his success.

The reader takes a journey, with Rooney, from the  beginning days of their relationship. No matter how badly they seem to want to start new identities and lives, they always seem to be pulled back into one another’s gravity.

This unrequited love story sounded like a winner, but was really dull. 

The jumpy timeline, the big focus on how ugly she was, and the moodiness of the whole thing just didn’t work for me.

The plot felt shallow, the ending abrupt, and the psychological exploration felt forced. 

I wouldn’t say that I fell in the “hate it camp,” but I definitely did not get the hype.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I actually did not finish this book. I had high hopes for it, but the characters and story just did not draw me in.

Quirky and unique take on a "romance" story, though I'm not sure I get the adulation of this book. While I liked how Rooney captured the inner thoughts and worlds of both Connell and Marianne, the actual external interaction between them and others was lacking any real spark or sparkle - everything seemed dull and depressing, and I intensely disliked all of the supporting characters. The endless miscommunications between Connell and Marianne, borne of raging insecurity, were infuriating.