I really enjoyed this it tugged at my heart strings and I just wanted to befriend these characters! I have so many emotions and feelings about this! I enjoyed it is all I can say

This book was so emotional, I was fully invested in how the relationships would turn out. Spectacular. Could not put it down!

I gave this one 3 stars because I see why this book appeals to some people and I did enjoy some parts of the book but if I’m being totally honest... Overall, it didn’t really work for me. I wasn’t invested in any of the characters and lost interest throughout the book. That being said, that was just my personal experience and it did get a lot of good reviews so I still recommend checking it out, everyone has different reading experiences! 🙂

Thank you to the publisher and @netgalley for providing a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ❤️

I loved this; I'd been hearing the hype, which usually makes me a bit skeptical, but I found this book to be lovely and touching. I loved following the main characters' journeys, and I was rooting for them to find peace and healing.

I can kind of see why this book is so beloved and yet so contentious at the same time. While I enjoyed it very much, I can see why some might be frustrated by its lack of cohesive plot or its occasional pretentiousness. Personally, I found it riveting; I'm someone who usually needs a propulsive plot but I couldn't put this down despite it being largely character-driven. And that's probably because of the skillful way Rooney crafted her two main characters.

Connell and Marianne have known each other since high school, and have been dating since high school, and continue to revolve around one another for the next four years or so, in a series of deeply frustrating miscommunications and misunderstandings. For two people so clearly in love, they are also completely unable to communicate honestly with one another. But this isn't the type of miscommunication that's used as a frustrating plot device; rather, it's the realistic sort of misunderstandings that can crop up between two different people with different backgrounds and different insecurities. It's frustrating to read, but it's so very human and realistic. And there was something deeply evocative about both Connell and Marianne as characters. They're both so fleshed out in all of their insecurities and flaws that it's impossible not to connect with them on some level.

Obviously, Normal People is a snapshot of a very specific kind of millennial experience, and I think if you go into it with that in mind, you're less likely to be disappointed than if you're expecting some sort of universal millennial experience. I enjoyed it for what it was, and any book that can is so compelling and evocative gets a high rating from me.

"I don't know why I can't make people love me. I think there was something wrong with me when I was born."


I had been seeing glowing reviews of this book (and Rooney's other work), so I knew I had to read this one. Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for this copy!
This really wasn't the story I thought it was going to be, but I loved it all the same. I related to so many things that both Marianne and Connell went through, as I've been in my fair share of wrong or manipulative relationships. It was really hard at times to read, and to see how hard life was for both main characters and how much they were struggling outside of their relationship with each other. It is so difficult to not care what others think of you, and then having to navigate the choices you make every day based on that is draining. And on the other hand it is incredibly hard being the person that no one wants around, and being mistreated by the one person you are close to but won't let anyone else know that you even exist. This book hit me where it hurt and opened my eyes to how both sides handle this kind of rejection, over and over again, and how it shapes you as a person as you grow up. I can't wait to read more by Rooney now.

Okay. Let's talk about how frustratingly great this book was. I truly enjoyed the amount of detail put into these characters. They have so much depth in their emotions and how they are processing their past and present situations. However, be very prepared to feel frustration in the story itself. But, I guess the fact that I felt so much frustration means that I was just *that* invested in the development, right? I would definitely recommend this one if you are into stories that build rather slowly and are interested in a something that is closer to a real-life situations.

Though I sometimes found myself wanting to shake these two and yell "JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER", this was a brilliant depiction of young love. So much miscommunication and drama, yet Rooney nailed it perfectly. I loved the prose and the profound insights. I highly recommend!

I had heard so much about Normal People by Sally Rooney, and so much hype about her first book that I was really looking forward to reading this. Unfortunately, I just wanted to smack both Connell and Marianne all through the novel. They were both unlikable characters who wouldn't say what they wanted or needed from each other and just treated each other like disposables. In the end I was happy when the book ended and felt that with the ending I had just wasted hours of my time with these characters. What a huge disappointment. I do understand the themes of anxiety and depression that run through the book and how difficult they are to deal with, but Connell was a better person without her. Marianne was intent on self-destruction, as evidenced in her other relationships. The entire novel brought me down to their level and left me sad and drained. Reader beware!

I really liked this, and I'm so excited it's being adapted! Rooney's writing style is really to-the-point, which you would think would make you feel a sense of detachment, but absolutely did not. Connell and Marianne were funny and had such a great dynamic that you rooted for them just to stay in each other's lives, whether in a romantic sense or not. The novel wasn't unnecessarily angsty and didn't throw in random drama just to keep the story going. My one issue was I really felt Marianne's issues could've been addressed more. I felt like they were really brushed aside at the end.

Thanks so much to Hogarth and NetGalley for the eARC! This will be posted on Goodreads and to Amazon's and Barnes and Noble's websites.

Reading this book is like eating a pastry: you keep discovering layer after layer of loveliness and perfection.

First, there is the love story between Connell and Marianne. They meet as teens, but even that has layers because they go to school together, where he is a shining ray of popularity and she is isolated, and Connell’s mother works for Marianne’s parents as a housekeeper. You realize very quickly that Sally Rooney isn’t going to deliver a typical romance, nor should you if you read Conversations with Friends, a book I loved so much that I had to DM her through her now-defunct Twitter account because I had questions and needed answers.

So, yeah, this is not a typical romance AT ALL. Marianne and Connell can’t just fall for each other. They have to battle socioeconomic differences, as well as the more powerful teenage power barometer of popularity. Theirs quickly becomes a rather unexpected relationship … until one of them hurts the other and it ends.

Cut to a year later. They are freshmen at the same Dublin university, only now the flame to which the moths are drawn is Marianne, and Connell finds himself awkwardly alone.

The two proceed to have an on-again, off-again romance, and I’m not sure which stage has more horrifyingly cringe-worthy moments. Marianne and Connell do not know how to communicate with each other. They speak in fits and starts, sometimes having two different conversations at the same time. Each wants to tell the other what is in their hearts and minds, yet their emotional constipation impedes them.

Sally Rooney shows a couple who want to connect with each other, even as the thought terrifies them. Sometimes this manifests itself in dating people who are bad for them; other times it leads to depression.

Again, there are layers and layers. Connell and Marianne cannot be straightforward with each other, which means their love affair cannot progress in a linear fashion. They have to hurt each other with words, both said and unsaid. They have to hurt each other to protect themselves.

I inhaled this book. As I would read it, I would go back and re-read some passages just because I couldn’t bear to finish it. I did not want to let go of Connell and Marianne, despite having spent most of the book wanting to grab each by the collar, drag them into a room, and shout at them to just talk to each other. I love the way Sally Rooney writes. I love how she makes me feel, whether it’s embarrassed, uncomfortable, hopeful, heartbroken, confused, enchanted, or all of those at the same time.

This book is perfect for book clubs because there are volumes of topics to be discussed. It’s also perfect for you. Yes, you. Grab a copy, immerse yourself in Sally Rooney’s words, and then come back and tell me what you think about them.

This was so incredibly, hauntingly beautiful. Sometimes I hated the relationship between Connell and Marianne, but most of the time I longed for them to be together. As friends, as lovers, I didn't care. I definitely cried

Thanks to Net Galley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, after attempting to get past the 1/4 point on three different occasions I just put it down. The two main characters, Connell and Marianne are engaged in an on and off again sexual relationship that struck me as totally blasé. They were both boring and unlikable 18-2o year olds and perhaps their ages were part of the problem I had connecting with them. I really just didn’t care enough about them. Obviously many others enjoyed this but we didn’t fit.

This book was beautifully written. The prose was light and elegant and it was impossible to put down. The reason this book isn't a 5 star read for me is because of the plot. I found it really frustrating that Connell and Marianne didn't communicate very well. They have an epic love story spanning years through high school and college but they never seem to be able to commit themselves to each other when they clearly have a special bond. I didn't really see the point in them remaining friends when they had such a strong connection and were upset when the other would be dating someone else. Other than that, the book was so well written it didn't even matter in the end, and I am so excited to read more of Sally Rooney's work in the future.

I heard a lot about this book which is one of the reasons I wanted to read it. There was a lot of buzz about how it personifies how this current generation feels about life and relationships.

Overall, this book does deal with a "will they, won't they" storyline but the underlying theme really is more complex than that. For me it was a difficult read, not because of how it was written, but because the conversation was lacking in completion. What this means to me is that there was so much left unsaid between the two main characters that led to misunderstanding and the inability to fully explore their complete feelings for each other.

Other themes explored in this book are depression and anxiety, which I definitely appreciated. I recommend this book because it really makes you think about how in this current age, communication is not as specific as is used to be and what the consequences are for that.

I received this book in exchange for review.

Hogarth and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Normal People. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Normal People is the coming of age story for the two main characters, Connell and Marianne. Their complicated relationship starts in high school, where Connell is popular and Marianne is considered peculiar. The roles reverse in college however, changing the dynamic between the two. When anxiety and self doubt leads the pair away from each other, will they find their way back?

On the strength of the positive reviews, I requested to read Normal People. I was not blown away by the plot or the characters, especially since I did not find either Connell or Marianne to be likable. The idea of keeping up appearances, and the anxiety that can result because of that, is nothing new in coming of age stories. The wishy-washy nature of the relationship between Connell and Marianne was off-putting to me because of the repetitive nature of the plot. Overall, I did not find any of the characters in the book, either main or periphery, to be endearing. Coupled with a plot that I did not find interesting, Normal People is not a novel that I would recommend to others.

Oh wow. Rooney is the real thing.

A lot of literary fiction centers around the language, almost as if the author has based their talent in how well they can wordsmith a metaphor. Sometimes, it's great -- I love reading a passage that is so beautifully written, it changes the way I think about the limits of language.

This is not that. Rooney is a great writer, full stop. There are no pages of dense, flowery prose to lose yourself in. This is just great writing. It is a simple story, featuring complex, human characters, told perfectly.

Sally Rooney has delivered a book that is even better than her first. From the first page you feel utterly engrossed in this story. The experience of reading this book feels like the further you get into the story the further you're tipping into the actual book until you forget you aren't actually living in this story.

I do not really know what I think. I know most people are raving over this but it was not for me. I did enjoy the complexity of Marianne and Connell’s relationship but it ends there for me. This was completely character driven and although the two characters were complex together, I was not very interested in scenes when they were not.

I also know that I was warned that this was a challenging read with little punctuation. I did not find it necessarily challenging but annoying. I could not understand the reasoning behind the absence of punctuation, and when I say no punctuation, I really mean NO punctuation. It was like Rooney was trying to redefine English grammar rules because she felt like it. Voices were so hard to differentiate and different characters were introduced at random times.

There were strong themes of sex in the book. I felt like the author could have made Marianne and Connell’s relationship even more complex with adding more elements of friendship. I know that they were there but I was wanting more of that and less of the physical aspect. I know that the lack of the emotional attachment was there for a reason but when that emotional aspect was brought up, it felt more forced and out of place.

Another issue of mine is that I think the author wanted to highlight normal people leading normal lives but missed that mark making Marianne and Connell a little less than normal. The sexual themes, themes of domestic violence, and hard times could be viewed as normal but I still feel as y pro: it definitely highlights normal people leading normal lives were a little different than what I would consider normal.

I understand that so many people enjoyed the book but I really did not. I rated it three stars because I can recognize what the author was trying to do and she succeeded in many people’s opinions. For me I just couldn’t get invested. On to the next I guess!

This was a refreshing read with insightful social commentary. will recommend to all my friends. Sally Rooney has a clear and resonate writing voice.