"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."
Normal people by Sally Rooney was the first romance I read this year, overall I loved it but really battled getting past the first two chapters, I had to open and re-start the book twice, the only book I've had to re-start, even throughout I sometimes got lost with what was happening, and not because there was too much going on, mostly because I was bored, some parts were incredibly intense then I found others lacking.
I'd say it really picks up towards the end of the book and touches on important issues, the story has a lot of sexual scenes (crucial to the plot) and touches on some contemporary subjects around sex. The way the author writes about Marianne feelings and how they're projected into relationships is brilliant and very relatable.
"How strange to feel herself so completely under the control of another person, but also how ordinary. No one can be independent of other people completely, so why not give up the attempt, she thought, go running in the other direction, depend on people for everything, allow them to depend on you, why not."
I think I could have looked past the slowness of the book if the ending was more fulfilling but unfortunately, I was disappointed in the ending and I've read on Goodreads that a lot of people felt the same. I am glad I read it and can see why other people love it, I really think that this sort of main character and story probably doesn't connect to everyone hence a lot of people saying they found it a little boring, nevertheless I would recommend reading Normal People because the awkward, hard topics that the book brings up are well written about and very relevant to todays society.
My Rating: ⭑⭑⭑
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