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A review by afrathefish
Normal People by Sally Rooney
3.0
copied from GR
i was somehow both surprised and underwhelmed by this book. my love for the show withstanding, this book has been hyped for suchhhhh a long time for me. however, i read several extracts and figured rooney's writing probably would not be for me. saying this though, following reading 'talking at night', and coupled with rooney's unwavering support for palestine (which she goes into in this book, which was a pleasant surprise and i hated that they took out of the show), it seemed like a worthy endeavour.
lets first state the obvious. the show somehow worked better than the book. sure some things could have been brought in, and all of rooney's political ideation was removed to a large degree, but. that does feel like how it is. the presentation of characters in the show feels more fleshed out, and the plot felt more evenly paced. there was something about the pacing of the book that did not work for me; in the last?? third of the book i almost dnf'ed because it was going way too slowly for me, and then the ending came way too fast.
however, i was actually pleasantly surprised at several points. it was really good at depicting intricacies in the development of a relationship, especially one during your teen years. it also captured the disarray your life falls into during that transition between uni and work in your early 20s. nothing really feels tangentical in this novel; you see these characters show up for eachother during the important life moments, and i guess thats what has you roooting for the main protagonists.
the writing was very visceral - to the point that i shouldve searched up trigger warnings because i don't think i was in the mental space to deal with a lot of the themes discussed in this book. especially with the dynamic between marianne and connell... its hard because you root so much for connell but its hard to root for the two of them together, especially for me, i guess because i hold the belief that anyone who has harmed you and had knowingly done so, should not be given a second chance. also bloODY GIVE MARIANNE THERAPY the lass needs a break :(
anyways my personal issues aside, the ending ruined a lot of the enjoyment i got. it felt very rushed and very haphazard, like rooney was on a strict word count and so she left the ending intentionally shit.
all in all. great depiction of life in your early twenties. should've checked the trigger warnings. i don't think i'll end up reading conversations with friends because there is very little media on this earth that i hate more than i hate that show, that any other interaction with that world and those characters would just have me pissed off. BWWAY doesn't seem like my thing either, so i wont bother with it. but. for a first forray. rooney didn't change my life, but she did pleasantly surprise me.
i was somehow both surprised and underwhelmed by this book. my love for the show withstanding, this book has been hyped for suchhhhh a long time for me. however, i read several extracts and figured rooney's writing probably would not be for me. saying this though, following reading 'talking at night', and coupled with rooney's unwavering support for palestine (which she goes into in this book, which was a pleasant surprise and i hated that they took out of the show), it seemed like a worthy endeavour.
lets first state the obvious. the show somehow worked better than the book. sure some things could have been brought in, and all of rooney's political ideation was removed to a large degree, but. that does feel like how it is. the presentation of characters in the show feels more fleshed out, and the plot felt more evenly paced. there was something about the pacing of the book that did not work for me; in the last?? third of the book i almost dnf'ed because it was going way too slowly for me, and then the ending came way too fast.
however, i was actually pleasantly surprised at several points. it was really good at depicting intricacies in the development of a relationship, especially one during your teen years. it also captured the disarray your life falls into during that transition between uni and work in your early 20s. nothing really feels tangentical in this novel; you see these characters show up for eachother during the important life moments, and i guess thats what has you roooting for the main protagonists.
the writing was very visceral - to the point that i shouldve searched up trigger warnings because i don't think i was in the mental space to deal with a lot of the themes discussed in this book. especially with the dynamic between marianne and connell... its hard because you root so much for connell but its hard to root for the two of them together, especially for me, i guess because i hold the belief that anyone who has harmed you and had knowingly done so, should not be given a second chance. also bloODY GIVE MARIANNE THERAPY the lass needs a break :(
anyways my personal issues aside, the ending ruined a lot of the enjoyment i got. it felt very rushed and very haphazard, like rooney was on a strict word count and so she left the ending intentionally shit.
all in all. great depiction of life in your early twenties. should've checked the trigger warnings. i don't think i'll end up reading conversations with friends because there is very little media on this earth that i hate more than i hate that show, that any other interaction with that world and those characters would just have me pissed off. BWWAY doesn't seem like my thing either, so i wont bother with it. but. for a first forray. rooney didn't change my life, but she did pleasantly surprise me.