It’s a Saturday night and you know what that means: I stayed in and read a book to inform you over whether you should read it too. The answer this week? Read to find out. Here’s my deal: books come up on the BookTok algorithm, and after enough pressure (and whether or not I can get my hands on a copy), I read the book. Then I come here and rant. This week’s victim is “Normal People” by Sally Rooney. 

Well, to put it simply, “Normal People” crushed my soul and I would let it do it again.

“Normal People” is a perfectly crafted novel and boy, oh boy, I don’t even think I have the words to describe how complex this book is. I mean seriously, I wanted to scream and cry the entire time. It is entirely authentic and raw. It shows you how reckless young people can be when it comes to others’ feelings and their own. The main characters aren’t perfect, but they’re loveable and relatable because of it. They mess up and try to be good people, but even they struggle with knowing how to be good.

It’s a quick read with low investment, so a manageable escape on top of school work. But do prepare yourself for some emotional damage. 

We have our two main characters, Connell and Marianne, who are teenagers living in Ireland. We see them grow up together from high school to college and we see their dynamic change over the years. Connell who starts out as a popular golden boy with self-conscious tendencies, and Marianne as the outcast smart girl transform into the other when they get to college. The two have a connection that neither of them really understand or accept, for that matter. They go around in these circles, dancing around their true emotions for each other, WHICH IS FRUSTRATING AS A READER. 

Connell doesn’t really deserve Marianne, a fact that even Connell’s mother tells him, and I agree with. Marianne deserves the entire world, and we see her get treated like garbage by literally every man in this book. And I hate that even with a guy like Connell, who she shares such an intimate connection with, she still doesn’t get treated right. 

The novel was wonderfully written… until we reach the ending. Throughout the entire book, our two main characters are in this cycle where they constantly hurt each other, and I feel like you reach the end of the book and they didn’t break the cycle—they just fell into another loop of it. I hate the way Marianne just accepts the fact that she will always be there. It’s like she’s making herself a cushion for Connell to fall back on; indispensable, if you will. She accepts that he will go off and do great things and she will stay put, where he can find her. Like no, hunny, you deserve more for yourself. Marianne has just been through so much that she would rather be lonely without him than be with him but feel unworthy. But should that really be the bar we set for men? This book also ends on a cliffhanger, so you don’t know whether they actually in fact break this cycle and learn from their past, which I don’t love. 

Now it was brought to my attention that maybe they aren’t supposed to be able to break the cycle. Maybe Marianne is not able to accept a healthy form of love and will therefore only accept the love she thinks she deserves. And that’s deep and maybe a bit too real. 

The ending didn’t ruin the book for me though, I still adored it. I liked it more than “Night Circus” but not as much as “We Hunt the Flame,” but that’s a bit unfair because they’re all very different book genres and styles. I don’t normally read romance books, but I got super invested in this very quickly and I did finish it in a day I was so hooked. 

Here are some quotes and my reactions to cap off this review: 

“I’ m not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me.” 

Dying 

“She closes her eyes. He probably won’t come back, she thinks. Or he will, differently. What they have now they can never have back again. But for her the pain of loneliness will be nothing to the pain that she used to feel, of being unworthy.”

Crying 

“Generally I find men are a lot more concerned with limiting the freedoms of women than exercising personal freedom for themselves.”

Go off sis 

“Most people go through their whole lives, without ever really feeling that close with anyone.”

Screaming 

Read this book. 

It’s also a series on Hulu.