Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Normal People by Sally Rooney

1189 reviews

wyabook234's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Normal People by Sally Rooney is as close to depicting a relationship that feels humane and realistic. While the prose describes what characters do and say without quotations, it's a style that can take some time to adjust. Nonetheless, the writing doesn't degenerate how these characters are authored as being breathable people within Rooney's novel. Conell and Marianne have moments where you hate them due to their class-related prejudice, selfishness, or pettiness. However, it can make you consider how young they are while making mistakes. Their mistakes can make it seem like their relationship is believable, and when it improves, it isn't just about improving upon them as a couple but as individuals in how they spend time and think about each other. This story isn't Romeo and Juliet. However, it's a love story that makes you feel that Conell and Marianne could be good for each other.

Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, Suicide, Mental Illness. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Eating disorder and Toxic friendship

carlapastor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Just wow. Such a great, great book. Incredible depiction of young people and how hard it is to figure things out sometimes. I couldn't love it more. Raw characters and a raw story with great writing. This might be a controversial opinion but I didn't mind at all the quotation marks. I found it to not be annoying at all. I have yet to watch the show but I found this honestly amazing, but I am also a sucker for this kind of stories where nothing incredible happens, it's just someone's life and the ups and downs that come with it (Perfect Days is a great movie that reminded me of this book!).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

katesant's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Violence

eviemm's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

the emotional codependency is crazy (frustrating, intriguing, thought-provoking, etc etc) in this one

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

georgiasophia's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Suicide

abassard's review against another edition

emotional hopeful relaxing sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is a hard one for me to come to a set rating for. I’d say there are moments in the book where Rooney makes her characters really shine - although I felt those were rare moments. For me, my main problem was that there is a lot of “tell, not show”. This is especially true for the elements of class differences between Connell and Marianne, where it would have been really powerful to let those power differences be subtle in their actions and mannerisms. Additionally, while set during the Financial Crisis, which was very destabilizing  in Ireland, it didn’t feel like those events really impact the characters that much, which was disappointing. I liked Connell’s arc but I was disappointingly and disparately rooting for similar development of Marianne. Overall, it’s a good character driven novel, but I felt Rooney missed some opportunities throughout where the novel could have been really strong 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Classism

saretta02's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

emilygough's review against another edition

reflective relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I accidentally returned the book thinking the ending was a printing mistake which I can laugh at now but my god that confused me! But artistically? A slay I think. I did cry near the end relating to Marianne throughout, I’m not sure if its canon that she’s autistic but I am in process of a diagnosis and related to her throughout. The litte nuances of how they misunderstand each other and its all just more difficult than love stories usually make things, even the ending was realistic.

I loved the fact that you can see them having small issues near the end, like we’re not even sure, after all that, if they’ll stay together especially with him going to New York (or does he even go? He definitely should but he changed colleges for her so who knows)

I loved it, the only reason its not higher rated was the fact that it doesn’t have anything that like shook me I guess? Plus I just started reading again for the first time in yeeears so I’m not sure on if theres better if that makes sense. I’ll stop yapping now.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

duod3cima's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I am reading the book after watching the show a few years ago (which I really enjoyed) and it did not disappoint. I found the characters equally frustrating, infuriating, and relatable. The writing style (especially the lack of quotation marks for the dialogue) took a bit of getting used to, but by the end I quite liked how everything blended together.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent

cleotheo's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Infidelity, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Eating disorder and Panic attacks/disorders