Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Normal People by Sally Rooney

962 reviews

dearbhlanoonan's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

jessicabearbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

"She was attuned to the presence of his body in a microscopic way, as if the ordinary motion of his breathing was powerful enough to make her ill"

Although I didn't love every second, this book is a masterpiece. Sally Rooney's writing style does take some getting used to and I was wary coming into reading this due to the drama about the lack of quotation marks in her writing. But I found by the end of the first chapter I wasn't bothered at all and actually liked how not even the reader knows exactly what it being said - thus reflecting the miscommunication between characters. Whether this was Sally Rooney's intent, it works, and I liked it. Please if you're put off reading this because of the style, just try. And use your own mind to decide if it works for you or not, do not let TikTok and others decide for you!

The romance is raw and frustrating. It's definitely there and it's challenging and it's sort of cute. Marianne and Connell are definitely difficult to like, as are all the characters, apart from Lorraine. The characters all had depth and I was actually frustrated not to have more backstory as to the 'why' and intentions for a lot of character's actions. Which again, was annoying but adds to the overall confusion and miscommunication. Could I justify everything Sally Rooney has chosen to do in this book? Absolutely. But that's real life and this is a story about real experiences and real people - Normal people if you will. 

"I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't know why I can't be like normal people."

The quotes are beautiful and heartbreaking, mainly because I saw myself a lot more than I expected to throughout this story. This book definitely makes the reader feel as though they are looking in a mirror, or stood on a stage infant of everyone else. I felt exposed but safe at the same time as I could read about these dramas and heartaches happening to characters that I could see around me in the real world. I chose to annotate and used a tab for "Human Condition" which got its fair share. Sally Rooney exposes humanity and the thoughts that a lot of us choose to hide, believing foolishly that we are individual and alone in thinking them. 

Part of me feels even more lost after reading this, and part of me feels found.

"But it wasn't accompanied by any specific images of what real life might look like or feel like. All she knew was that when it started, she wouldn't need to imagine it anymore".

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape, Self harm, and Blood

sam_hartwig's review against another edition

challenging sad medium-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide

hulimoon's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

I’m so heartbroken. I thought this book would help me with what I am going through…, but it was quite the opposite. 

“I don’t know what is wrong with me … I don’t know why I can’t be like normal people” “I don’t know why I can’t make people love me…” (page 187) The fact that she said that and felt exactly what I’m feeling now just broke me.

Marianne is a wonderful character. Everyone thinks she is weird but she is only misunderstanded. She just doesn’t care (or shows it is so) what people think of her, or worries about plain things. She wants to find love and be surrounded by people who care about her. AND IT’S NOT THAT MUCH.

There is also Connel, a character I didn’t like until I started to understand that he was like Marianne in a different way. He was looking for that safe place like her. 

-

I hated every person in Marianna’s life. I hated her mother, her f brother, her dad even tho he wasn’t alive, and her friends. WHAT THE A OF PEOPLE.

I don’t know yet how I feel about Connel and Marianne’s relationship but also I haven’t had in my life a worthy relationship so… I’m not going to say anything bad…

And Sally Rooney knows what she did to people writing that ending. She thought “If the book has to end then also your emotional stability”.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Grief, and Alcohol

bookb_eszti's review against another edition

reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Sexual content

ineedsomemoretea's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Death of parent

kylasmv15's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Drug use, Eating disorder, Racism, Self harm, Blood, Vomit, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

peonierose's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

sydlexi's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Genocide, Infidelity, Racism, Grief, and Mass/school shootings

i fear i relate too much to Marianne

ravina_b's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Reading this book gave me that uncomfortable, squirming feeling you get when you touch an open wound.  I uncontrollably bawled my eyes out the evening I started reading it, only a few chapters in, and say there for about an hour trying to convince myself that it wasn’t the trigger.  It is so intensely raw and genuinely felt like Sally Rooney had read my innermost thoughts and feelings, things I won’t even journal about.  Somehow, this book drew on so many different parts of my life and it overwhelmed me with a patchwork of my experiences, it made me feel understood.  It’s now been a week since I finished it and I still can’t properly articulate exactly how this book made me feel.

In the main, NORMAL PEOPLE is a 266-page slice into the ordinary, everyday lives of - quite frankly - normal people.  It is not plot-driven, there isn’t a great deal of character development, but that is what makes it so real.  It is an observation, and is not a book for those that need something to happen.  This very essence, alongside Rooney’s astounding writing injecting real, raw life into Marianne and Connell, is what made me love it so much.

Some final remarks to convey how I feel about NORMAL PEOPLE: firstly, I got this from the library and now I am combing through charity shops to get my own copy.   If anyone wants to gift me a copy, please be my guest.  Secondly, I started it with some apprehension because (a) it is an Instagram favourite, (b) I thought it was a romance (it’s not), and (c) the choice to not use quotation marks always really bugs me - but it won me over in literally ten pages.

📌 Set in County Sligo, Ireland and Dublin, Ireland.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Gaslighting