Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Normal People by Sally Rooney

1550 reviews

wyabook234's review against another edition

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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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zmeiat's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book is supposed to be a romance, but i simply had to disconnect from what was happening and what the characters were doing in order to enjoy the novel. 
In the same way "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte was a good book about bad poeple, this was a beautiful story of spinneless induviduals who didnt know what they wanted in life or with each other. 
By adapting this way of thinking, I found myself not wanting to set the pages on fire as much as I would have otherwise.
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squeakypenguin's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective 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

5.0

Oh my god!! Absolutely adored this book, I just could not put it down I had to find out about these two characters and what happens to them. I loved seeing their povs and how they perceived each other. It was beautiful to see their transformation of becoming adults annd how they developed their personalities due to the things they were going through. It was like I was reading about 2 real life people.
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carlapastor's review against another edition

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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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jaderbugz's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

this book was not for me ✋🏽 don’t get the hype, it was kinda boring with bits that were just depressing af. not a fan of the writing style. and though a lot did happen, also nothing happened?? i feel like they are the same people they were in the beginning of the book. no development and tbh they’re both kinda boring people (which i guess could be nice in a way because they are truly “normal people”? lmao). also most of the conversations didn’t feel like they flowed like real conversations, which i was not a fan of. 

i will say that despite this, there were two quotes i did really love. however, that’s probably the only positive thing i have to say about the book haha. 

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

“Life offers you these moments of joy despite everything.”
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eviemm's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

the emotional codependency is crazy (frustrating, intriguing, thought-provoking, etc etc) in this one
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abassard's review against another edition

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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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saretta02's review against another edition

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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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tomomia's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

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jakepasseri's review against another edition

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

4.5

I honestly don't know how to think about this book. It's certainly good, but I can't conceptualise my thoughts into words - I guess that's its biggest strength
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