Reviews with content warning for Classism - Pessoas normais

I have no idea what I was meant to take away from this book. The characters were uninteresting and shallow, I strongly dislike the writing style, and the relationship dynamic feels so overtly problematic with no self awareness that it was boring. I also know this was likely intentional but the understanding of BDSM was so rudimentary that it was virtually absent and that grated on me.

I really struggle to understand why people love this book so much. It just didn't connect at all for me, and I feel like I was missing something.

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gdulecki's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I’m giving this a begrudging three stars - I did not like the characters, there were no quotation marks, and the writing style felt weird, but I also couldn’t put this down and read it in just a couple of hours because it was so captivating. I am so angry at the ending, Marianne needs some damn therapy, and the self sabotage and self degradation was so potent that I feel it in my bones after finishing the book. The way BDSM was portrayed was horrendous, and I think it was supposed to be??? I don’t know man I see why people really liked this but I don’t know if it was for me

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errie's review against another edition

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reflective

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

4.5

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nickysbookcorner's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

A low-stakes book about the bond between your first love. Connel (MMC) and Marianne (FMC). Connel and Marianne keep coming back to each other at different stages of their lives and it doesn’t quite stick each time. They are terrible at communicating with each other, but this is also what makes it realistic. There is an imbalance as they come from different socio-economic classes. I was rooting for them. I loved that this book didn’t really have a plot and it was just snippets of interpersonal relationships.

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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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cleotheo's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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everythingeatsandiseaten's review against another edition

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emotional reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

3.25

beautifully written at times but adds really nothing at all to the romance trope. i find that the romanticization of marianne in particular as isolated, traumatized, etc. can come off in quite an ignorant manner. however i do think this is purposeful because we view as she herself (and connell), but if not understood correctly can possibly be interpreted as a glamorization of her suffering.
much of contemporary romance, especially from the 2000s and onwards feels like a wet dream— on one hand you have dark romance & monster smut, in the middle the absolute disgrace of colleen hoover, and on the other you get esoteric nonsense that fosters individuality through romanticizing mental illness and trauma.
not to say normal people is the extreme fault of the latter at all; i’d say the biggest fault i find is within its predictability, although i wasn’t quite expecting originality from a booktok recommended novel! to give credit where credit is due, i thought rooney did a wonderful job of creating a realistic romance, however idyllic. she has so much capability with dialogue and the natural cadences of body language and movement and conversation, which is beautiful for preserving culture in a time where human nature and behavior has advanced so much and become so complex!

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06_trinity's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.25

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