Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Persone normali

The book is everything I wanted Elif Batuman’s The Idiot to be, but unlike that book, this book really delivered for me. I was totally engrossed in the story and completely enthralled by these best friends’

(lovers’)

dynamic. Sally Rooney is such a powerful writer and her prose is exquisite.

I love how she structures her story: linear vignettes and flashbacks which tell us so much about each character — how they think, how they choose to behave. It is devastating, beautiful, and profound.

Rooney illustrates how quickly a relationship can change, and inversely, how long it can remain the same. This book is absolutely tragic in parts, as each chapter is punctuated by some missed connection or tragic misunderstanding between our two protagonists.

I love the ending of this book. Throughout the book, we see this couple that “should work” due uncomplicated, unconditional love, and yet circumstantially, each party is in a mismatched phase of their lives and independent journeys.

They are like an almost-circle, drawn out, but whose end never meets its point of origin. They are so close to be aligned, and never can settle comfortably due to where they are in their lives.

Of course it needed to end with another missed connection and misunderstanding.

This book is really well-written and quite brilliant. I am excited to re-read. Salley Rooney is such a good writer, she actually made me care about a straight relationship. That says everything.

Content Warnings

staci64's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I like Rooney’s writing style but the millennial angst, the weird trauma from childhood that affects both Connell and Marianne to various degrees and in different ways is just a burden. It’s basically a coming of age story of two young people in love who can’t seem to be together and make it work. I know this is an older, popular book. Popular enough to be made into a Netflix show. No, I won’t be watching. It’s depressing.

Content Warnings

marimoon9's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

estelleidekreads's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-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

3.75

read the trigger warnings ppl!
honestly i was not really expecting to like this but i did. it does what it says on the tin - just feels very real. i liked that the book is called normal people and yet the MCs wish they were normal as they feel other bc that’s just it - there’s no such thing as “normal”.

i do this the depiction of BDSM is quite problematic like !!! safe words !!! pls !!!

i do think it would have been more powerful to have C & M end up engaging in properly safe & actually consensual BDSM at the end vs going from abuse disguised as BDSM to “vanilla” sex. but then again i also think Rooney was very clever when she hinted that C might actually want to be dominant in that way (can’t remember where or what exactly he thinks but it’s the bit where he’s like “i could hit her holy shit”) and then ar the end he’s seemingly the “good guy”. i should really go back and check my kindle highlights but i’ve got shingles and feel like shite so that’ll have to be good enough 😂

i thought the mental illness bits were very realistic, including the fact that M’s ED is never really addressed and seemingly flies under the radar other than a couple comments about her being very thin these days.

the ending makes sense because:
a. life’s events are rarely neatly tied off with little bows. shit happens & keeps going until we die. in this sense it’s very realistic
b. it just makes sense with their character development. i wouldn’t have believed a HEA with where they’re at in their lives they’ve just got so much unhealed trauma & unresolved issues. and yes they've grown but not enough to break the perpetual cycle they’ve been stuck in.

but i absolutely hated it. i’m an open ending hater to my core and it was just SO annoying! these kids need so much therapy and honestly idc what people say, they’re toxic together. ITS NOT HEALTHY!!!

i reckon this is one of these books that’ll just stay with me which is defo props to the author. still mad about the lack of quotation marks tho

Content Warnings