Reviews with content warning for Injury/injury detail - Normal People

Reviews tagging Injury/injury detail

Normal People, by Sally Rooney

105 reviews

taysbooktalk's review

reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

It took a while to get used to no quotations around conversations. But, after about two chapters it’s easier. This book is perfectly titled. I’ve never read a book that was so weirdly normal. It made me smile and shake my head. It’s middle of the road for me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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maisaaismail1's review

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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? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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anton13's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

I was so sad to have to put it down. I have to say that I was in the beginning very skeptical about if I’d like it or not. Part of me didn’t even wanna read it. Now I’m glad I read it. It’s not my favorite cause of the heaviness of the story but it is well written and I enjoyed the relationship between the two mc’s. I do think that anyone that wants to read this should do an extensive look on trigger warnings cause this was so much more than I had expected from what I’ve heard from others. The end killed me. I can’t believe everything that happened within the last 50 pages. I’m happy for them both but also nooooo why did it have to end like that?! Connell is one of the best men out there and nothing can change my mind!

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sydneyann's review

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dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.5

I couldn't put it down. They way the author described mental illnesses of the characters was so accurate for me. The characters need therapy but man did I enjoy reading this. It felt so raw and real.

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fleursreads's review

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

everything about this book.

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lisazd's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-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

2.0

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swagkermit's review against another edition

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reflective slow-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

2.25

Guys, I didn't like this one. Sorry to the thousands of fans. To be fair, I set my expectations pretty high by thinking it would be like a combination of When Harry Met Sally and the Before Trilogy.

I've heard rave reviews about Sally Rooney's books both online and in-person, and I thought one of her strengths was crafting realistic characters. Unfortunately for me, I did not realise that 'realistic and flawed' is synonymous with 'unlikeable'. I simply did not like either of these people at all and did not care for them, they fell rather flat.

Most of my criticisms of these characters were brought up in the book (namely Helen calling Marianne self-absorbed) and Rooney attempts to refute this by saying that Marianne genuinely cares about world politics and it's not attention-seeking (as Helen believes). I do not believe that it is attention seeking, but it does seem that Marianne gets a kick out of feeling superior to other people (especially when her History teacher gets his comeuppance for daring to try and teach her history, as if she could learn anything from him). This trait lessens a bit as the book goes on

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and morphs into something darker, but at that point I didn't care enough for her to worry about the turn her life was taking.

I found the writing was fine and there were some particularly quotable passages, but I didn't have any kind of emotional response to anything that happened (apart from maybe the first 'break-up' situation).

I thought that there were some good social observations in this book, my favourite being the scholarships and the discussion between Connell and Marianne about the significance to each of them.

Overall I felt like I was living in a bubble of only them, and they were both living in that bubble as well. People drifted in and out of their lives - friends, relationships - but they didn't seem to actually like any of these people and were just passing time until they collided again. Apparently no one understands them like each other, yet it seems they must be desperate for a relationship with anyone because they go running into one with whoever their friend recommends as their next partner with no regard to their own feelings. Is this how people are actually living these days?

I felt like I was missing something key about this relationship and did not find their story memorable at all. That said, I think I will try to watch the series to see if observing real people acting out these events makes them seem 'raw' and 'realistic'.

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