Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

Normal People by Sally Rooney

673 reviews

rtanner17's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

I didn’t expect to, but I read this book in one sitting. I just couldn’t put it down. Mostly because I was so enthralled with the relationship, so encapsulated and wanted to see how it ends. 

I can see why people can find this a difficult story to relate to. If you haven’t experienced anything similar to the characters, some of the plot lines can seem unrealistic or unnecessarily dramatic. But this book does a fantastic job at displaying an anxious attachment/avoidant attachment relationship. Not only that, but other themes such as how trauma can affect a persons character, differences in classes, battles with mental issues, the effects that loneliness has on young people. It is a beautifully written story that is honest and real. While it doesn’t have a traditional “happy ending”, we can see that the characters have changed so much and carry the good from their past as they move forward into their futures. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

miilk's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

Connell and Marianne were kinda made for me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Racism

Minor: Death of parent

rosamaria's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Blood

Minor: Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent

estelleidekreads's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child abuse, Eating disorder, and Toxic friendship

minor TW for a predatory teacher flirting with a 17/18 year old also a lot of dubcon

jazzuar's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Alcohol

cellington_'s review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

I love the way this book is written. I love the way that the “chapters” don’t happen immediately after each other you go from a moment in the characters life to another and see how their feeling in that moment before going back to seeing why they feel that way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Eating disorder and Death of parent

holls23's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

pookiee's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.75

The whole time I was thinking, Do some people really talk and act like this?? It all felt uncanny. But I like the idea that people may drift in and out of your life, and it's still worth having known them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming

Minor: Violence and Blood

moonie's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

4.0

I need to know if

they are still together after NY please

. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Sexual violence and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Eating disorder

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-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

Rooney is such a good writer, and I love her style! I just wish the ending wasn’t so ambiguous and abrupt, and I wish I had gotten to see Marianne blossom at least as much as Connell since the book was supposed to be about the both of them growing up, growing apart, finding each other again, etc. But it was pretty much all about Connell and then sometimes Rooney remembered that Marianne has thoughts and feelings, too.

Marianne and Connell’s relationship is so fascinating though. It is so incredibly toxic, yet they clearly belong together at the same time. I think that their relationship is realistically portrayed, and I could sympathize with one or the other of them at different stages in their lives and their relationship. I think that is a testament to Rooney’s writing: feeling like I want/need to evaluate the characters, to pick a side, and to sympathize and empathize with them and why.

However, I hated the ending. Ambiguous endings infuriate me, especially when the ambiguity suggests what it suggests here. We’re really ending with

Marianne staking her worth on her on-again, off-again boyfriend and putting him above her and “letting him go” so he can, what? Some bullshit about how she’s a springboard from which his life can “truly begin”

?

Before I read the last ⅓ of the book, I was expecting to give it a 4 out of 5, but seeing Marianne’s storyline and the ending get fumbled leads me to give it a 3 out of 5.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism