From strangers to friends, to lovers, back to strangers, “Normal People” by Sally Rooney is a young adult romance novel that follows the complicated relationship between two adolescents.
The critically acclaimed book that also blew up on Booktok, follows the lives of two characters, both very different, and how they keep coming back to each other throughout their teenage and young adult years.
The story covers many different topics and themes, such as domestic violence, gender roles, and social classes, that create a uniqueness to a very stereotypical plot line.
The book is set in present-day Ireland. Two young students, Marianne and Connell grew up together in a small town, yet were strangers until their senior year of high school. They both come from different backgrounds, Connell coming from a blue-collared family and Marianne being small town royalty.
They both find interest in each other, but never truly seek a relationship due to fear of judgement. Yet, they battle the line between lust and love moving from high school to college. The plot follows their extremely complicated relationship and how they continue to come back together and separate over the span of many years. Both characters are stuck in this pattern of coming back together to only be separated due to personal hardships.
What intrigued me the most about this novel was the writing style. Rooney doesn’t use quotations between conversations. Although it would seem like this would make the language harder to follow, I believe that this made the writing easier to follow. In the Masters Review, student Daisy Matias gave her review on the writing style stating, “I think that is supposed to be a stylistic choice, which I think is a bit innovative because it does not seem as forced. The conversations are something that could happen right in front of you.”
Furthermore, the point of view switches back and forth between both characters, adding a psychological aspect to the story. I believe this also made it more interesting for the plot because the reader gets an insight on the characters’ thinking from two different point-of-views.
The story is still told in the third-person, but the narrator still walks through the feelings of the characters, which was very important in order to add emotion to the storyline.
Sally Rooney made this novel very character-driven rather than plot-driven. In all honesty, the plot is very mundane, the simple romance between two very different people who can’t seem to make it work. Yet, the novel’s strength lies in the development of the characters, especially each character’s hardships and how that affects their relationship.
Rooney highlights abuse, mental health, social class, and gender roles a lot throughout the novel. These are very important topics that should be highlighted, yet I believe that Sally Rooney missed an opportunity to elaborate on them. These issues would come up briefly, but the reader only saw how it affected a certain character in a very surface-level way. If Rooney would have developed these themes further, I think there would have been more dimensions to the plot.
Jasmine Mai, CCHS senior, was the one who recommended the book. She says, “To me, the book is a great ‘beach read’ because of how plotless it is.”
Throughout the novel, the readers are left wanting more due to the lack of plot. Yet, I couldn’t seem to put the book down. You are always stuck in the “will they, won’t they” throughout the whole novel, keeping you hooked to the very last page. You’re waiting for both main characters to finally figure it out and end up together.
“This novel is a very realistic look into a real-world romance, not one where the characters always end up together in the end, like most fluffy romance novels,” Jasmine states.
Overall, I would give the book a 7/10. Even though the novel lacks dimension in some areas, I still really enjoyed it. It was a quick read that still kept me intrigued to the last page.
