📚 Normal People
Casual yet dramatic novel that caught my eye on BookTok. The story unfolds in snapshots, from Connell’s self-pity to the abstract nature of college discussions, highlighting the complexities of relationships and self-discovery. If you’re up for a laid-back read with a touch of drama, this one might be your cup of tea.
About the book
| Author: | Sally Rooney |
| Year of release: | 2018 |
| Genre: | Fiction, Novel, Contemporary, Adult |
| Pages: | 273 |
| Average WPM: | 344 |
| Date Started/Finished: | 16-June-22 to 21-June-22 |
| Time took: | 3.32 Hours |
What I Liked About It and What I didn’t
- What I liked
- Just as the title says the story wasn’t something out of the blues, it was pretty normal (which can be considered a good and a bad thing)
- Love how the chapters were named, the time skips was done well unlike [[All the Light We Cannot See]]
- What I didn’t like
- The main male character was so annoying and the choices he took throughout the story were so dumb
How I Discovered It
Saw it on booktok
Who Should Read It?
Whoever wants to reads a casual novel with a hint of drama
Summary + Notes
Six Weeks Later (April 2011)
If he really wished for any of those things, Marianne knows, then they would happen. Connell always gets what he wants, and then feels sorry for himself when what he wants doesn’t make him happy.
Three Months Later (November 2011)
He did gradually start to wonder why all their classroom discussions were so abstract and lacking in textual detail, and eventually he realised that most people were not actually doing the reading. They were coming into college every day to have heated debates about books they had not read.
You were always pretty, he says. I should know, I’m a shallow guy. You’re very pretty, you’re beautiful. She’s not laughing now.
Two Months Later (April 2012)
Generally I find men are a lot more concerned with limiting the freedoms of women than exercising personal freedom for themselves, says Marianne.
Six Months Later (July 2013)
I’m just saying, these aren’t for champagne, says Jamie. You’re such a philistine1, Peggy says. I’m a philistine?1 he says. We’re drinking champagne out of gravy boats.
Three Months Later (March 2014)
Connell’s initial assessment of the reading was not disproven. It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about
Seven Months Later (February 2015)
She thinks of Connell saying: People are a lot more knowable than they think they are.