Rating: 4 stars
“At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers – one they are determined to conceal. A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.”
Normal People follows two teens who seem to always end up drawn back to each other, no matter what, and I’ll admit straight away that I read this after I watched the TV show for the sole reason being that I didn’t realise it was based off a book until so long after I finished the show.
I felt like this book was such a slow burner, and in a good way. It follows Connell and Marianna through their school years as well as their university years, and these years were not glamourized and romanticized, much like other books which follow people of these ages.
During this book, I felt myself becoming frustrated with some of the actions that the characters were making, and I wanted them to make the decisions that would bring them closer together, but Connell feeling like he did wasn’t helping him, like when he had to go home for the summer, for example. We learn that he wanted to ask Marianne if he could stay with her, but he didn’t want to feel like he was bothering her by being in her way, and then we later found out that she would not have minded. If they just asked for what they wanted and put their thoughts forward, there would have been a lot less tension than there was.
One thing I can say for definite is that Marianne doesn’t have the best choice in men, but I suppose if she isn’t with Connell like she wants to be, she wants to be with someone who makes her feel something, even if she isn’t all that comfortable with it. Watching her struggle in these relationships only made me want her and Connell to be together even more.
As much as I love the fact that Connell was offered a spot in New York, I was still upset as it was probably the first time that Connell and Marianna were actually at a good point in their life with each other, and they were actually happy with what they had.
Tea Stains and Book Spines 
One thought on “130. Normal People (2018) by Sally Rooney”