Normal People by Sally Rooney

 Trigger Warning Note: Before I comment on this novel I want to make others aware of a possible trigger. I realised it was a trigger for me as lately I've been responding to triggers with overwhelming sadness. Halfway through the book there was an interaction between the main characters which made me want to cry. This, for me, is a large trigger response and I realised there were a few triggers earlier on. I read a sentence which made me question whether one of the characters was abused as a child and I want readers to be aware if you are also an adult survivor of child abuse. It's not a detailed account and the triggers earlier on in the story are more subtle, but they are still there.

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.

Just My Thoughts

After finishing Normal People I needed some time to process. These characters are depressing. I'm pretty sure my trigger response is wrapped up in that feeling, but overall I believe the characters are depressing. Their relationship is incredibly toxic and what makes it so depressing is the realism in it. Relationships like this, with their dynamic, actually happen. You want these characters to communicate, just fucking communicate please, but realistically a lot of people don't know how to communicate their thoughts and feelings. Especially when their self-esteem and opinion of self is so low. In the end they end up hurting themselves as much as each other.

I've read a few reviews about Normal People, some highly favourable and others very much the opposite. I usually agree with both sides with some aspects of the novel. With the characters they can seem quite hopeless and lacking growth. The secondary characters do come across as one dimensional. The main protagonists are given an air of speciality to them.

Here's the thing, I interpret this novel as being about two people who are both inexplicably linked to each other and with differing degrees of being damaged. I don't agree with their actions, but there are a great deal of maladaptive behaviours both characters engage in. They are wrapped up in each other and wrapped up in themselves. 

The way Rooney has written this novel, if you think of it, is brilliant. The secondary characters are mentioned, but aren't focused on which then enhances the main characters and their self-absorption. There are a few times when the characters are treated like they are special, but it's their beliefs of themselves driven by their insecurities. They aren't actually special. They are just two people trying to navigate their lives albeit with unhealthy perspectives.

I don't feel Marianne actually has character growth, instead I feel she spirals down and plateaus there. For someone who has had a traumatic, abusive past, this makes sense for someone who has an abusive past and needs therapy. Connell on the other hand has character growth, but in a realistic way. When people grow and mature, in real life, it's not always in a smooth linear way. Even more so when they are suffering from mental illness, which I believe Rooney has done a great representation of. Like Connell I too have had depression bad enough to not be able to make it to bed. That's real.

I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptive writing style Rooney used. The lack of quotation marks has always drawn me into a story when it's been used and the same went for Normal People. I find it makes the world more open and immediate which in turn feeds the desire to read the story. 

• Author: Sally Rooney
• Genre: Contemporary Fiction - Add to Goodreads or StoryGraph
• Find At: Kinokuniya - Dymocks - QBD - Abbey's - Booko