Book Name: Normal People
Author: Sally Rooney
Pages: 266
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance
My Ratings: 4.5/5
Recommended To: Readers who love raw, character-driven stories with complex relationships and realistic portrayals of love and mental health.
Summary/Blurb
This book is about Marianne and Connell—two people who couldn’t be more different but keep finding their way back to each other. They start off in high school, where Connell’s the popular guy and Marianne’s the outcast. Flash forward to Trinity college, and their roles flip: suddenly, Marianne’s thriving, and Connell’s struggling to fit in. The story spans years of their complicated relationship, dealing with everything from love and class differences to mental health and self-discovery.
Review/My Thoughts
Sally Rooney’s Writing Style:
At first, Sally Rooney’s minimalist and dialogue-heavy writing style took some getting used to, but once I adjusted, I was hooked. It’s raw, unfiltered, and incredibly intimate
What Stood Out:
The characters felt so real. Marianne and Connell aren’t perfect—they’re flawed, awkward, and vulnerable—but that’s what makes them relatable. The way Rooney writes about their emotions, their struggles, and the push-and-pull of their relationship is raw and honest.
What I Loved:
- The depth of their relationship. It’s messy and complicated, but it’s also so human.
- How the book touches on heavy topics like mental health, loneliness, and identity without sugarcoating anything.
- The realistic ending. It’s not a fairy tale, but it feels true to the story.
What Could Have Been Better:
Some parts left me wanting a little more closure. But at the same time, life’s messy, so it kind of fits the vibe of the book.
Top Quotes from the Book
- “It’s not like this with other people.”
- “He knew that the secret for which he had sacrificed his own happiness was the one thing that made her happy.”
- “Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything.”
- “You learn nothing very profound about yourself simply by being bullied, but by bullying someone else, you learn something you can never forget.”
- “Most people go through their whole lives, without ever really feeling that close with anyone.”
- “It was culture as class performance, literature fetishized for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might learn to despise the educated and respect the uneducated, and through this process, become even more educated.”
- “He brought her goodness, like a gift, and now it belonged to her.”
- “She felt pleased with herself, for no reason at all, and she saw how frightened he was of her, and she loved him for it.”
- “Marianne had a wildness that got into him for a while and made him feel that he was like her.”
- “You can love someone and still hurt them.”
Simzy World 
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