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General discussion & final thoughts *spoilers*
By Jennifer · 5 posts · 34 views
By Jennifer · 5 posts · 34 views
last updated Jun 08, 2019 09:59PM
What Members Thought
Normal People felt extremely personal to me. Like I immediately knew these people and everything they were feeling and it was a wild ride. I had a relationship that felt very much like the early days of Marianne and Connell and that might have sold this for me.
I don’t know if this book will be for everyone, the structure was weird, the characters were highly dysfunctional and at times unlikable. But it was very much for me and I burned through it.
I don’t know if this book will be for everyone, the structure was weird, the characters were highly dysfunctional and at times unlikable. But it was very much for me and I burned through it.
Reading Normal People by Sally Rooney was a joy even through the dark moments. In the book, Connell and Marianne attend high school together in West Ireland. Star of the soccer team, Connell has a large circle of friends even though his family has little money. In contrast, intelligent Marianne, living a privileged life with her widowed mother and brother, accepts her place as the school outcast. Normally, the two would not be friends, but they meet because Connell picks his mother up from her j ...more
Apr 17, 2019
ReadingGirlReviews (Gina)
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
2019
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4 stars
“Life is the thing you bring with you inside your own head.”
There’s been a lot of buzz going around about this book, well before publication date, and fortunately I had the honor of reading it courtesy of NetGalley and Crown Publishing, and now I understand why.
Normal People is the story of two people, Marianne and Connell, two high school seniors who pretend not to know each other because of social status and class, but the secret is they do, and they’ve developed a relation ...more
4 stars
“Life is the thing you bring with you inside your own head.”
There’s been a lot of buzz going around about this book, well before publication date, and fortunately I had the honor of reading it courtesy of NetGalley and Crown Publishing, and now I understand why.
Normal People is the story of two people, Marianne and Connell, two high school seniors who pretend not to know each other because of social status and class, but the secret is they do, and they’ve developed a relation ...more
WOW!!! I started this book with an air of irritation, to be honest, about the whole no quotation marks thing... it threw me and I had to get used to it. Once I got passed that, the story was all engrossing. I simply couldn’t stop reading it. It’s rare that I’m able to finish a book in a matter of hours, but with this one, I did just that. I loved it. Can’t recommend it enough!
I have yet to read a summary or teaser of this book that feels accurate to me. So here’s mine, which may be less objective than others: Connell and Marianne are two endlessly frustrating people who aren’t really likeable to anyone except eachother. Read to see them fumble through their formative years and continuously make 273 pages worth of mistakes! 🤷🏻♀️
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I did not love this book. It was interesting enough that I wanted to read it through. There were some scenes I enjoyed more than others. O ...more
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I did not love this book. It was interesting enough that I wanted to read it through. There were some scenes I enjoyed more than others. O ...more
Listened. Separate from this book, what is up with female narrators lowering their tone of voice when male characters speak? I seriously dislike that.
There were some sentence gems sprinkled throughout - because I listened, I'm going to botch it, but I loved the line in which Marianne describes her mother's criticism of her lack of warmth as the unwillingness to beg people to love you.
I enjoyed this book and the way Rooney used simple language to evocatively describe each person and moment.
I w ...more
There were some sentence gems sprinkled throughout - because I listened, I'm going to botch it, but I loved the line in which Marianne describes her mother's criticism of her lack of warmth as the unwillingness to beg people to love you.
I enjoyed this book and the way Rooney used simple language to evocatively describe each person and moment.
I w ...more
Perhaps I'm alone here but this one felt as though I was slogging through just to complete. Somehow not have quotes around any conversations made me circle back many times to figure out if what appeared to be spoken words were actually just thoughts. But honestly that wasn't the only thing that made this one less than enjoyable. The story seemed to drag on and was unendingly frustrating that the two characters struggled so much to just speak to one another! Maybe because I'm a talker and althoug
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Normal People is an engrossing study of social rules and lives. It is simple, yet it covers so much ground in the lives and relationships of Connell and Marianne. The characters are made vulnerable as their flaws are exposed. They are relatable and unique; lovable and frustrating. Their paths wind closer and farther apart as they grow and learn what life can offer them. This novel is gripping and heartbreaking, but it is also hopeful and it does not disappoint.
Jul 24, 2018
Aileen Sitero
marked it as to-read
Jul 24, 2018
Margaret
marked it as to-read
Dec 30, 2018
Laine
marked it as to-read
May 02, 2019
Christy Cross
marked it as to-read
