normal people

a lot of what i felt after completing normal people was confusion, because how was this the book that everyone attached words like excellence, amazing, genius to every single one of its pages. 

perhaps this opinion is in the minority, but rooney’s writing style and her organization of this text is bad. her writing fell very flat, appearing very monotone due to the lack of description and imagery that i deem essential to any story that is meant to move me, considering many people claim to have cried at the ending. also, the way she chose to order scenes was extremely jarring, placing irrelevant scenes literally right in the middle of other scenes that are still playing out. there were numerous times where some event would be happening and suddenly there’s a page break and now we’re in the middle of a random event and once that would finish playing out, we were then allowed to resume where we originally left off. it easily took me out of the story, often starting and then stopping like when someone brakes too hard at a stop sign. 

in addition, this book is very in your face. it wants you to know exactly what it believes with little room for individual interpretation or any opportunity for the reader to come to the same conclusion all on their own, or god forbid, something different. i mean there is literally a scene where connell tells marianne to read the communist manifesto. while i like it when books can acknowledge that they are political and have social implications, it’s different when the book starts to think its reader is stupid and lacks the critical thinking to come to certain conclusions on their own, therefore shoving it in their face. rooney essentially is taking a brick and chucking it at our heads so that we get the point. 

with that being said, this book also wants to make it extremely clear that it is a criticism of capitalism, which i agree with, but gets its point across through creating inconsistencies in the relationships between characters. marianne has never portrayed herself to be materialistic or elitist due to the wealth of her family and has always been friendly to connell, despite his actions, with little regard for his financial situation. yet, a vast portion of connell's perception of marianne is centered around the inferiority marianne assumes of him because of his class. it makes no sense for her character and their relationship but it makes sense in order create the commentary on capitalism that rooney so desperately wants to implement. the book sacrifices the integrity of its characters in order to prove a point. 

honestly, if rooney incorporated these themes through a more subtle and authentic method i think i would’ve enjoyed the book a lot more, but unfortunately subtlety doesn’t seem to be a strong suit of hers. 

lastly, this book is not romantic despite being advertised as a romance. it is still unclear what marianne likes about connell, because throughout the book he has proven to lack any personality. all i know is that he struggles with mental illness, and likes to read and write, but that’s it. underneath all of those facets of his character, there is no personality. as a reader i have no idea what is so alluring about him and there is no detail about what it is about him she has fallen in love from her perspective other than the fact he treats her like a human being. although i will say marianne is given more personality than connell, it is also unclear what about marianne he has fallen in love with as well, other than she offers him a safe space to talk and unload his feelings. with both of those scenarios, there is absolutely nothing romantic about their relationship. all they do is lust after one another and misinterpret those emotions for love. 

there is an extensive list of things to dislike about this story and the way that it was told, as one has read here. while i can acknowledge that i was mildly entertained, this book is heavily flawed in some of the worst ways.