This review contains spoilers for Normal People - please read with caution.
The only thing I knew about Normal People before going into the story was that the author writes her novels without quotation marks in the dialogue, and I immediately knew it was going to take all but five pages before I felt like I was losing my mind. It actually took seven pages before the feeling came, so, yay! But seriously, if I had the time, I would have taken a pen to every line of dialogue and added quotation marks because your eyes are so trained to transition from paragraphs of descriptions to speech that you miss sections of talking because you're not even registering them as actually exchanging conversation.
I immediately wanted to talk some sense into Connell, because obviously any girl who spends her lunch hour reading novels in the library or cafeteria has read The Communist Manifesto. Marianne is basically the smartest person in school and top in English, and you think she hasn't read it?
Also, if a guy asked me to not talk to him and pretend that I don't know him and am not literally hooking up with him, I would toss him immediately. Connell acts like he would be committing social suicide by associating with Marianne, when in reality, people would just talk about how they would maybe be an unlikely pair - it would not cause the fall of their social hierarchy. The way that Marianne makes it so clear to Connell that she wouldn't do the same to him that he is doing to her, he has this fleeting moment of a morality change, and I started to like him just a little bit.
I know I did not just read people laughing at Marianne literally getting physically assaulted at this pub while she tried to sell raffle tickets. She has got to find better people to hang around with and these people have got to get better morals. Also, I don't know if it's just because I recently read I Hate Men by Pauline Harmange, but Connell is literally doing the minimum for Marianne - the bar is on the floor. Shoutout to Lorraine for trying to knock some sense into Connell because the boy is as dense as they come.
The writing becomes significantly more tolerable once Connell and Marianne go to college - the flow is better, the dialogue runs smoother, and the character development vastly improves. Jamie and Helen are the worst people to be around Marianne and Connell - the borderline abuse from Jamie and the slut shaming from Helen makes them intolerable to read about.
Marianne's relationship or "agreement" she has with Lukas is unconventional, and her using sex as a coping mechanism in what appears to be a response to her brother speaking and acting horribly to her is sad to read. She has so much going for her, and watching her become isolated from her friends, and quick frankly from herself as well, is heartbreaking.
I actually really started to like the direction that the book was headed towards the end, and then Alan had to come in and ruin it all, followed by what I saw as a rather obvious ending to Marianne and Connell's ending. The sentiment of it all can definitely resonate with readers, but it felt as though we were moving constantly away from the idea that they could ever end up together.
I will personally buy Sally Rooney a keyboard with the quotation mark key so I never have to experience that writing style again. In all honesty, I have never encountered a book more that I wanted to DNF so badly before I even got to page 50. It definitely improved about halfway through the book, but I could not help but feel disconnected from both Connell and Marianne - constant miscommunication and "right person, wrong time" felt so repetitive that I found myself hoping that it would just end. I do not think this was a bad book - I just think that it may not have been a book for me.
You can add Normal People on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on publications and releases. Normal People is available now to watch exclusively with a Hulu subscription in the United States.
You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!
No comments:
Post a Comment