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The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at SBU chapter.

I recently just finished reading the book Normal People by Sally Rooney. Let me just tell you: I loved it.

I thought that the writing was beautiful and it was incredibly emotionally impactful. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for something good to read. 

Now I know I am not the first person to give this book a glowing review, but I won’t ever shy away from writing a book review. This was a book that had been on my TBR for about a year, and I finally was able to purchase a copy and annotate my way through it. 

So, in this week’s article, I want to discuss my feelings and thoughts about the book.

There will probably be some spoilers in here somewhere, so if you want to go into this book with a clear mind you may want to skip this article. 

Writing Style

I know this is one of the things that is most talked about in this book, but I have to pat Sally Rooney on the back again. I thought that reading would be more difficult when I didn’t have the proper punctuation to see when someone was speaking but it was the opposite. Once I got used to it, the absence of any quotation marks made the writing seamless and more like I was reading someone’s thoughts rather than a book speaking for someone. 

Another thing that I think makes this book more unique and enjoyable is the time skips. Every chapter begins by telling us how much time has passed. These range from a simple five minute jump or over seven months. It helps the pacing, and it is another element that helps the reader understand how much the character has changed. 

These chapters also sometimes change points of view. Looking into the minds of both characters really exacerbated the frustration I was feeling about the miscommunication between characters, but I suppose that was the intention. 

Emotional Impact 

Frustration was probably the main emotion I felt while reading. Personally, I think that it’s pretty cool that I felt this emotion so strongly because it reflects how deeply I was involved in the story and connecting to the characters. 

The constant miscommunication and undermining of their self-worth was so incredibly frustrating that it made me want to rip these characters out of the pages and shake them. I wanted to scream in their faces how much they loved each other and how beautiful and special both were. 

But frustration wasn’t the only thing I was feeling. This book was so utterly devastating and crushing at some points that, while no tears slipped from my eyes, I felt such a heavy weight on my chest that I had to take a break. 

THEMES 

This book is heavy. There are a lot of themes in here that are very upsetting and uncomfortable, but I think that Sally Rooney handles them in a mature, realistic way. 

This book navigates the hard topics in a new refreshing way. I found that unlike many contemporary fiction novels, Normal People does not glamorize topics like domestic abuse, depression, and having a negative self-image. 

I felt that the way Sally Rooney portrayed the struggles that both Marianne and Connell go through in a devastatingly beautiful way. If you look into my copy of the book, you will find paragraphs underlined just emphasizing how beautiful and well written the emotions and thoughts of the characters were. 

Normal People also seems to be attentive about how social class may impact the characters lives and how they grow and change throughout the book. Connell especially is always very aware of the socioeconomic status other people are. He makes many comments on how this is one of the main reasons why Marianne and he are so different. 

CONNELL’S ENGLISH MAJOR

As I was reading, I thought it was really funny how much I related to Connell when he was making comments about being an English major. 

He says on page 50 he talks about feeling guilty that his mom was paying for his degree “because it’s not like English is a real degree you can get a job out of, it’s just a joke” (Rooney, 50). 

I thought this was HILARIOUS as an English major. This entire page encapsulated the feeling of going to an expensive school for a degree with an uncertain path. 

Connell makes the right decision going for this degree, however, when we see that “literature moves him” (Rooney 71). 

Everything works out for him in the end (spoilers ahead) when we see that he gets the job offer in New York and that gives me hope for myself and my fellow English majors. 

Abigail Taber is a second-year writer for the St. Bonaventure chapter of Her Campus. She enjoys writing about culture, entertainment, and the happenings in her college life. Abigail is excited to shadow the editing team this year and to be a part of such a cool organization that centers around the work and interests of women. Beyond Her Campus, Abigail is the poetry editor for the literary magazine on campus, The Laurel, a member of College Democrats, and SBU for Equality. Abigail has had her creative writing published in both her high school's and university's literary magazines. She is currently a sophomore at St. Bonaventure University, double majoring in English as well as Literary Publishing and Editing. In her free time, Abigail, or Abbey to her friends, enjoys reading, listening to music, and looking at art for her next tattoo. She is a music trivia master and a known enjoyer of any, and all, romance books. She hopes to pursue a career in publishing books in a big city. Growing up in a small suburb of Buffalo, New York, Abbey hopes to embody the city-of-good-neighbors attitude.