Normal People: A review

Heavy spoilers ahead

Normal people is a classic coming of age novel. It has been praised by critics and has gained countless awards and as well as its own TV adaptation. But does it stand up to the hype?

In Normal People, we follow two characters, Marianne and Connell, their relationship, and their “love story”. Two people drifting apart from one another but somehow always come back to each other as if an invisible force is pulling them together. The book is intimate, it details the closeness of Connell and Marianne’s relationship. Both with very different lives, one with love and affection, and the other a toxic and difficult home. It’s a story about young love.

I was hooked in the beginning of the book. At first, I was confused by the total lack of quotation marks in the character’s dialogue but after a bit of Googling I realized that it was intentional. Surprisingly, you forget about the punctuation as you get more involved in the story. And thankfully, the writing is simple and easy to understand.

In the beginning, we see Connell and Marianne in a romantic relationship with each other. A relationship which they try so hard to keep in the dark. As we go further in the story, we see that this endeavor is futile. Connell is the stereotypical popular kid in school who all the girls swoon over. Marianne is “mysterious”, no one knows anything about her and according to the book is why everyone hates her. I think this is a bit far fetched and definitely unrealistic. The stereotypical “bad bitch” and “asshole” high school characters is definitely overused in regards to the other characters. And I totally expected this book to be free of this but I was wrong. Though, it does serve a little bit of purpose in the plot.

During their high school years they both feel isolated. Uninterested by the drama and events of high school, they have no one else to confide to except themselves. This intimacy and secrecy led them closer together. As their bodies touch they feel this connection. Understanding each other not through words but by the communication of touch.

Although both characters are smart and are aware of real world issues during the timeline of the story, they’re portrayed as “different” or more appropriately “not like other girls/guys”. This is extremely obnoxious as I cringe at anyone who proclaims themselves as “not like other girls/guys” just because they are interested in “niche” things that don’t fit the stereotypical young people interest box.

As the story progresses, we see them start college. The chapters are depicted as the passage of time. Where some chapters skip from minutes to years. Before starting university, they agreed on going to the same school. With high school years long gone, they are both separated and have been left to live their own lives. As they progress through their lives in college they both begin to feel different. Lacking understanding of the world around them, the only place they can confide to and understand the world is with each other.

“No one can be independent of other people completely, so why not give up the attempt, she thought, go running in the other direction, depend on people for everything, allow them to depend on you, why not.”

In university, they meet and date several different people, of all varying personalities. Marianne seems to have changed a lot during this time, you could usually find her in unhealthy relationships as she uses it to cope in the fight against her family.

It is most certainly an angsty young adult novel. With characters that are too full of themselves. But the writing and the overall plot balances out the story. It is a love story but a love story that isn’t grounded in any sort of reality. It’s a type of love story that you think of when you daydream of a long forgotten ex and think of “what if’s”.

What I love about the book is how it depicts the convoluted aspects of relationships. How a single person can change a person’s whole life, and how small things can grow bigger and turn into huge problems.

“It’s funny the decisions you make because you like someone, he says, and then your whole life is different.”

It shows how both people in the relationship would want from each other. Marianne demands someone to be in control of her, to dictate every aspect of her. This most likely has stemmed from her familial trauma in the past. Meanwhile, Connell feels torn apart whether or not to hurt her by doing what she asks or to hurt her by not.

“ Her body is just an item of property , and though it has been handed around and misused in various ways, it always somehow belonged to him, and she feels like returning it to him now.”

The characters are realistic in a sense that they are imperfect. That they are normal people or at the very least, that’s what they try to be.

Normal People is a story of heartbreak, melancholy, and the newness of young love. It’s a story of two young people, from totally different backgrounds. Somehow ending up in the same journey together, loving and caring for each other.

“Will you tell me I belong to you?”

“She was in his power, he had chosen to redeem her, she was redeemed.”

As both of them go about on their journey, both of them feel as though they don’t deserve the love they receive. Marianne feels as if she deserves that abuse she’s getting and Connell feels as if he’s not deserving of any love. As they grow, their roles are reversed from when we first met them. Connell turns into who Marianne once was, and Marianne turns to who Connell once was.

I personally disliked the ending. It felt lazy and anticlimactic, though that might be on purpose. Maybe love stories shouldn’t always have a climactic ending or happily ever after. Maybe true love is also what we do after our love story ends. And as time goes on, and the world changes, maybe true love is really anticlimactic after all.

If you like young adult romance with a bit of a slight heartache sprinkled on top, then this might be a book I can recommend. But it is certainly not for everybody.