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Normal People by Sally Rooney is about a complicated relationship between two teenagers Connell and Marianne. They both went to the same school and later, the same college. Connell's character is described as popular, intelligent, and handsome. He starts seeing Marianne who is an unpopular and shy girl. Conner’s mother was hired as a cleaner for Marrianne’s mother. Connell tries to hide the fact that his mother is cleaner because of the shame he has. Right after school, in summer, Connell leaves Marianne. They again meet each other in university however now they are opposite. Connell becomes unpopular and is unable to fit in with other peers.

Marianne, on the other hand, becomes popular and outgoing. Throughout the university, they become friends on and of and share their traumas and insecurities. Sometimes the damage and the pain are just too deep to reveal oneself to another. It’s better to bury it and deny it, to pretend to not care as a defense mechanism. The truth is they care very much, but they don’t feel deserving of love and kindness. Such a person often turns to unhealthy ways of managing their pain. Marianne's feeling she is unworthy of being loved without abuse or mistreatment, and the way she is treated by her family, boyfriends, and others, is very difficult to read about at times.

Connell's bouts with depression are also quite painful to read, so at times this book felt very heavy, and its pacing seemed to move much slower than I would have expected.

The book aims to hit emotional poignancy by showing how people weave in and out of your life and exploring themes of first love, class differences, and depression. I love in-depth character studies and you get that with this one. You see the ups and downs of each of the characters, you see the issues they have, how neither one feels they are worthy And, though I know almost nothing about Rooney, it feels like a very autobiographical novel - most young writers tend to write about themselves to start with, after all. She’s a young Irish woman who went to Trinity College, Dublin, on a scholarship, like Marianne, and the novel ends with the characters in their mid-20s, which is the same age I suspect Rooney was when she stopped writing this (she’s now 27 years old). In that regard, you could say it’s somewhat unimaginative.

One of the things did not like about this book is that the writing lacks quotation marks, which makes the dialogue difficult to decipher. which could be seen as support for the idea that life is just as messy as the formatting and communication of the book sometimes takes effort to understand.

Despite the book's emotional turmoil, Rooney's writing is exceptional. Rooney did a great job in the use of language and imagery. She definitely got me completely immersed in this book and these characters, even when things seemed particularly draining or moved slowly. Normal people is really affecting me, and it will stick with me for a long time.

Check out Normal People from the Newport Beach Public Library!