Plot Summary – Following Marianne and Connell, from different backgrounds but the same small town in Ireland, as they weave in and out of each other’s romantic lives and start to grow up.

The book (Normal People (2018) by Sally Rooney)

★★★★

I haven’t been reading for a long time so getting back into the routine was a bit of a challenge, but I’d been watching enough BookTube to want to do it. I chose this book because my favourite book YouTuber said it was his favourite book (shoutout Jack Edwards!). Normal People is an absolutely gut-wrenching read. It’s a roller-coaster of emotions and has this flow that makes you feel the highs and lows of these characters. It handles topics of mental health, modern-day relationships and society in very unique ways. The writing style can be quite alienating at times and I found that it was the sole detractor for me in this book. For a lot of people, this could be the most appealing part of the book but I found that it keeps the reader at a distance and no matter how much depth Rooney was trying to give her characters, the writing style made it a shallow experience at times. I found it really hard to resonate with the characters when they were being talked about like it was a story being told years later between friends. The subject matter and the content itself are very intimate and personal but it’s delivered in this way where you feel at a shoulder’s length with the material. Thankfully, the content itself was so rich and layered in its commentary that the writing is a minor roadblock in an otherwise very enjoyable read. I also felt like the characters were not as likeable as the author made them out to be, although that’s not a negative, some of my favourite characters are unlikeable and morally flawed. As a primarily visual content consumer, I cannot wait to get to the show and see the scenes that played in my head acted out. I had a really good experience reading this book, if not the best time because the book can be very heavy throughout. 

The miniseries

★★★★½ 

Watched on 05 Mar 2022

After reading the book, I have to say that this is a beautiful adaptation of the source material. After the initial few episodes, I didn’t think it could live up to the source material but towards the end, I felt that it actually fixed some of the issues with the book, especially the ending. It left out some storylines that seemed like they were just written to add drama and showed layers and nuance. They also added interactions in place of the internal monologue of the book to show the same things. Purely as a show, it’s an absolute powerhouse. The acting is some of the best ever put to television. Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones give titanic performances which leave you breathless after every scene they are in together. The show is aggressively horny, more so than the book but the sex scenes are handled with so much care that it feels like nothing else in television. The needle drops are TOP-NOTCH, always playing the right song for the mood and has made the official playlist on Spotify a great listen. The writing is brilliant, although a lot of the dialogue is lifted straight from the book, it still manages to find its own unique touches. I think its characterizations of certain characters was a stroke of genius. Overall, I recommend this to anyone in the age range of 16-25 cause this will resonate with some part of your high school or college experience.