I’m not sure what I was expecting when I started this book, but I didn’t
expect what it actually was. I knew that it covered a time span of years and so
I was really surprised by the size at first; I had been expecting at least a 400-page
book.
I think I had been trying so hard to avoid spoilers as well that I failed
to look for trigger warnings for this book. Mental illness (depression and anxiety),
suicide, eating disorders, physical abuse, mental/emotional abuse and sexual
abuse are all major triggers for this book. Thankfully I was alright reading these,
but I know some people who would not be. I’ll probably find loads of posts
about Normal People with the trigger warnings, but I had no clue about them
going into the book.
The other thing that really shocked me was the lack of speech marks.
In a way, I’m glad that I didn’t know this before reading because I feel like
it might have put me off the book before I’d given it a chance. Whilst it did
put me off for the first fifty or so pages, I ended up really enjoying the lack
of speech marks because it removed the temptation to skip paragraphs and just
focus on the speech.
Overall, I gave this book four stars because of the realness and
emotional connection I felt towards the characters; I was really invested in
their story. This wasn’t a five star read for me because I would have preferred
it to be longer and there wasn’t that something that five star reads
have.
Connell and Marianne remind me of the ‘relationships as lines’ that I
have seen. They come together and drift apart, end up wound together tightly
but separate, only to find that they can’t stay that way. It’s the most accurate
description of those lines that I’ve ever read, and I love it for that.
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