Normal People

Frustrating. If this book could only have one word to describe it, that would be it.

In a way, I like Marianne's character for being consistent (though the same could be said for Connell) and the fact that her motivations and destructive behavior come from an understandable source (I appreciated the attempt the author made to make her a real human being). From the outset, Marianne is a very vulnerable person who primarily feeds her self-worth with other's attention (be it negative or positive). When a broader picture of her family life is depicted, it is undeniable to see how she came to this troubling and flawed view of herself. As the story progresses, this behavior manifests through her actions and developing relationships with what can clearly be characterized as despicable people. It is evident that Marianne is not equipped with a well-rounded disposition with which to develop a healthy lifestyle but she's also not intrinsically innocent and further fosters dangerous tendencies to deal with her neglected self-esteem.

Her character is so consistent as to be predictable but due to the nature of her proclivities, it is like tensely waiting for the next shoe to drop.

Connell, on the other hand, stayed very much two-dimensional and was a character I could not like from the beginning. I'm sure the author wrote him with that intention to a certain extent but I couldn't see at any point where he became an interesting enough character to care about anything he did. He could not see past his own nose to care about Marianne or even have an honest conversation about his feelings, her family, or any other sensitive topic. I could see past his juvenile tendencies when he was actually a kid and understand that he still didn't learn how to communicate effectively with Marianne even during their college years, but at a certain point I expected him to actually have a thoughtful and meaningful exchange with someone he considered his best friend.

I particularly did not care for the time-jumps because they didn't serve the novel at all. I'm not even sure what they were meant to do besides illustrate the fact that Connell and Marianne had kept in touch for years after high school. They only reinforced Marianne's predictably self-destructive behavior, Connell's cowardice, and fleeting moments of “friendship” where a bit more personal (superficial) insight was unveiled when the two would meet.

This brings me back to my initial point of contention, the fact that this book is undoubtedly a horribly done romance, written to frustrate the reader to no end. And, consequently, the number one trope I despise in romance (or any genre really) is misunderstandings/miscommunications. Using this trope for the sake of creating tension between the two main protagonists is lazy and lays a faulty foundation for any sort of relationship set to prosper from it. The author may have been trying to use this fault in the trope to her advantage and demonstrate a deterioration in the relationship but it did seem like the sole purpose of it and became a very obvious plot device that pulled me out of the story very easily on multiple occasions.

The writing is the sole reason I didn't stop reading this book. The author drops you right into the narrative (very slice of life) and the sequence of events jump due to the time skips, and land in a different dynamic where the characters are at some new point (a few months later) that's different enough from the last spot to warrant reading further just to find out how they got there.

There was one scene that I particularly abhorred because it felt like the author used a side character's decidedly deteriorated mental health to delve deeper into the one of the protagonist's briefly mentioned anxiety and exploit it. It felt like such a throwaway scene to progress the plot and wrap-up a relationship that was an obvious farce from the start. The author's attempt to deal with mental health and therapy is so subpar that I didn't believe it; there was a serious lack of connection with the protagonist and no sense of authenticity, creditability or sincerity during the counseling session.

I honestly thought the character interactions were somewhat well-done and insightful but the ending brought this back full circle, back to the beginning where miscommunication was abundant; only this time the protagonists' understood each other a bit more deeply but neglected to effectively take those same insights into account when discussing personal matters. Frustrating, to say the least.