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Konnie's Reviews > Normal People
Normal People
by
by
Konnie's review
bookshelves: 1st-author-read, all-time-favorites, beautiful, british-chick-lit, can-read-again, dark-romance, deep, favorites, goodread, heart-wrenching, hard-to-put-down, i-m-in-love, kindle-purchase, mature-writing, must-read, philosophical, read-in-2020, thought-provoking, unforgettable-haunting-story, very-engaging
May 19, 2020
bookshelves: 1st-author-read, all-time-favorites, beautiful, british-chick-lit, can-read-again, dark-romance, deep, favorites, goodread, heart-wrenching, hard-to-put-down, i-m-in-love, kindle-purchase, mature-writing, must-read, philosophical, read-in-2020, thought-provoking, unforgettable-haunting-story, very-engaging
INTENSE, DARK, AND TRAGICALLY BEAUTIFUL. INTELLIGENT AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING PROSE. HEART-WRENCHING MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND MISTAKES YET HEART-WARMING LOVE AND SACRIFICES. AN ABSOLUTE MUST-READ!!
How did I miss this novel the year it came out???!! This is probably my only REGRET. I wished I had read this book before watching the series, which I am absolutely OBSESSED with. I am CERTAIN this will be my FAVORITE read of 2020, and 2020 isn't even over yet.
Anticipating the series and watching it on its debut in America on 4/29/20 in one binged night, I have never been more CONSUMED and OBSESSED by any TV series since FELICITY. I AM STILL consumed and obsessed by all things NORMAL PEOPLE: reading articles, watching video and interviews, stalking the actors (Paul - Swoon! & Daisy is so lovely too - the chemistry? Sky-high, electric - both my husband and I wonder out loud "WHY AREN'T these two together in REAL LIFE???!!), and reading anything related to the novel. I think people of all ages can relate to this series in one way or another. For me it was many, it brought me back to my youth and my own discovery of intense infatuation and 1st love.
The only thing I can say with much clarity is that I would have still given this book a 5 star rating even if I had read it first before watching the series. This author is profound, highly thoughtful, intelligent and just AMAZED me. She has a keen sense of experience/understanding of the human psyche - her description of how one feels when overwhelmed with depression and anxiety truly blew me away.
I have not read such a moving, insightful, painfully honest, intelligent, bittersweet yet passionately tragic and dark romance in a very long time. This one has stayed with me for weeks and continues to do so. I am haunted and mentally disturbed by these characters, who are of extremely high intellect and physically beautiful yet emotionally stunted and flawed.
I can't stop dissecting it: inside out, upside down, forward and backwards, top to bottom. Everything fits within the story so perfectly and so many life lessons and growth are analyzed. I am driving everyone nuts around me discussing this story on a daily basis as I re-evaluate and make new discoveries with every gesture, dialogue, or scene in my mind out loud.
I can't recall such an insightful and intelligent writer in forever as I savored over and over each passage in the book, and now I am CERTAINLY a fan, planning to read all her novels, and DO NOT plan to make the same mistake twice (being the book purist that I am) as I will read Conversations with Friends before the series comes out for TV.
Despite being a book purist and always thinking books are better than the actual movies/series, I must say the series DID NOT DISAPPOINT, and the actors did serve the purpose of bringing the characters to life, giving them visual life (physical appearance fit the characters in the readers mind) as well as providing justice to the deliverance of the dialogue. They NAILED it! There are some instances where I think the series did better than aspects of the book but of course the book will always be better, giving us more insight and more info to the characters thought processes as well as the actual build up of their romance. The series did great but there ARE HIDDEN aspects of their relationship and details that were left a mystery until they are actually READ.
I think the ending, as tragic as it is, is PERFECT with two options left open; however, if the author does write another follow-up novel to continue the series, I have an idea where it might go...or I could be completely wrong since this author is totally unpredictable, not to mention DARK as HELL!
Did I mention PAUL MESCAL is an absolute dreamboat and Godsend??? Women all ages and all over the world are obsessed and SWOONING so hard over him currently (Oh God, and he SINGS! I had to hide in my car in order to listen to his rendition of Sia's Chandelier 50 times over and over so my husband would not see me obsessing too hard), and he was/is the number one male figure searched on the internet currently - ME: GUILTY as CHARGED! I'm DEFINITELY a GONER!
How did I miss this novel the year it came out???!! This is probably my only REGRET. I wished I had read this book before watching the series, which I am absolutely OBSESSED with. I am CERTAIN this will be my FAVORITE read of 2020, and 2020 isn't even over yet.
Anticipating the series and watching it on its debut in America on 4/29/20 in one binged night, I have never been more CONSUMED and OBSESSED by any TV series since FELICITY. I AM STILL consumed and obsessed by all things NORMAL PEOPLE: reading articles, watching video and interviews, stalking the actors (Paul - Swoon! & Daisy is so lovely too - the chemistry? Sky-high, electric - both my husband and I wonder out loud "WHY AREN'T these two together in REAL LIFE???!!), and reading anything related to the novel. I think people of all ages can relate to this series in one way or another. For me it was many, it brought me back to my youth and my own discovery of intense infatuation and 1st love.
The only thing I can say with much clarity is that I would have still given this book a 5 star rating even if I had read it first before watching the series. This author is profound, highly thoughtful, intelligent and just AMAZED me. She has a keen sense of experience/understanding of the human psyche - her description of how one feels when overwhelmed with depression and anxiety truly blew me away.
I have not read such a moving, insightful, painfully honest, intelligent, bittersweet yet passionately tragic and dark romance in a very long time. This one has stayed with me for weeks and continues to do so. I am haunted and mentally disturbed by these characters, who are of extremely high intellect and physically beautiful yet emotionally stunted and flawed.
I can't stop dissecting it: inside out, upside down, forward and backwards, top to bottom. Everything fits within the story so perfectly and so many life lessons and growth are analyzed. I am driving everyone nuts around me discussing this story on a daily basis as I re-evaluate and make new discoveries with every gesture, dialogue, or scene in my mind out loud.
I can't recall such an insightful and intelligent writer in forever as I savored over and over each passage in the book, and now I am CERTAINLY a fan, planning to read all her novels, and DO NOT plan to make the same mistake twice (being the book purist that I am) as I will read Conversations with Friends before the series comes out for TV.
Despite being a book purist and always thinking books are better than the actual movies/series, I must say the series DID NOT DISAPPOINT, and the actors did serve the purpose of bringing the characters to life, giving them visual life (physical appearance fit the characters in the readers mind) as well as providing justice to the deliverance of the dialogue. They NAILED it! There are some instances where I think the series did better than aspects of the book but of course the book will always be better, giving us more insight and more info to the characters thought processes as well as the actual build up of their romance. The series did great but there ARE HIDDEN aspects of their relationship and details that were left a mystery until they are actually READ.
I think the ending, as tragic as it is, is PERFECT with two options left open; however, if the author does write another follow-up novel to continue the series, I have an idea where it might go...or I could be completely wrong since this author is totally unpredictable, not to mention DARK as HELL!
Did I mention PAUL MESCAL is an absolute dreamboat and Godsend??? Women all ages and all over the world are obsessed and SWOONING so hard over him currently (Oh God, and he SINGS! I had to hide in my car in order to listen to his rendition of Sia's Chandelier 50 times over and over so my husband would not see me obsessing too hard), and he was/is the number one male figure searched on the internet currently - ME: GUILTY as CHARGED! I'm DEFINITELY a GONER!
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Quotes Konnie Liked
“She closes her eyes. He probably won’t come back, she thinks. Or he will, differently. What they have now they can never have back again. But for her the pain of loneliness will be nothing to the pain that she used to feel, of being unworthy. He brought her goodness like a gift and now it belongs to her. Meanwhile his life opens out before him in all directions at once. They’ve done a lot of good for each other. Really, she thinks, really. People can really change one another.
You should go, she says. I’ll always be here. You know that.”
― Normal People
You should go, she says. I’ll always be here. You know that.”
― Normal People
“Being alone with her is like opening a door away from normal life and then closing it behind him.”
― Normal People
― Normal People
“The conversations that follow are gratifying for Connell, often taking unexpected turns and prompting him to express ideas he had never consciously formulated before. They talk about the novels he's reading, the research she studies, the precise historical moment that they are currently living in, the difficulty of observing such a moment in process. At times he has the sensation that he and Marianne are like figure-skaters, improvising their discussions so adeptly and in such perfect synchronisation that it suprises them both. She tosses herself gracefully into the air, and each time, without knowing how he's going to do it, he catches her.”
― Normal People
― Normal People
“Marianne had a wildness that got into him for a while and made him feel that he was like her, that they had the same unnameable spiritual injury, and that neither of them could ever fit into the world. But he was never damaged like she was. She just made him feel that way.”
― Normal People
― Normal People
“He has sincerely wanted to die, but he has never sincerely wanted Marianne to forget about him. That’s the only part of himself he wants to protect, the part that exists inside her. ”
― Normal People
― Normal People
“He understands now that his classmates are not like him. It’s easy for them to have opinions, and to express them with confidence. They don’t worry about appearing ignorant or conceited. They are not stupid people, but they’re not so much smarter than him either. They just move through the world in a different way, and he’ll probably never really understand them, and he knows they will never understand him, or even try.”
― Normal People
― Normal People
“If Niall could see Marianne, he would say: don’t tell me. You like her. It’s true she is Connell’s type, maybe even the originary model of the type: elegant, bored-looking, with an impression of perfect self-assurance. And he’s attracted to her, he can admit that. After these months away from home, life seems much larger, and his personal dramas less significant. He’s not the same anxious, repressed person he was in school, when his attraction to her felt terrifying, like an oncoming train, and he threw her under it.”
― Normal People
― Normal People
Reading Progress
April 10, 2020
– Shelved
April 10, 2020
– Shelved as:
to-read
May 16, 2020
–
Started Reading
May 19, 2020
–
Finished Reading
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
1st-author-read
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
all-time-favorites
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
beautiful
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
british-chick-lit
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
can-read-again
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
deep
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
dark-romance
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
favorites
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
goodread
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
heart-wrenching
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
hard-to-put-down
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
i-m-in-love
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
kindle-purchase
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
mature-writing
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
must-read
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
philosophical
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
read-in-2020
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
thought-provoking
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
unforgettable-haunting-story
May 20, 2020
– Shelved as:
very-engaging
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[deleted user]
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May 21, 2020 08:55AM
Okay, you've officially made me want to reread this now. (Also, Paul Mescal is definitely a dreamboat)
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OMG - please do! You will discover so much more and how everything connected so beautifully. It's so freaking tragic....I have no words to describe how brilliant the writer is - so glad to share our love for books and Paul Mescal with you! LOL
