Blurb:

When they both earn places at Trinity College in Dublin, a connection that has grown between them lasts long into the following years. This is an exquisite love story about how a person can change another person’s life – a simple yet profound realisation that unfolds beautifully over the course of the novel.

Review:

Normal People is a little different to some of the books I would normally read in that it is heavily character driven. Luckily I was able to connect with the two central characters, Marianne and Connell quite quickly. They both feel as though they are misfits in the worlds they inhabit in their own way and I sympathised with the way they were feeling. I hoped things would work out for them. I think I was helped by watching the TV series as this made it easier for me to bring certain scenes to life in my head.

Although Normal People does not have a particularly fast paced plot, Rooney does explore a number of interesting issues in the novel. To list them all would likely include spoilers, but Rooney definitely made me think about how I would act in certain situations and think about how issues which may not affect me could affect other people.

The ending of Normal People is fairly open, and this is the way I feel it should be. Marianne and Connell are characters I have taken to my heart and I will enjoy thinking about where they would be now.

Normal People is available from Amazon.