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feeling very normal

sarah jack
review of sally rooney's normal people

i’ve known about sally rooney culture for some time now, but i didn’t taste my first drop of the kool-aid until this past weekend. after i finished play it as it lays, i turned to my roommate and requested something devastating. i sought a heart-wrenching read rife with insufferable characters and frustrating dialogue. and my roommate absolutely delivered.


reading rooney’s normal people felt like reading the fault in our stars for the first time, except the writing was actually good. i spent my afternoons on the train with the book facedown across my lap to obscure the softcover from any passerby or fellow traveler/witness to my shame. i was embarrassingly engrossed by this story.


normal people follows an intrepid romantic situationship between marianne and connell. both characters suffer from a midwest emo conviction that fleeing their small town will fix them. but marianne simply needs a healthy dose of lexapro, an iced americano, and a knife. connell would do well with a cigarette, a DBT workbook, and a subscription to a guided meditation app.


finishing a book like normal people in only a few days is akin to downing an entire bottle of rye whiskey in a single evening. and i would not have it any other way (the book not the whiskey). if you just really need to feel something and don’t have an ex to hit up or a body of water to scream into, then crack open normal people and hit shuffle on your favorite 2010s generic indie alternative rock playlist for maximum pining. happy agonizing!

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