Normal People starts out beautifully. Marianne is a loner in high school with no friends, while Connell is the popular football player. His mom works as a cleaner at Marianne's house, so they run into each other when he stops by to pick up his mom. Over time, they start to thaw around each other, growing closer as they realize that they can be their true selves when they are together.
Rooney captures so well the vulnerability and awkwardness of teenage years, along with its exuberance and infinite possibility. It was sweet to follow along to Marianne and Cornell's developing relationship. Even though there is the stress of school and the pressure of being teenagers, when they are alone together, they can be free to express themselves and be who they really are.
Then they are off to college, and the dynamics change. Marianne becomes the popular one, and Connell becomes the loner with no friends. At this point, I start to realize Rooney captures a very black and white version of high school and college. You are either part of the popular obnoxious crowd or you are a nobody with no friends, and there is nothing in between. And everyone's ultimate goal was to be in the popular crowd. But that isn't the school experience I remember, so it became harder and harder for me to connect with this book. In my experience, people had several different groups of friends, and no one liked obnoxious people. Most were working so hard that they didn't have time to worry about popularity and how others regarded them, especially in college.
This story has a very YA feel to it, where the characters are filled with angst and lack emotional maturity. While that made sense when Marianne and Connell were in high school, as the story progressed through their college years, it didn't anymore. The two seem to love each other, and yet, they are so sensitive to perceived slights that innocent conversations would quickly escalate to a breakup. Honest communication would clear this up immediately, but they don't do that. Instead, they circle and prod each other until they are back together again. Then the cycle repeats. It's all very dramatic, but it left me pretty apathetic by the end of the book.
This book also tackles the subject of abuse, but I think it was a missed opportunity here. Rooney portrays abuse as if some people just want to be abused, so they will let anyone abuse them, and even go around looking for it until they find it. That's not right. Victims have trouble escaping because abusers are often the people they love most, who treat them well most of the time and express regret after an incident. But there is no love or good treatment in this book, so it doesn't make sense that the victim would just put up with it.
In the end, I thought the first half of this book was wonderful, but everything stagnated in the second half. The main characters never really grew up, so they repeated the same mistakes over and over again. Their lack of maturity and insight into themselves and their relationships grated on me. I went into this book with really high hopes, but ultimately it didn't live up to its potential.
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