Normal People

“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.”

honestly i don't think i'll ever recover from this, i'm devastated. this book was so emotionally intense. it's almost indescribable how i felt reading this book. i was so invested in marianne and connell's relationship that sometimes i had to remind myself that they were fictional characters.

marianne and connell are so well-written that it's easy to relate to them both and impossible to prefer one over another. sally rooney's writing is very simple yet she's a genius at writing complex characters, which is the best quality a writer can have. she made marianne and connell feel real. i first wanted to rate this book 4 stars but then i decided that it fully deserves 5 stars for the reasons i mentioned and also because it's probably one of the best books i've ever read.