![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() They’re “happy” when together, but drift apart due to poor communication and a host of unresolved (and untreated) issues. When they’re off-again, Marianne pursues deeply unhealthy relationships, and Connell is depressed. They break up, then attend the same college, where they have an on-again, off-again thing. They have a relationship, but Connell refuses to acknowledge that he knows Marianne at school. Connell (poor and popular) and Marianne (rich and unpopular) go to the same high school. A non-ending on a book like this leaves it feeling incomplete. I don’t mind open endings, in theory, but Normal People lacks an overall arc and its characters remain unchanged. There’s room in literature for unhappy characters, and I love thorough character studies, even of miserable people, but there’s too much about this book that doesn’t work for me-bad communication between the lead couple, gimmicky structure, a lack of quotation marks, and a non-ending. I don’t understand reviews that paint it as romantic or funny, because I’d argue it’s a starting point to talk about codependency. There’s a lot about Normal People that’s normal for high school and college relationships, but I have less patience for this type of story now than I would if I’d read this book from a dorm room. ![]()
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