BookTok offers readers many a recommendation, and Sally Rooney's Normal People was all over my feed for quite some time. I have finally gotten around to reading it, and while it did not turn out to be quite what I expected, I enjoyed it. One of the things I least expected, in fact, was the lack of quotation marks to signal dialogue; conversations between our two main characters, Connell and Marianne, flow in a steady if not confusing rhythm which, in my opinion, correctly mirrors how conversations in reality function. The content of the dialogue felt much more raw and real without descriptions dictating how softly, loudly, depressingly, or joyfully the characters speak -- they just speak, and I as a reader was given the opportunity to fill in the blanks of the subtle nuances. I also loved the characters themselves, even though there are many things about them that make them out to be ordinary rather than heroic. They are (I'm sorry) normal people in the sense that I feel I could meet and interact with them in one of my college classes and not think twice about the complex inner dialogues and complications Rooney reveals through this story that follows two peoples' lives in intricate as well as broad ways, portraying the unique manner in which some people just incessantly stick with us through life whether or not we particularly prefer it. Even though I wasn't a huge fan of the sexual descriptions, I feel like they more accurately express how a relationship between two teenagers who grow into soul-searching adults would look in the real world. Overall, I really liked reading this seemingly unconventional novel. I read it pretty quick too, and was sad in the best way when I turned one page and found myself scanning the Acknowledgments, anticipating the story to continue even though it ended in a realistically open-ended way.



My favorite quotes from Normal People:

"Being alone with her is like opening a door away from normal life and then closing it behind him."

"Multiple times he has tried writing his thoughts about Marianne down on paper in an effort to make sense of them...he wants to understand how her mind works."

"She has never believed herself fit to be loved by any person. But now she has a new life, of which this is the first moment, and even after many years have passed she will still think: Yes, that was it, the beginning of my life."

"It feels intellectually unserious to concern himself with fictional people marrying one another. But there it is: literature moves him."

"He's not the same anxious, repressed person he was in school, when his attraction to her felt terrifying, like an oncoming train, and he threw her under it."

"Marianne, he said, I'm not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me."

"She feels her shoulder muscles relaxing, like their solitude is a narcotic."

"It feels powerful to him to put an experience down in words, like he's trapping it in a jar and it can never fully leave him."

"Connell went home that night and read over some notes he had been making for a new story, and he felt the old beat of pleasure inside his body, like watching a perfect goal, like the rustling movement of light through leaves, a phrase of music from the window of a passing car. Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything."

"His appearance is like a favorite piece of music to her, sounding a little different each time she hears it."

"I'm just nervous, he says. I feel like it's pretty obvious I don't want you to leave.
In a tiny voice she says: I don't find it obvious what you want."

"You lean in expecting resistance, and everything just falls away in front of you. Still, he would lie down and die for her at any minute, which is the only thing he knows about himself that makes him feel like a worthwhile person."

"He has sincerely wanted to die, but he has never sincerely wanted Marianne to forget about him. That's the only part of himself he wants to protect, the part that exists inside her."

"Maybe they were just curious to observe the chemistry between two people who, over the course of several years, apparently could not leave one another alone."

"Really, she thinks, really. People can really change one another."

I anxiously waited for this sequel to drop for what felt like forever! Finally getting to revisit characters I came to love and care for like I actually knew them myself was such a treat. My only “complaint,” per say, is that the Hawthorne family tree grows quite complex. I had trouble tracking which Tobias Hawthorne was being references at times, and the time that passed between my reading of the first book and this second book caused me to have to really recall who everyone was and related to. But the overall story and mystery that Avery and the Hawthorne brothers thought they had wrapped up kept my attention the entire time. I thought the focus on discovering how Avery is connected to the Hawthorne family (is Tobias Hawthorne her biological father?) worked really well to build up to the climax and plot twist. Looking back, there's kind of more than one plot twist, most of them revolving around Avery's mother, that all worked really well and tied back to unresolved things in the first book. I really like how each piece of the intricate puzzle played out to build up to a final reveal I really didn't see coming. In terms of Avery's love interests, (without writing any spoilers here), the love triangle is very well-written with romance and well-suspended tension. But the guy that it seems like she chooses to pursue and be with against all odds isn't the guy I was hoping she'd choose. Maybe it's just my personal preference, or maybe I just really like it when the unconventional love interest is the choice, but I won't say any more since there is still a third book in the series expected to be released in August of 2022! 


Some of my favorite quotes from The Hawthorne Legacy:

"'That's what I love about you, Heiress.' Jameson had a habit of tossing out words that should matter like they didn't at all. 'Care to share those thoughts?'"

"Jameson always looked at me like I had the answer. Like I was the answer."

"There was something about the way he looked at me when he said those words that made me realize I might be the one person on the planet with the ability to make Grayson Hawthorne question himself and the decisions he'd made."

"For a small eternity, nothing in the world existed outside of that kiss."

"'You don't have to kiss me now. You don't have to love me now, Heiress. But when you're ready...'"

"'Some people are smart. Some people are good.' He opened his eyes and put a hand on each of my shoulders. 'And some people are both.'"

"I waited for him to look at me, with silver eyes and the weight of the world on his shoulders."