"It's not like this with other people." Normal People - Sally Rooney

     I watched Normal People on Hulu as soon as it came out because the previews looked really good. They didn’t even begin to cover the greatness of the show, however, and it is now one of my all time favorites. I didn’t know Normal People was based off a book until I’d already finished the series, and I bought it immediately — and then proceeded to let it sit on my shelf in a TBR pile for… way too long. 

     Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron are the main characters, and they are both from a small town in Ireland. Normal People is the story of their on again-off again relationship, heartache, personal struggles, but mostly their friendship and how they always seem to gravitate back to each other. It is how they are a mirror for each other, how they balance each other, the things they teach each other, and how they view the world in a similar way.

“It’s not like this with other people.”

    Admittedly, it was a little hard to get into the book at first because Sally Rooney has such a unique writing style. It’s all written very free form and sounds like prose and spoken thought, and she doesn’t use quotations for dialogue. But the further I got into the book, the more I realized they the directors of the show must have basically used the book as the script. I have never in my life read a book that was so accurately depicted on screen.
The writing itself is very direct and to the point with the scenes and feelings it’s trying to convey to the reader, but it’s written with such poignancy and emotion that it softens the rough edges and makes it flow smoothly.
Just like this show, this book is emotional as fuck. It’s written in third person omniscient POV, mostly back and forth between Connell and Marianne, and the reader gets a lot of insight into their lives and mental states. Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones did an incredible job portraying Connell and Marianne and acting out the intense loneliness, depression, anxiety, and isolation they go through, as well as they sweet, tender, happy moments. Reading the actual internal thoughts of these characters that I already loved and getting an even deeper sense of their struggles made my heart hurt. Normal People is so well written; painful and heart-achingly emotional without weighing down the story. 

I think it was good that I watched the show first because I was able to picture the book so well. The text and the show are so precisely accurate that all of the book’s time jumps and location changes made perfect sense and really heightened the reading experience.
Absolutely loved the show, and absolutely loved the book. I’d highly recommend both: regardless of which medium you choose first, it’ll be a beautifully emotional time.