Book Rating: Two Stars.

Book Blurb

At school, Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team, while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers—one they are determined to conceal.

A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world, while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction, and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.

Review

I found giving this book a rating to be very hard because even though I liked the concept and realistic nature of the plot, I could not see past the removal of quotation marks. My whole reading duration was spent rereading pages to see if I missed conversations, rather than falling in love with the story.  As a result, reading this book became tiresome and after a while everything sort of blurred together. However, I did read the electronic copy of this book, so I don’t know if that contributed to my difficulties.

Besides the full quotation marks fiasco, this book had something that many books are missing: normal people. Connell and Marianne were like those two teens that you knew in high school that obviously liked each other, yet held back because of …life. Fear. Uncertainty. They were young and made stupid choices, and then they were adults trying to fix those same mistakes by creating new ones.  But that’s what I liked about this book, it was honest. It shows a normal depiction of feelings and relationships without the cliché effect that gets thrown into many books featuring teens. I also LOVED the ending. I’m a firm believer that romance books do not always have to end with an ‘happily ever after’, so it was very refreshing to read an ambiguous ending for a change. I like having the power to imagine how the characters’ stories end, good or bad- I’m the decision maker.

Who should read this book?

If you can ignore the fact that there are no quotation marks, then go for it! The chemistry these two had been off the charts and the angst was amazing. If anything, you can “add” quotation marks (though I don’t suggest actually doing that).

Who shouldn’t read this book?

If you like quotation marks or are looking for a couple that actually talks about their feelings properly, skip this one.