"One of my best friends introduced me to Sally Rooney by buying me a copy of Normal People one Christmas. It took me until the following summer to actually read it, which turned out to be the perfect time since I’d just gone through a devastating breakup. I’ve read plenty of love stories, but never one that felt so raw and realistic. I tore through the book in just a few days, then binged the TV show (and developed a huge crush on Paul Mescal) soon after. Ever since that summer, I’ve made my way through every single one of Sally Rooney’s books—including her latest, Intermezzo, which was released on September 24.
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Why I love Sally Rooney’s books
They focus on character development over plot
Maybe it’s because I have an English degree, but a book doesn’t always have to have big twists for me to enjoy it. That’s the biggest thing I like about Sally Rooney’s books—the characters drive the book instead of the plot. Most of the time, her characters are simply going about their days, and we’re just along for the ride. There’s a reason Conversations With Friends has its title: There’s not a lot going on. But Rooney dives so deeply inside the characters’ heads that they feel like real people, which makes up for the lack of action.
The writing style is super compelling
As much as I love diving into a fluffy, feel-good romance novel, sometimes, I just want to geek out over a beautiful paragraph. From Rooney’s understated sentence structure to controversially never using quotation marks, the words on her pages seem simple but always pack a punch. The opening line of Normal People, for example, is “Marianne answers the door when Connell rings the bell.” It doesn’t stand out on your first read, but if you know going in that they can’t stay apart no matter how hard they try, this line holds a lot more meaning than at first glance—and hurts even more when you reread.
Sally Rooney does a fantastic job at weaving social commentary into her stories, with themes like success and mental health informing how her characters interact. Sometimes, it’s not very subtle—when the characters in Beautiful World, Where Are You? go from discussing how much they pay for rent to political ideologies, it’s not hard to tell what’s happening. But that doesn’t make what she has to say about the world any less valid or true.
Are Sally Rooney’s books sad?
If you scroll through social media looking for “sad girl” book recommendations, chances are you’ll see at least one Sally Rooney title. It’s lists like these that give her books a more melancholy reputation, but Sally herself says otherwise. In a recent interview, she said, “I don’t think my books are that sad, are they?… I find [them] quite optimistic about the human condition and about relationships.”
I’m somewhere in the middle: I think her books are incredibly realistic, especially when it comes to the relationships she writes, and so they don’t have the same kind of escapism as other books. To me, it’s that realism that can sometimes make them feel more devastating. That doesn’t mean that Sally Rooney doesn’t write happy endings—although “satisfying” might be a better word.
So, are Sally Rooney’s books worth the hype?
Personally, I think that Sally Rooney deserves all of the praise she gets and then some, but I know that she’s not for everyone. If you aren’t a huge fan of introspective literary fiction, or you can’t get past certain stylistic choices (like the lack of quotation marks), then you might want to pass on Rooney’s novels. However, if you love to read fictional books with compelling characters that make you think, then you’re definitely bound to be a Sally Rooney superfan. Her books may not be for those who love fluffy romances or spicy fantasy, but they are the perfect read if you feel like having a minor existential crisis.
Do you have to read Sally Rooney’s books in order?
Nope! You can read Sally Rooney’s books in any order. The characters and stories in Rooney’s novels are completely distinct, so you can read whichever book speaks to you the most first. Her books do not have any character crossover nor take place in the same “world,” so jumping in on whatever story sounds most compelling to you is definitely the right move. I’ve listed her books below in order of publication.
When Frances and Bobbi meet Melissa, a journalist, at a poetry reading, they soon find themselves pulled into her circle of friends and fellow artists. Lovers-turned-friends and students at the local college, Bobbi is the only person Frances has ever been with. But she soon finds herself attracted to Nick, Melissa’s husband. As these two fall into a risky affair, Bobbi is forming a similarly intimate relationship with Melissa. The power dynamics within each of the characters’ relationships in Conversations With Friends are so complicated, even twisted at times, and yet it’s hard to “look” away. Right from her debut novel, Sally Rooney explores love and identity in her writing and establishes herself as a very thoughtful storyteller.
Marianne and Connell couldn’t be more different. He’s popular and a star athlete; she’s bookish and doesn’t have many friends. Yet somehow, they just fit together. Throughout high school and college, these two are drawn together and pulled apart repeatedly. Normal People isn’t your traditional love story—Marianne and Connell’s relationship is like the “right person, wrong time” trope on steroids. But whether you think they should stay in each other’s lives or not, their relationship and all its flaws are still so captivating. These characters are just as beautifully complex as individual characters as they are together, and they each get chances to stand on their own throughout the book. If you think you can handle seeing things play out on screen, the TV miniseries is definitely worth the watch, too.
Even though Eileen and Alice both live in Dublin, they haven’t seen each other in months. Instead they keep in touch through email, sharing life updates and dissecting deeper topics like religion and beauty. Alice, a novelist fresh out of the hospital, strikes up a relationship with a man named Felix, while Eileen falls back into flirting with Simon, her childhood best friend, after a bad breakup. This book is a bit of a slow burn, but worth it by the end. Using email to develop Alice and Eileen’s relationship made things more interesting, even if the social commentary is more on the nose because of it. Beautiful World, Where Are You? shows us that friendships are flawed but worth maintaining and that life is what you make of it.
Sally Rooney’s latest book follows Peter, a lawyer in his 30s, and Ivan, his younger brother and a competitive chess player, who are both grieving the loss of their father. While Peter is caught between his first love Sylvia and a college student named Naomi, Ivan strikes up a relationship with an older woman named Margaret. Despite the boys being polar opposites, they have this common thread within their grief. In fact, all of the characters in Intermezzo have something to grieve, whether it’s a physical person or a part of their identity. Focusing on two brothers is also a different approach for Sally Rooney, but she still uses familiar tactics like age gap relationships to move the story forward.
Where I think you should start with Sally Rooney’s books
If you want to ease yourself into Sally Rooney’s writing style, she’s published a few short stories that are easily accessible online—including “At the Clinic,” which featured Rooney’s characters Marianne and Connell before Normal People was written. Listening to her audiobooks might also make it easier to overcome the lack of quotation marks if that sounds like a dealbreaker. Otherwise, whichever full-length book you want to start with is totally up to you!
Hannah Carapellotti, Contributing Writer
Hannah is an Ann Arbor-based writer with a bachelor’s in English and writing from the University of Michigan. Outside of The Everygirl, Hannah has written for The Michigan Daily, where she also served as an editor. She currently works at an independent bookstore and is interning for a literary agency.