Considering the title of the novel, the intelligent reader may make some conjectures about the possible topic of the plot. Indeed, the word Normal implies it is an Irish novel. But what would catch the reader’s attention descends from a weakness of humanity, named power or awareness of their own selves or of people around them. There are two possible reasons someone would pick the novel and be interested to know more. As anticipated before, Normal People seems to suggest a topic in which someone will recognize themselves and want to learn more starting with the common question “who am I?”, an answer also the protagonists are trying to find. The second possible reason is about learning more about people's behavior. Indeed, knowledge is a power which puts anybody in an advantageous position.

Looking at the cover of the novel, the intelligent reader may notice the image represents a tin with a woman and a man, possible lovers, inside it. The tin is the symbol of the cradle, in which babies feel safe and at home. Discovering the reason why two normal people need to be half hidden from the reader's eye is an additional point the intelligent reader would choose to read this novel.

Normal People have to hide. They have to because nobody is normal. Everybody is unique, but some people decided to go with the flow, and others prefer to build their own personality and thoughts.

Rather than that the novel seems quite an easy reading. Normal People is divided into sections titled according to the lapse of time (“3 months later”) in a way that emphasizes the gaps between them, completed with a real-world timeline (“March 2014”). The sudden jumps in time is balanced by many flashbacks and flashforwards usually told by one of the two protagonists. The structure may be peculiar and confusing from the reader's prospective, but it perfectly reproduces the instability of the characters’ relationship.

There are many social and economic discrepancies between the protagonists Marianne and Connell. Right from the beginning we understand they're both really smart, but when he adores him, he is much more tentative. In addition, he is not only popular but is also discussed about, while she is his opposite.

Indeed, school has an essential role in the novel. The plot is set in close and intimate spaces, where the reader can recognize itself and which helps whoever is reading to a better understanding of the characters. For example, when the protagonists are at Marianne’s house, the reader finds out the dynamics in her family: her father died, but he used to abuse her in different ways; he made her think violence is something normal, and try to find it in her relationships.

Rooney uses the 3rd person, closely aligned in each section with either Connell or Marianne. Using the technique of telling and showing, it offers the reader privileged access to two sets of thinking patterns, while the novel goes on insisting that people are always mysterious to each other, however intimate and tenderly disposed they may be.

The total view of misunderstandings an overreactions provided by the alternative point of views might suggest a critique of the characters’ stubborn and probably unworkable mutual fixation.

Finally, here irony is something to be dumped down rather than played up.