If you enjoyed Sally Rooney’s Normal People, you’re in good company! Named Costa’s Novel of the Year in 2018, Waterstone’s Book of the Year 2018, and the British Book Awards Book of the Year 2019, the book has been adapted into a TV series by the BBC. So if you can’t get enough of Normal People, you have every reason to binge watch the series as well.
The storyline seems simple: Connell and Marianne who meet in high school and fall in love, with the almost-overdone trope of one of them being popular while the other is practically an outcast. A few years later, while in college, Marianne is now the one who has a group of friends while Connell is having issues fitting in.
Granted, not everyone enjoys the book; but those who do are quick to appreciate Rooney’s insight into human nature and how she’s able to put the candid feelings we have about love, friendships, and relationships into words.
9 Books Strikingly Similar to Normal People
If you loved Normal People, here is a list of books that we believe you will enjoy jus as much for their profound look at human relationships:
1. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Of course, our first stop would be Rooney’s other works. Her debut novel, Conversations with Friends brings us into the life of 20-year-old Frances, who desperately wants to be smart, and three other characters with whom she’s strangely intimate. Through these characters, Rooney takes us on a deep look at human psychology.
2. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
This may be a bit darker—and way thicker, at 720 pages!—than Normal People, but it’s also about a love story in the midst of friendship. Two out of four friends fall in love with each other. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen at the same time! Also, if you have trigger issues with self harm, we would not recommend this book, which includes this in the plotline.
3. One Day by David Nicholls
Some critics describe this book as like Normal People in adult form: the story opens on the evening of the Dexter and Emma’s graduation from high school, and we follow them every year on the 15th of July. While the story seems a bit commonplace, it’s a very relatable tale of what most people in their twenties go through, especially the longing to find their place and doing something worthwhile with life.
4. Junk by Melvin Burgess
The book opens with Tar and Gemma eating simple cheese and pickle sandwiches, but they end up running away and getting addicted to each other and, sadly, to heroin, which matures them beyond their chronological age. The author excellently uses simpler language at the start of the book and slowly matures alongside the characters, bringing us right into the complicated mess of their lives.
5. The Course of Love by Alain de Botton
If you’ve ever wondered what happens after “happily ever after,” this is the book for you. The book opens not where we usually expect a romance novel to do so—at the beginnings of a love affair—and instead opens at the point where a couple apparently reaches their happy ending. This gives us a realistic picture of the complications—albeit with the rewards—of beign in an intimate relationship with someone.
6. Ordinary People by Diana Evans
You probably notice the title of this book is practically a direct synonym of Normal People! This novel gives you two epic love stories: Melissa and Michael, and Stephanie and Damian go through life and all its challenges together. And because it’s set in recent years, it seems to have more social relevance too.
7. Tender by Belinda McKeon
Set in Dublin, this book brings us back to the late nineties, where Catherine is a university freshman who struggles with an underlying insecurity. She becomes best friends with James, an artist who opens up Catherine’s eyes to a new life.
8. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
Madeleine is a smart girl at a big university who loves two different men who offer her totally different things. She ends up marrying one of them, but what happens when the other person in her heart forms a complicated love triangle?
9. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love as teenagers in Nigeria. But what happens when one of them moves to America while the other is denied a visa? Many years later, back in their homeland, they meet again and rediscover their love for each other. This is a bit of a long read, but satisfying and worth it.
Finding Books Like Normal People
The beauty of reading books is finding new adventures and meeting new characters. This means that we may try to find books similar to Normal People, but the truth is that we are still after a whole new experience.
We hope this list has helped you find books with similar themes and feel. If you know of any other book that reminds you of Normal People, feel free to drop us a comment below!
Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
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Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.
