I enjoyed but didn’t love Normal People, Sally Rooney’s most celebrated novel, which was recently a BBC miniseries. I found the main characters of Normal People, Connell and Marianne, both fairly unlikeable and frustrating. I really enjoyed this book, however, which was Rooney’s debut novel, published in 2017.

Frances, the narrator, is a brilliant, depressed millennial cut from the same cloth as Connell and Marianne, but she possesses a level of self awareness that they don’t seem to have - or maybe they do, but Frances wants to move past what she currently is and grow, while Connell and Marianne seemed, to me, to be resigned to some fate.

I liked Rooney’s exploration of the love “square” between Frances, her best friend and ex Bobbi, and the older married couple, Nick and Melissa. I found the messy but passionate understanding they all eventually reach to be hopeful and a more realistic, less idealized depiction of polyamory, and love in general: it’s hard, and there are no rules. I would definitely recommend this book.