Conversations With Friends vs Normal People: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Dublin, College students, Coming-of-age, Romance & Relationships, Fiction
Conversations With Friends
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Frances is a coolheaded and darkly observant young woman, vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. Her best friend is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance…
Normal People
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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…
Side by side
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Normal People has the widest readership — 1986467 ratings behind its score.
- Normal People runs the darker storyline; Conversations With Friends stays the lighter read.
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How to choose
Scores by source
| Conversations With Friends | Normal People | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.7 (630020) | 3.8 (1986467) |
| Hardcover | 3.6 (584) | 4.2 (2) |
| Google Books | 4.0 (1) | 3.0 (2) |
| Apple Books | 4.0 (1711) | 4.0 (5617) |
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Reception
| Conversations With Friends | Normal People | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 630020 | 1986467 |
| Editions | 16 | 27 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 1341528 |
| Reading it now | — | 75677 |
| Written reviews | — | 203677 |
| Wikipedia attention | 6555 | 17627 |
| Pages | 315 | 309 |
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Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: Conversations With Friends or Normal People?
Normal People has the higher combined reader rating across sources (Normal People 3.8/5, Conversations With Friends 3.7/5).
Which is shorter to read: Conversations With Friends or Normal People?
Normal People is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: Normal People (309 pages, ≈ 5 h 43 m); Conversations With Friends (315 pages, ≈ 5 h 50 m).
Which is harder to read: Conversations With Friends or Normal People?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — Conversations With Friends: Moderate; Normal People: Moderate.
Have both books been made into films?
Conversations With Friends: 1 film adaptation; Normal People: 1 film adaptation.