Love Story vs Normal People: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: College students, Social classes, Romance, Fiction
Love Story
Oliver Barrett IV, a wealthy jock from a stuffy WASP family on his way to a Harvard degree and a career in law . . . Jenny Cavilleri, a sharp-tongued, working-class beauty studying music at Radcliffe . . . Opposites in…
1 film adaptation
vs
Normal People
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…
1 film adaptation
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Love Story is the quickest read — about 2 hours vs 5 for Normal People.
- Normal People has the widest readership — 1986467 ratings behind its score.
- Normal People runs the darker storyline; Love Story stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Love Story | Normal People | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.7 (65365) | 3.8 (1986467) |
| Hardcover | 3.5 (64) | 4.2 (2) |
| Google Books | 4.0 (18) | 3.0 (2) |
| Apple Books | 4.0 (19) | 4.0 (5617) |
Reception
| Love Story | Normal People | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 65365 | 1986467 |
| Editions | 30 | 27 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 29155 | 1341528 |
| Reading it now | 1271 | 75677 |
| Written reviews | 4105 | 203677 |
| Wikipedia attention | 3278 | 17627 |
| Pages | 131 | 309 |