Ordinary Love, Marie Rutkoski
As the Summer gets ever closer, I love reading immersive novels, especially those about families and relationships. Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski absolutely fits the bill, and having read that lots of people whose book opinions I trust love it, I was curious and wanted to read it for myself.
We first meet Emily and her husband Jack when they are about to split up; Emily is furious about how her husband has treated their son. There is a sense from the start that Emily’s seemingly picture perfect life with Jack has actually been anything but, and slowly his true nature is revealed through the book. Emily, her son Connor, and her daughter Stella leave the family home and Emily now has to navigate a new life as a single mother.
As the narrative moves backwards and forwards in time, we meet Emily in school as a teenager. When she connects with Gen Hall at track tryouts, their intense friendship quickly turns into love and eventually heartbreak.
Years later, when Emily meets Gen, now an Olympic athlete again at a party, Emily’s world is turned upside down and she knows she is still in love with her. Now it is up to both of them to decide whether they want to admit their feelings for each other or face the possibility of living without being in each other’s lives.
If, like me, novels that are character driven are what appeals to you, then Ordinary Love is absolutely for you. By the end of this novel, you feel that you know Gen and Emily so well that you are really part of their story. I would say that at times the detail and carefully chosen words in the prose meant that for me I wanted things to move on more quickly, but that’s just my impatience in wanting to know what would happen, as opposed to the writing.
Ordinary Love is compelling because Marie Rutkoski knows that this is Gen and Emily’s story and we are absolutely invested in what happens to them. The way in which the breakdown of a marriage and the abuse at the centre of it is depicted is absolutely heartbreaking, and in comparison Emily and Gen’s relationship is one of hope and authenticity. It is a novel about love, second chances and having the courage to put your self first to find the happiness you deserve.
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