REVIEW

EDITED BY BEN HELME AND SYED ZAID

Ali

Rachel Ponting's All-Time Best: Normal People by Sally Rooney

For my all-time best, I have chosen Sally Rooney’s 2018 novel, Normal People Capable of both bringing me to tears and making me rip my hair out in frustration, this novel has stuck with me in innumerable ways since I rst read e book follows the lives of Connell and Marianne, two students who navigate growing up, toxic relationships, and their feelings for each other. Rooney constructs painfully realistic moments between the two characters, whose relationship is threatened by miscommunications and insecurities. Despite this, the pair always nd their way back to each other as if magnetically attracted.

I found this novel heartbreaking, and I was le feeling numb for several days a er reading it. Rooney creates a beautifully raw story as she contrasts intimate emotions with blunt realities. Her sensitive depiction of the main characters’ coming-of-age experiences resonated with me and I’m sure struck a chord with many other

So, if you’re in the mood to have a good cry and have your brain chemistry

Firstly, the set and costume design really make you feel like you are back in the 1990s. e Crown has always managed to capture the mood of whichever decade it's in, but I think this is even more impressive since it can be easy to mess up more recent period pieces. Secondly, this season, just like the others, is bedazzled with star actors who give pleasing performances all around. I was particularly impressed by Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret and Dominic West as Prince Charles.

However, this season doesn’t have the same standout performances that previous ones did. While seasons 1 to 4 were lit up by the likes of Olivia Colman and Matt Smith, this season lacked such performances. is is partly because the characterisation within this season is just not as good; characters feel more like a caricature of themselves.

e Crown - Season 5

by JEREMY RICKETTS-HAGAN

Season 5 of e Crown premiered in a year of immense change for the Royal Family, and covers similarly turbulent times for them. Despite having some successes, the series falls short of expectations.

Finally, one key attraction of e Crown was that it gave life to relatively distant events in the national past that were lesser known or had been lost to time. ere is simply no way to do that for this season. It would be extremely di cult to nd a viewer of the show who did not know that (spoiler alert) Diana and Charles end up divorcing, as this has already been dissected by countless documentaries, TV shows and lms. So, there is little insight that this season can o er, and the writers fail to nd a solution to this.

us, e Crown manages to excite in its usual way, but fails to provide the insight that de ned its earlier seasons.

REVIEW Team's Top Songs of 2022

Members of the Review team and editorial board have each selected what they view as the best song of the year. Listen to the results below!