Review: Am I Normal Yet?
18:20
By Holly Bourne
Source: e-book
Page count: 434
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Romance,
Goodreads Synopsis:
All Evie wants is to be normal. She’s almost off her meds and at a new college where no one knows her as the girl-who-went-crazy. She’s even going to parties and making friends. There’s only one thing left to tick off her list...
But relationships are messy – especially relationships with teenage guys. They can make any girl feel like they’re going mad. And if Evie can’t even tell her new friends Amber and Lottie the truth about herself, how will she cope when she falls in love?
My review:
As soon as I heard that Holly Bourne had a new book coming out, I knew I had to have it. I pre-ordered it on my kindle, and even payed for wifi when I knew I was going to be away (it wouldn’t deliver until I was connected to the internet). I think it’s fair to say that I anticipated this book to be amazing!
Thankfully it was everything I hoped it to be. Not only was it a harshly accurate representation of mental-illness, it had themes of friendships and loyalty, which made the book for me. It made the book lighter (and less intense), so I was able to enjoy it much more.
The thing that let the book down for me were the bits on feminism. Not only were they unrealistic (what group of friends randomly starts talking about all these issues?), the ideas discussed were unoriginal. The reason I feel this way may be because of the strong opinions from Tumblr, so I’m open to new ideas that most people haven’t thought about. Though I am still very pleased to see an author include this (more than any book I’ve read before), I would have preferred for them to be more daring and that pushes more boundaries - things I’ve never even thought about before.
Evie’s mental illness and the parts about OCD made this book more original. All other books I’ve read about mental illness glossed over the gritty parts, only to focus on romance or something that readers would be ‘more interested in’. This book definitely did not do that. It exposed the reality of OCD, and was dealt with extremely well. It is a real eye-opener, so I’d recommend this book to everyone who doesn’t have much experience in the topic.
I already liked Holly Bourne as a writer, and this book has just made me love her even more. All of her books are on very important issues, so teach me something from reading them (but not in an annoying school-book way). Not only are they enjoyable, they tackle important and relevant issues, and I recommend her to everyone (especially this book).
My rating:
Hello! I'm D - a dog-loving feminist from the UK. You'll probably find me with my nose in a book or playing my clarinet
2 comments
I don't think I've ever heard of this author, but she sounds really cool. I'm all about equality although I don't generally read too much of the topic. Never come across or thought about reading something with feminism. Maybe I'll pick it up! Sounds interesting. Followed you on bloglovin and awesome review!
ReplyDeleteShe is really good - I'd recommend all of her books, but especially this one. The physical copy is really cool too... I think I'm a little bit in love with the yellow spine! Thanks for the comment and follow - I'll be sure to follow you back :)
DeleteThanks for commenting! I read and respond to every comment, so make sure to check back to see my reply. Have a nice day! ☺♥