As long as you have green eyes and a ‘crooked grin’ you can be as creepy as you like. Girls are totally double standardy. You get all het up if we dare to judge you on appearances. But then you do exactly the same to us.” The main love interest did, like, at least 2 speeches on how rough it is to be a “nice guy” and my butthole clenched each and every time without fail. Fitting that his name is , I kid you not, “Kyle”. I get what Holly Bourne tried to do here and I appreciate it, but I think that ship is sailed for me. Holly Bourne is hugely popular with the young adult audience. The second instalment in her Normal series tells Amber's story of first love, friendship and addiction. --The Sunday Express Wow! Am I Normal Yet by Holly Bourne slammed me to the ground with all the feels. It broke my heart, made me roar with laughter, made me determined to fight more about feminist issues and most of all enlightened me about OCD.

The main character Evie has OCD. She just wants to be normal. She goes to college (16 years old, UK system) and meets 2 new friends Lottie and Amber. They form the spinster club in which they discuss feminism. one of my favourite things was how the author gave us an insight into evie's mind. she gives things titles like "bad thought" and it'll describe the actual feelings shes going through The characters all felt very real! The family dynamics, the side characters were all well developed and I loved the main protagonist. She went through such amazing growth! Because now people use the phrase OCD to describe minor personality quirks. "Oooh, I like my pens in a line, I'm so OCD."So this book is pretty different from the mental health contemporaries I had read previously because it's split evenly between a story about romance/boy troubles and Evie's OCD. They are intertwined together and combined with a message on feminism. It was just sad to have to sift through the teenage girl rants about boys to get to the good stuff. It hindered my enjoyment of the characters and overall message, I ended up being completely unimpressed with every one of the characters. I appreciated the main character in parts, but for the majority, she missed the mark. Too many teenage cliches masquerading themselves as 'self-aware' teenage girls. it was really enlightening and i thought it portrayed how mental illness can literally take control of your mind and actions so well The characters were so fun and realistic. Evie's best friends, Amber and Lottie are great characters and I loved the interactions between these three. They have a great friendship. They discuss everything together, from gossip to actual deep things. That is the girl friendship I want to see more of!

Lottie’s face was read, and she punched the air. “It won’t make the world change for the better! It won’t make me change for the better. I won’t grow, if I just accept what’s what. The world won’t grow. The same unfair shit will just keep happening, and yes it’s easier to roll over and say, ‘That’s too hard and annoying, I just want to eat some pie’ but it’s not the right thing…” This book definitely found a place in my heart and I now need to go and read the rest in the series, and her other books. If you love a little bit of cheesy highschool romance I think you will love this but also if you like books that allow you to almost submerge yourself in the role of the character this very much does so. I now feel the need to run away to America to explore more, the little road trips in this book just sounded so gorgeous. Bourne talks about feminism so openly and truthfully in her books and if you ever doubted the intelligence, ability or passion of teenage girls read her books and you never will again. --Muchbooks reader review on Guardian Children's Books

Check-In

I know I'm a little late to the Holly Bourne party, and I'm sorry about that. After reading spectacular book, I definitely need more of her books! I definitely need to support more UKYA authors, and Holly is perfect for this. i was really worried where it was headed but towards the end, i began to appreciate how the author played it out bc it made it have a much greater impact This topic is also well discussed in the story - what the word “normal” implies and its consequences.

Het geeft die tweestrijd goed aan die je soms voelt: niet als lustobject behandeld willen worden, maar over die knappe man toch ook even zo denken ;) Dat is erg goed gedaan, hoe moeilijk het is om in onze huidige maatschappij je standpunt te vinden over dit soort situaties. Want aan alle situaties zitten meerdere kanten en verhalen en hoe kies je nou waar je staat? Am I Normal Yet? is a very good book and I loved it. I loved seeing myself represented and it will definitely help me when it comes to my anxiety and OCDs. However, I wish the feminism talked about in this book was intersectional and didn’t exclude anyone, nor made anyone feel bad for talking about men. Yes, women are more than just lovers, mothers or wives, but it doesn’t give anyone the right to shade someone else for liking another person or even dating. Judging is never the key, and your feminism should always include everyone in it. I charged Amber with the crime of not being Evie at the beginning of this review. She’s guilty of it—but that’s a good thing, right? Nothing is worse than an author who can’t write characters with unique voices. So it’s good that Bourne can write more than one UK teenager. Obviously, since Amber doesn’t share Evie’s anxiety and compulsiveness, she is more whimsical in how she behaves. She drinks and generally gets up into mischief … yet, paradoxically, there is steel beneath this carefree exterior. Amber is afraid of losing control as a result of her experiences with her mother.She appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2018, alongside author Cat Clarke, discussing her book Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes?, mental health, and resolve. [12] The event was chaired by author Alex Nye. [13]