Review: Short & Sweet, but still with Meaning!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 20, 2013
For me, reading Normalish was kind of like eating chocolate. It was sweet, relatively short, and once I started, it's a difficult to stop! (I happen to like chocolate... a lot) Of course, afterwards I felt like I wanted a bit more...Of course, one look at the cover should tell you that the book should be sweet, maybe warm and fuzzy. In a way, it is. During the book, you follow the story of high school freshman Stacy York, who goes through the usual - parties, boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, best friends, ex-best friends, dances, sloppy kisses... you get the idea. Throughout her journey, her humor and sarcasm stands out, although there are times where she is just as vulnerable as any teenage girl could be. I should tell you there is a happy ending, which of course, was short, sweet, and satisfying for the end of the novel.That's not to say that Stacy didn't have her share of troubles, either. There was a darker side to the novel that dealt with dealing with death and her mentally ill sister. Surprisingly, I found that I eventually became attached to many of the characters, and when a certain character was forced to make a departure, my heart did hurt a little. Her voice during those times also stayed realistic, but still portrayed a certain degree of emotion. Eventually, I felt like I was able to connect with Stacy's character, and sympathize with or gleefully hope for her at the appropriate times.My one qualm about the novel was that some of the problems Stacy dealt with seemed a little skimmed over. For example, in the beginning you learn that Stacy becomes ex-best friends with Summer. but it seemed like Stacy was mostly nonchalant. It seemed like she was okay with it, since Summer was a social butterfly and was friends with everybody, but I suppose she didn't show a lot of emotion.And on a last note, I loved a lot of the side characters! Rose and Bethany were pretty awesome friends to Stacy, even if they weren't as close as they could have been. Becca, Roman, and Bobby were each also very unique characters, but their friendship and loyalty to Stacy were also clear. And her relationship with her Mom and sister Jill was pretty tight, and I'm glad that the author didn't rely on the reluctant and ignorant parent or sibling cliché.Overall, Normalish was enjoyable read for me because if its combination of sweetness, seriousness when appropriate, emotion, and characters! Contemporary fans of weekend-style books just talking about life in a comical but entertaining way may enjoy this novel (:*Thank you to Xpresso Book Tours & the author Margaret Lesh for providing me a review copy of this novel. In all discretion, I was also part of this book's blog tour. However, this did not change my opinion of the novel.*