Am I Normal Yet? Wow, what a title. A title that has your head buzzing with ideas from the start. It’s the ‘yet’ that got me. Little word, for sure, and one I hadn’t really thought about before. One little word signifying that whoever had said it felt that; firstly they did not presently consider themselves ‘normal’ and secondly that they were trying, perhaps desperately, to get to that point of being considered ‘normal’.
Moving up from high school to college is a tough time for anyone. The pressure is even more intense for narrator Evie as she is currently receiving treatment for her OCD. Readers will be gripped by the honesty, heartache and often hilarious plot twists that are played out wonderfully by author Holly Bourne.
The book soon blew away my own ignorance of OCD and made me think about other concepts such as the stigma of mental health and the Bechdel test – and often I found myself googling the themes and ideas that the characters were talking about. And that’s what I love about well-crafted stories; that they get that inquisitive spark going your brain to find out more.
By the end of the book and after rollercoaster ride involving first relationships, a revolving door of friends, parties, a terrible heavy metal band and a lot of fun you realise that there is no ‘yet’. Not for the main character of Evie, nor anyone else.