“Becka’s acting strange, stranger than usual”

Normalish, by Margaret Lesh was a pretty good book. I really enjoyed it. It’s so strange how I JUST finished reading Perks of a Wall Flower and picked up this book. They are very much alike, and both outside of my usual reading realm. I have to say, between the two, I preferred this one.

Normalish follows a freshmen named Stacy as she copes with her fathers death, her sisters mental illness, and all the angst that comes with high school. The boy she sees as a friend wants to be more, and the boy she wants to go out with starts dating her best friend, leaving Stacy with no one to talk to about what she’s going through.

She falls back on her family. Her strange, wonderful family that eat Tofu turkeys, sushi, and tamales for Christmas dinner. Together they try to put their lives back together, and if they can’t ever get back to normal, then at least they know they’re normalish.

My favorite bit of the book was the boy at the mental institute, Bobby. I really enjoyed that entire subplot, heart wrenching as it was. I also love Stacy’s voice. I love how matter of fact she is, I don’t know why, but I like self-deprecating humor. Every time she called herself ridiculous, I smiled. The only complaint I had in the entire book was the way the Anthony situation was handled. I wanted more of a conversation, or at least that conversation to be public, but it was still awesome.

You can find out more about this book Margaret Lesh’s blog: http://www.margaretlesh.com/ and you can buy it in ebook stores everywhere.