Am I Normal Yet? (The Normal Series)

This book can be quite intense at times and covers some important issues, but mostly mental illness and how difficult it is for a young person to cope with illness, yet fit in with friends, relationships and family. As I read this book at the same time as Aspen, by Rebecca Crane, much mirrored each other, two close friends, seeing a therapist and struggling to find a meaningful intimate relationship. It was indeed confusing, but then this book went off on a far more serious track and the OCD portrayed by the heroine can be quite confronting at times. This is the first in a series of four books I believe about a spinsters club, young women discovering feminism and the issues they face daily.Recommended, but be ready to be confronted by the affects of mental illness on young people.

I love how the author brought together mental health issues and sexism in a relatable context! very interesting book! I'm now hooked don the series!

Funny and engrossing. Like a really good teenage rom com, but one that teaches you something and has an important message too. Wish I could have read this when I was 16!

If I could suggest a contemporary book to every young adult (regular reader or not), it would be this one. I am so grateful for this book, as it restored my faith in the genre. It's not all fluff and drama, real life is not like that and this book does not portray nor promote an unrealistic image of life, which I've found many contemporary books to be guilty of.In this novel we follow Evie, a teenager living in England and struggling with OCD. Early on we are also intoduced to Amber and Lottie, whose stories we follow in the next two novels to this companion trilogy respectively. Personally, I found the girls' friendship a little too easy to come about, too efforrtlesss. However, I really liked the bond formed between the three friends, whose characters are not necessarily similar but definitely compatible.Evie's worries and troubles brought back memories of my teenage years, a time when all problems feel so powerful and all consuming. Imagining how all my experiences would feel like whilst having to deal with a mental heath issue, a matter that haunts one's existence but is out of their control, that mars every desicion, leads to spiraling thoughs (John Gren reference) and veils their whole lives, was eye opening and offered a great sense of perspective. Evie's insecurities, self-doubt, hardship and struggles are very relateable, but her point of view is just so raw, to an extend that this felt like an own-voices novel, which I do not think this book is (if anyone knows different, please let me know).Although this is mainly a character-driven book, the advancement of the plot and the turn of events was more than satisfying for me and maintained my level of enjoyment throughout.All in all, I really appreciate the educational value of this book and would highly recommend it (I'm honestly surprised how it hasn't got more hype surrounding it). To be honest, the title alone is convincing enough to pick it up. I mean, who hasn't thought that at least once in their lifetime?

There are three major things that I like about Am I Normal Yet by Holly Bourne:1. It is a fun, easy, and fast read.2. A book that will make you feel like you are playing the main protagonist. Like, whatever is going on in her head, is also going on in my head.3. It talks about important issues.The main protagonist, Evie, is a teenage girl suffering from a mental illness, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. She was tired of getting called the “crazy girl” back in high school, so, now that she’s going college, she wants to live a normal life. So, she decided to hide her OCD from the friends she’ll soon meet.I wasn’t really sure what to expect before reading this book, because honestly, it’s not in my TBR until I got my copy. I don’t usually read synopsis when choosing a book, which is probably weird (lol), but just like that, I dived into this without any idea of what it’s all about.Considering the sensitive topics that are addressed into this book, which also turned some events in serious situations, Holly Bourne still managed to add fun and humor into the story, overall. I don’t think I got bored in any way, because I just kept going. The fun parts were always when Evie is together with her friends Amber and Lotte – whom you’ll see in the next books in the series.Holly Bourne’s writing is also very easy to absorb. I also already mentioned how reading this feels like I’m inside the head of Evie. Holly Bourne manage to pull me. When Evie is experiencing panic-attacks, it’s as if I am also experiencing the same thing in the real world. Which is the thing about this book! It is realistic.You’ve probably heard about people say stuff like “I’m feeling OC.” Or in the cases of bookworms, when we own a book series that are not in the same height or formats, we get anxious. I am guilty of that! I sometimes use that expression, or rather, I sometimes misuse the term.The thing here in Am I Normal Yet is the “more serious” case of OCD. The real thing. This book is an eye-opener about OCD. Many people use the term OCD as a means of expression, when they feel like, or when they see people arranging, or organizing things – a stereotype about OCD. People often think that individuals suffering from this disorder are just those being extremely neat, or organized. Which can be the case, but there’s certainly more than just being a neat freak.Reading in Evie’s voice, made me realize how hard it is to suffer from mental illness. Not just OCD, but all kinds of mental health disorders – anxiety, depression, etc.I may not be someone knowledgeable about mental disorders, but after reading this, it just felt like I somehow understand, at least a little. Your own mind is eating you. You are fighting against yourself.This book means a lot to me. As someone who has a family member diagnosed with depression, I think people should read this book to further understand mental health disorder. Or at least, read more books that talks about issues like this – to be aware of what’s going on inside the head of an individual suffering from these kinds of mental disorders.If you are looking for a book that empowers women, and that talks about important topics like mental health awareness, this is the perfect book to pick.Holly Bourne deserves an award for her amazing portrayal of what a real OCD is. Read this book now!

"Being a woman, in this world, ultimately makes you crazy"* * * *4 / 5I was tentative about reading Am I Normal Yet? because I'd recently read Under Rose-Tainted Skies, another book with a main character with OCD and a heavy romance focus, and hadn't really enjoyed it. Fortunately, I enjoyed Am I Normal Yet? a heck of a lot more. It's thoughtful and happy and very teen girl, but also serious and made me cry."Can't I just never have bad thoughts? Can't they just go away forever?" And, for once, there was a bit of sympathy in her eyes. Because that wasn't going to happen.Evelyn Crane is getting better. She meets her therapist once a week, finally cuts her worries list down to a single page, and is lowering her medication for OCD and anxiety. She's made two new friends, Lottie and Amber, who don't know her as "that girl that went crazy", and men are starting to find her attractive. She's losing her best friend Jane to her boyfriend Joel, who plays in a terrible heavy rock band, and goes on a string of terrible dates with Ethan, Oli, and Guy, whilst her therapist warns her about the complex difficulties that dating will bring to her life."As I said before - mental illness, we sure as hell know the words for it, but we still can't have sympathy with the actual behaviour"Evie is a great character. She's likeable and realistic and I just found myself rooting her on throughout the book; yeah, sometimes she makes stupid decisions, particularly about boys, but what sixteen year old girl hasn't made decisions she regrets? Getting way too drunk at a party? Most of us have been there. Fancying a boy you know is bad for you? Done it. Even when Evie irritated me, she felt like an actual person. The secondary characters are pretty good too. The main trio is Evie, Lottie, a super smart girl who's life mostly consists of boys and feminism, and Amber. Lottie is better developed than Amber, who's a bit plain, but I really enjoyed the way the friendship between the three was developed and how the girls all had their own flaws.I really enjoyed the style this book is written in, though it's very Young Adult which won't appeal to everyone. It's a very strong first person and you are completely inside Evie's head, which can get pretty intense at times. Then there's little headings like "Bad thought" that gives a more visual idea of what living with OCD is like. There's also lots of relevant feminist ideas woven throughout the book; mostly, this is well done but sometimes it does feel a little bit too rammed in your face."Ethan. You're not a sex addict. You're just a sixteen-year-old boy."Am I Normal Yet? tries to tackle a lot. There's dating, relationships, friendships, Evie's relationship with her family, particularly her sister, drugs, alcohol, feminism, all on top of Evie and her OCD, the main focus of the book. Whilst I admire Bourne for trying to address so much, it does make the book feel quite heavy and a bit confused sometimes, which is why this is not a five star read. I found I got a little bored in the middle when the focus was almost entirely on various romances.Overall, Am I Normal Yet? is a great look at a teenage girl navigating her life whilst living with OCD. It made me laugh and cry and laugh whilst crying. It's full of so many insightful comments about life, dating, and people's attitudes towards mental health. I'm definitely going to read the other books.

I finally gave in and read a Holly Bourne book because they were all 99p over on Kindle and everyone kept telling me how good the series was, so I finally read one. And I didn't hate it. But I didn't love it.I liked Evie and I thought the mental health representation was done really well with her; there were so many times I wanted to shake her and tell her to tell her friends what was going on, but I could fully understand also why she wasn't saying and why she didn't feel able to. It was such a difficult position because you're half shouting at her and half completely sympathising with her.I also really enjoyed the female friendships in this book and loved that they were so central, but at the same time they did annoy me because they kept preaching about feminism and supporting each other, whilst the whole time pulling down the other girl because she's a bit obsessed with her boyfriend. I'm a bit tired of YA books having females turn against each other for "drama". Like you can't do both?? I found the Spinster Club quite embarrassing and cringe at times... it just felt so awkward and forced and didn't feel like it slotted into the book naturally. The girls personalities were also very similar.. in that everyone of them was obsessed with boys. Like that seemed to be the whole focus for each girl; which boy they wanted to get with, and if they weren't getting with boys they were obsessing over doing so.I really enjoyed some bits of this book and I like that it was funny and sarcastic, but I just wish there wasn't so much focus on pulling other girls down and focusing so much on boys. I would be tempted to read the rest of the series but i'm not in a rush to do so.

I have never read a book before which so perfectly captures what I'm feeling and how hard it is to love your life and present an outwardly normally persona.The descriptions of situations is so relatable. I have missed events being stuck in a bathroom that I physically cannot get out of. And have a hand washing routine a top surgeon would be proud of.I gave 4 stars and not 5 due to the YA slant which as an adult isn't the greatest but the story and characters were so believable. I cried so many times reading it. And I can't thank the author enough for having the courage to write it.I passed this book to 4 family members because this story puts into words what I am feeling but cannot say. And I wanted them to understand what it's really like.(I also loved the rant early on and I too get annoyed with people who flippantly announce they have OCD!)

I think this story sends out a really positive message for anyone who struggles with mental health. My sister has OCD and it was interesting reading about it from someone else’s point of view, and from what I know and have seen from my sister the author has really done her research. I think this story could help a lot of young people. The story isn’t all doom and gloom though I laughed a lot at some of the things the girls got up too and I can’t wait to see what the girls get up to next!

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…So goes the blurb for this fantastic book, set in contemporary England. Holly Bourne has gone from strength to strength with her last few books, but has topped herself here with this, the first in a series. And just as well, because the main characters in Am I Normal Yet? are among the most compelling that you could read in contemporary YA. We see the world that Evie inhabits through her own eyes, and written almost like a diary, along with personal goals and goals set by her therapist.Evie is determined to keep her OCD secret from her new friends, Lottie and Amber, and instead enjoy being just another ‘normal’ teenager, when in fact she discovers that all around her, everyone has their own issues. Evie makes all the silly mistakes associated with being a teenager, but through the three main characters, Holly Bourne lifts the story with some of the more intriguing personalities I’ve read recently.Her friends turn out to be brilliant feminists, trying to change perceptions left, right and centre and unapologetically so, and that is where this book excels, making it essential reading for teens, male and female. Evie learns about suffragettes and gender equality through her friends and through her own research and Bourne makes it interesting for the reader, as the girls discover their own strengths and possibilities.By the time the tension mounts in Evie’s life over love and a quest to be ‘normal,’ Bourne has totally hooked you in and wanting to read more about these incredible characters. Holly Bourne is breaking down barriers in mental health awareness and patriarchy. No mean feat.