Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. Margaret annoyed me so much I couldn't wait for the book to be over.
There's so little time in my life, and so much I would be rather reading.

I was not able to finish the novel. Unfortunately, it wasn't holding my interest like I hope it would. I believe that a book is made for it’s readers, and although this was not my cup of tea, I’m sure there is a reader out there who will enjoy this more than I did.

This unfortunately wasn’t for me. I don’t think I realized what it was when I requested. Margaret was annoying. I did appreciate how short it was

A fine, quick read. It felt a little surface to me. I wanted a little more depth and exploration of the various characters but I didn't have any problems per say. I felt like it captured teenagers well though. Like how everything feels so dire and how flexible and mercurial your emotions are during the time. I enjoyed that though. I read a lot of young adult fiction and i can definitely feel when the author hasn't taken the teen psyche into effect. and I just sit there and think the teenagers are just acting like little adults, like the only reason the characters are teenagers are so it can hit the young adult market but this felt like it was actually about teenagers and I enjoyed that aspect. I respect that.

I received a free copy of this book through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and feelings are my own.

I hate to give a book such a low review, but I just could not find anything I enjoyed with this book.

It takes place during the 1960s, although the only mention of the time period was the Vietnam War on the news every night. Just one line.

The three main characters felt so juvenile. They were juniors in high school, but their speech made them seem much younger. They were really one dimensional and just had no oomph.

SPOILERS HERE — I really took issue with the ending of the book. When Teddy came out as “queer” it just rubbed me the wrong way. I guess the wording. Then when Margaret begged him to let her tell her friends, and he finally relented. I mean, it’s his life. If he says not to tell , then DON’T TELL. Ugh.

The one good thing about this book was it was short. It only took about an hour and a half to read.

Unfortunately, I won’t be recommending this book. Sorry!

I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an hones5 review.

I actually enjoyed this book and I wasn’t sure that I would. There were a few surprising directions that the plot took and I think that’s what made me like it.
This is a story about a one year snapshot of 3, 17 year old girls in the 1960’s. It’s told from Margaret’s perspective after one of her best friends, Grace, give the girls goals for the year; get a job, find a boyfriend, and get a car. The girls set about accomplishing these goals in their own way and it makes for a good story.
The novel had its ups and downs with friendship, jealousy, relationships, and secrets. I found the dialogue a bit lacking for me. It didn’t flow quite so well, and it was bit stiff. Other than that, I’d read the next book in the series.

Truth is, despite the cover being absolutely gorgeous I'm very disappointed to say that there's nothing that amused me in this book. Both the plot and characters were very bland. It almost feels like nothing happened. Even the twist, if you can even call it that, was predictable. None of the characters stood out and everyone seemed to have a one dimensional personality. The writing was simple and straightforward, which was ok. A positive is the book did give off a 1960's feel.

With the small page count this book took me entirely too long to get through. I almost gave up and DNF'd it, but decided to struggle to the end because of the length.

I'm not sure I got what I expected from Whatever Normal Is. My expectations were: a book filled with friendship, family, and a little bit of romance. How those expectations were included in the book left some things to be desired.

First, the characters. Each more irritating and one-dimensional than the last. Margaret's desires to model? Her hopes and dreams? Not really mentioned past the synopsis. I found her to be immature and mildly selfish instead. Much of the tension stems from Margaret's agony over telling her best friend that the boy the friend likes called Margaret instead. The best friends are equally flat, to the point where I, a person who usually doesn't like side characters, was disappointed. Give me female friendships!! Give me well-rounded characters!! Give me dynamic friendships!! I didn't get those things.

The plot. Here's where I don't quite know what to say. I appreciated how slice-of-life the story was. Most things that happened to Margaret were believable for the average high school junior. Time with siblings, fights with friends, a little bit of romance. A lot of bones I have to pick with realistic fiction are about the realism. "Is this *actually* likely to happen? In the life of a *real* teen?" and whatnot. But then this wonderful normality started to turn into mundanity. At some point, slice of life has to be interesting. I have to be invested in the lives of the characters, and I just wasn't feeling it.

Lastly, we need to talk about the big twist. I didn't like it. I won't spoil anything (honestly, you could probably guess it, but still), but I don't think the book was prepared to dive into the consequences of this reveal beyond your basic "have compassion, be kind to other people and their lives" and that really disappointed me. Give me the learning, and the character development, and the sensitivity! I beg of you! Give it to me!

All in all, Whatever Normal Is gets 3 stars from me. Borrow it from your local library. It's a short read, and probably worth at least one try.

Truth is, the cover was so gorgeous that I was setting a pretty high expectation for this book. But I'm very disappointed to say that there's nothing that amused me in this book. The plot was very bland. It almost feels like nothing happened. Even the twist was predictable. None of the characters stands out and everyone seems to have only one dimension of personality. The writing was simple and straightforward (which I usually enjoy) but it was confusing most of the time. I don't even have any idea when is the time setup of this story and I only found out about that once I read the Goodreads synopsis.

Thank you Jane St. Anthony and University of Minnesota Press for giving me the eARC via NetGalley in exchange of honest review.

this was a cute book but it wasn't groundbreaking for me i thought it was similar to lots of other books that i've read before so I wasn't overly impressed with it, but again there was nothing really wrong with it. I will take it.

Whatever Normal Is tells Margaret's story. Margaret is 17 and has a dude into her. His name is Teddy and the problem is that her best friend, Grace, was into him. That's pretty much the plot.

I'm going to be honest and tell you that the only thing I liked about this book was how short it was, only 149 pages.
I couldn't stand the main character, I found her incredibly annoying, immature and one dimensional. Her friends, especially Grace, were just as annoying and lacked depth.
The worst character, though, was Teddy. The story started by him harassing her, following her, showing up at her house and when she said she wasn't interested, he told someone that she was playing hard to get. When Margaret caved and went to eat with him, she started to like him because he liked to read, and then, introduced him to her parents right after. I forgot to mention that this was set in the 60's though you have to read the synopsis to know that because it's not mentioned anywhere in the book. Anyway, the big twist of the book happens about 85% in, when Margaret is questioning whether Teddy loves her after they've been together for months, because they barely did anything but peck. So when she practically jumps at him and makes out with him, he admits that he's "queer."
First of all, I did a quick research and Queer wasn't used to say "homosexual" in the 60's, it was a slur meant for trans and gender-nonconforming people. Also, WTF? He starts this relationship by stalking and harassing and surprise! he's gay! That feels so fucking wrong. Everything about this book felt wrong tbh. Things even went downhill from there...
I didn't like the writing style either, it felt amateurish?
Oh I should also mention that this was the forth book in a series but I didn't know that before requesting on Netgalley and I don't think reading the other books would have made me see this book differently. I don't know what else to write about this so that's it.

Set some time in the 1960s, Whatever normal is is a story about three best friends Margaret, Grace and Isabelle who want to spice up their lives before finishing high school. They have three big goals-

1. Get a job.
2. Get a boyfriend.
3. Get a driver’s license

When Teddy, a boy Grace works with and has a miniature crush on, asks out Margaret instead, things start to get a little complicated and it’s just the beginning.

Well, to begin with, the three best friends are annoying as hell. I did not like any of them, especially Margaret who is the main protagonist. They hardly go through any character development throughout the story and are as flat as a freshly pressed bed spread.

The story hardly develops as well. It is very static and lacks elements to grab your attention. The writing is pretty standard and I could not connect much. The ‘plot twist’ comes at around 87% (kindle) and I actually figured it out quite earlier so that spoiled the fun. It was a pretty short read and I managed to finish it in two lectures (3 hours in total).

Esse livro foi uma tristeza sem precedentes.
Vamos começar com falando das três personagens: Margareth, Grace e Isabelle. As três são adolescentes de 17 anos, estão terminando o ensino médio, e elas têm três objetivos a conquistar: ter um emprego, um carro, um namorado. Acho que essas três coisas, na adolescência, é o que quase todos querem, porém com essas três coisas vem também outras coisas, como: o primeiro namoro que não dá certo, a autodescoberta, o primeiro emprego que não dura.
(Tô usando muito dois pontos, ignorem.)
Como o livro é narrado na terceira pessoa, não dá pra saber muito o que a personagem principal (Margareth) pensa, mas é bem nítido, com o decorrer da leitura, que ela se deixa levar pelas opiniões das duas amigas, sem levar em consideração o que ela quer fazer. Eu já estava com raiva dela pensar o que as amigas delas falariam ou pensariam caso ela fizesse alguma coisa para si, como se a vida girasse em torno da Grace e da Isabelle.
Quando a Grace aparecia, eu queria rolar o meus olhos em 360° graus, porque pense numa garota chata e birrenta, dizendo coisas sem noção. Grace é como muitas pessoas que existem no mundo: pensam que só a opinião deles que importa. Chato, chato, chato. A objetividade da Grace em falar as coisas vinha sempre carregada de uma dose de arrogância. Quem aguenta isso?
Diferente das duas, a Isabelle é mais na dela, sempre querendo apaziguar os estranhamentos entre a Margareth e a Grace. Gostei mais dela do que das outras duas, e é apenas isso o que tenho para falar sobre ela.

O intuito da autora era criar uma atmosfera dos 1960 de Minneapolis, mas eu não senti isso. Se você não ler a sinopse, parece que você está lendo um livro que se passa nos dias de hoje, mas, claro, com adolescentes sem celular. Se a autora tivesse escrito um livro maior, criando mais cenas que mostrassem que o livro é ambientando nos 1960, acho que seria melhor. E sem falar que na sinopse, a Margareth é descrita como uma garota que ama os Beatles, porém ela nem fala desse amor da personagem pela banda.

O que mais me chamou atenção no livro foi um personagem dizendo para a Margareth que é gay. Isso é o ápice do livro, mas deixa a desejar quando a sexualidade do mesmo não é abordada de forma mais abrangente na história. O único diálogo que a Margareth tem sobre sexualidade é com a Mãe, porém foi tão vago.

This was a roller coaster kind of read for me—the plot twist (at least, the one that appeared to me as such) came at 85% of the book. I do feel like those who would like to read what it's like to come of age, especially about being queer, in the US during the 60s would relate a little better. Sometimes, books don't work as well for some readers. I still wish the author the best!

I loved the idea of Minneapolis in the 1960’s, with friends Margaret, Grace and Isabelle as they navigate relationships. I thought that I would have liked this story a bit better, but maybe it wasn’t the book for me. Thank you netgalley and Jane St Anthony for this arc!

Unique writing and story that kept me interested. A story that had me wanting to read more. Relatable characters and a good flow. Would recommend!

Before starting this review I have to say: I had no idea this book was part of a series until after I read it.
Anyways,
This was a light fluffy read, and I did enjoy it to some extent, but at the same time, I had some issues with it.

Whatever Normal Is, is a story about three best friends who decide that the summer shouldn't get through without them achieving 3 important things (What are they one may ask? Well read to find out) and we follow one of them, Margaret's, as she goes through this journey.

The characters were interesting to a certain extent, but they were so childish; most of the time I felt like I was reading about a bunch of 12 y.o rather than 17 y.o and above.

I think the writing style needs a bit of work. I liked how simple and straight to the point it was, but as I was reading I kept getting confused as to who said what and what exactly happened and so on.

I was also so confused about when was the book set, since there was no mention of the time at all throughout the whole book. I only realised it was set in the 1960s when I read the Goodreads synopsis.

Overall, it was quite a light read.

First of all, I didn't know this was part of a series. I don't know if it influenced my opinions because of this. This was a really quick read, but it all felt a little simplistic and childish to me. It was more like I was reading about a 12-year-old then about a 17-year-old. Unfortunately, this story didn't really do anything for me.