Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an e-ARC of this novel. All opinions are my own.

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. It really needed one more round of editing to make the characters more relatable. I found myself not caring about any of them by the end of the novel. I loved the disability rep and chronic illness rep, but it's not necessarily the first novel I'd recommend to someone.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an advanced e-copy of Ellie Haycock is Totally Normal by Gretchen Schreiber.

Ellie Haycock is just your normal, everyday average teenager who spends time hanging out with her friends, texting her boyfriend, and competing with the high school debate team….except when she’s not. Ellie lives a divided life - one at home, and one at the hospital where she is frequently treated for complications due to a rare genetic disorder. She is determined to keep these two worlds separate, in spite of her hospital best friend encouraging her to be honest with her “home” friends, She lives in fear of the ever-threatening possibility that her mom’s very personal blog about Ellie’s disability will be discovered by her friends and they will no longer want to be a part of her life.

When Ellie develops a cough that will not go away, her and her mom make the trek to the specialty hospital to meet with Ellie’s doctors to plan a course of treatment. During this visit, however, Ellie connects with a new group of friends who challenge her to embrace her life and trust that the people around her have her best interest at heart. These relationships begin to help Ellie understand that a normal life might not be all it’s cracked up to be.

It is a bit hard from me to rate this book because I have no frame of reference as to how Ellie feels, however, the author does have personal experience. Additionally, I think, as I get older, I may not be the best judge of YA fiction. Schreiber has created a remarkable hospital friend group for Ellie who are a ray of sunshine. Again, it is hard for me to determine if Ellie’s feelings and thoughts are overly whiny and angry, or justified because of her disability, but I did feel sorry for both sets of friends who she often takes for granted. This might be a good book for a young teenager who is dealing with an illness and feels misunderstood by doctors, parents, and friends. I think at the heart of it, Schreiber has written Ellie’s character so the reader can easily see how out-of-control someone might feel when coping with a debilitating illness.

This book is incredibly necessary for the chronically ill community. This is the perfect representation of what life feels like as a chronically ill person. I do not know of any books that show what it feels like to the depth that this book does. It will be incredibly important for teenagers growing up and not understanding their bodies to read this and say hey there’s someone else going through what I’m going through. It’s super important to read and I love that it is also a romance on top of tackling how blogging about young kids damages them. Absolutely a must read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of Ellie Haycock is Totally Normal by Gretchen Schreiber in exchange for my honest reviews and opinion. This is an interesting YA read by an author I have not read before. I enjoyed it but felt like I was a bit too old for it. Cute cover.

Rounded up from 3.75⭐️.

I usually don't gravitate towards YA books, but the plot of this one was intriguing enough for me to read it. Overall I enjoyed this story and would recommend it, will probably buy it for my niece once she's a little older.

Ellie Haycock is totally normal....right? I mean, lots of teenagers spend tons of time at the hospital. It's sooooo normal. But....it's not. And that's why Ellie is absolutely determined to keep her hospital life and her "real" life completely separate. Tired of being poked, prodded, and posted about all over the Internet, the hospital is something she tolerates until one way or another, she no longer has to. Until she meets Ryan. A fellow patient, he's not loving the hospital much more than Ellie is. Along with Ryan and some new friends, Ellie starts to realize that maybe her life is almost, maybe, well actually not even close to totally normal - and maybe that's okay. Maybe that's even better than okay.

Super adorable quick YA read, I would recommend to anyone who needs a heartwarming reminder to smile.

This will definitely be on the purchase list for my high school library. Loved the representation of difficult topics, especially finding love when you have a physical disability.

Thank you to the publishers for my review copy of ELLIE HAYCOCK IS TOTALLY NORMAL.

I appreciate that the author told a story based on her own personal experience with disability, surgery, and ableism, but the finished product didn’t work for me. As I continue to ponder and digest the book, many aspects of the story and even the phrasing used makes me feel like the author hasn’t really reckoned with her own internalized ableism and is still trying to play by an ableist society’s rules rather than upending the status quo.

I’ve seen quite a few negative reviews calling Ellie selfish, stubborn, and unlikeable but that’s not the problem I had with this book. I get that she’s inconsistent and lashes out at times, but considering 1.) she’s dealing with a painful illness that no one can explain, 2.) her doctors aren’t taking her seriously, 3.) she’s had years and years of medical trauma, 4.) her parents aren’t respecting her wishes or allowing her to make decisions about her own medical care, and 5.) she’s treated like a zoo animal whenever she’s in public because of her physical disabilities, I think she had every right to be angry, prickly, and “unlikeable”. Heck, if I was in her situation I would be 200% more emotional and unhinged!

As I read more reviews, I’m starting to feel genuinely worried about people’s lack of empathy. My issue with the book was not with Ellie’s anger, hurt, or trauma, but the way the author seemed to try and paper over all of that in favor of a narrative that says the only person who can “fix” you is you… (This is a direct paraphrase from pg. 284 of the ebook edition.)

I don’t want to dismiss how important it is for you to accept and love yourself. For you to prioritize your healing and make good choices. But you also need things like medical care and community support! You deserve to be respected as a three dimensional human being! You can pull yourself up by the bootstraps all you like, but if you’re facing systemic discrimination/ableism, and no one takes you seriously, you will not be able to “fix” anything.

I felt like it was the other characters who needed more of a reckoning than Ellie… The character development felt uneven and inconsistent. At times, it seemed like they were just a mouthpiece for the author’s message. And to be honest I found that message leaning too close to toxic positivity for my taste. Yes, I do think Ellie needed to be honest with her friends and stop hiding her illness. I do think she needed to embrace her identity and take a larger role in her medical journey. But I felt like the book did us all a disservice by not acknowledging and holding more space for how hard it is to be chronically ill and how hard it is to navigate an ableist world. It’s hard to let people in when you’ve been hurt over and over again! I want to honor the hope in this story, but I think we also have to acknowledge grief and suffering at the same time.

I appreciated the book shining a light on the problems with “special needs mommy bloggers” but Ellie’s conflict with her mom felt like it was wrapped up too easily. The pacing was inconsistent and just as I felt like we were finally starting to get some real development and reckoning, the book ended with a neat little bow. I felt like Ellie’s trauma and mental health were ignored in favor of making a story that was palatable to a non-disabled audience.

I know that no one wants to read or write about COVID, but its absence in this story felt like a gaping black hole that couldn’t be ignored. Ellie’s disability is specifically related to her lungs and she spend the entire book with a mysterious cough. It’s finally decided that she must be extra sensitive to respiratory illness and poor air quality… But there’s no mention of masking. One of the side characters has cancer and is depicted as wearing a medical mask… But Ellie or her friends never mask for him. The story never delves into the actual reality of cancer patients.

I know that this book was based on the author’s experience as a teen which I’m guessing was at least 12 to 14 years ago but this book was published in 2024. Readers, especially chronically ill teens, deserve a book that truly depicts the issues of our time rather than sugar coating it all.

I’m still grappling with this book and the emotions it brought out in me. There are pieces that I connected with and parts that moved me, but overall it felt rang hollow for me and I can’t recommend it.

Instead, if you’re looking for a book about disabled teens falling in love in a hospital, I would recommend SICK KIDS IN LOVE by Hannah Moskowitz. If you’re looking for a book about a disabled teen trying to hide her disabilities, I would recommend CONDITIONS OF A HEART by Bethany Mangle.

I tried to enjoy this title, but I found the characterization to be unrealistic and I swiftly lost interest.

Fantastic debut by Gretchen Schreiber! Loved the story and characters and overall well written and researched.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this review copy and the opportunity !

This was a great book that i really enjoyed reading

Eleanor Hancock in a teenager who just wants to be normal. Instead she has two separate lives. One at her home school where she has friends, a boyfriend, and is involved with debate/speech competitions, and one where she spends weeks/months in the hospital dealing with her complex medical issues while her mom blogs about her life.

Positives:
I felt the book was very real and portrayed what it would be like to be a medical complex teenager who just wants to live a normal life.
The friends Ellie has at the family stay house during her hospital stay were likeable and added to the storyline.
The plot of the Mother's blog was well done because as a reader I could see both sides.
Satisying ending

Negatives:
Ellie was her own worst enemy at times, but I guess that probably portrays a teenager pretty well.

As a high school teacher I try to read at least one YA novel a month. This is one I would definitely recommend to students.

Gretchen Schreiber's Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal is a poignant and relatable coming-of-age story that delves into the complexities of living with a chronic illness. Schreiber navigates Ellie's entire identity with subtlety and nuance sometimes missing in this genre. While the novel can be emotionally intense at times, it ultimately offers a message of hope and resilience.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me.

A chronically ill take on the classic coming of age story. I really enjoyed this story - especially the whole subplot with her mom’s blog. I think that’s something we’re going to see a lot of in the future. This book was so full of purely teenager experiences, but with the twist that the main character has a chronic illness. The characters are all so lovely and full of heart, I just had a great time reading this book!

I had to DNF this because I just could not get into it. I thought the medical aspect of it was very intriguing, but the romance was lacking for me personally.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for providing me this Digital Advanced Readers Copy of the book!

The Breakfast Club meets Five Feet Apart in this big-hearted novel from debut author Gretchen Schreiber.


Thank you Wednesday Books, Macmillan Audio & Netgalley for sending me a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was reading this book and I decided to DNF it at 63%. This book is written from the perspective of Ellie Haycock and I don’t like her. I don’t want to spend any more time inside her head.

The author prefaces the book by informing the reader that the story reflects a personal journey and the reader gets a very clear sense of this throughout.
While thinking about how I was going to review this book, I asked myself if I was qualified to do this. How do you review a story about a disorder that you know nothing about or an experience that you could not personally relate to? Here it goes.
Ellie goes through a considerable amount of character growth with respect to the overall experience that she is going through in this story. She is exhibiting symptoms without any apparent reason, but that could be related to her disorder. Having been in and out of the hospital her entire life, she decided it was best that she keep her in and out of hospital lives separate, and that includes the friendships in both. She has her reasons and the reader can relate to that. I found the book very informative on VACTERLs and the lives of people that spend a lot of time within the medical system. I could understand why Ellie would want to keep her lives separate (she does have valid reasons), but I could also see how it was increasingly causing problems that could have been resolved with more open communication. The friendships that she has, and the new ones she makes, are what really make the story enjoyable and the heavy subject matter easier to take in.
Ellie learns how to stand her ground and figure out what she wants out of life. I think this story has a lot to offer, even to people that don’t live with any disorder. It fits in well with other coming of age stories that I have read. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys those types of stories or anyone that would like to explore some of the other themes that I have brought up.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an e-arc of the book. The opinions expressed are honest and my own.

This book was just okay for me. It definitely felt more YA, but has been advertised as okay for middle school. The cover makes it seem like the book will be happy and humorous. It definitely is not. My readers often judge a book by its cover and I think a lot will pick it up thinking it is a light read, when it is quite serious.

This was a great book overall, but I couldn't always connect to Ellie's character. She was so angry a lot of the time and sometimes annoyed me, and while I definitely felt for her, it was just hard to always root for her. Still, I'm so glad a book like this exists for more kids to be able to see themselves in books, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to read it.

(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change upon final publication.)