An excellently written story that blends representation in a way we don't usually see it. Seamlessly woven own-voices with fiction I'd be happy to share/lend. Youth will see themselves and their friends in these pages--delightful.

This book was okay. I loved the idea of it. I loved Ellie’s friends.

I did not love Ellie. I can’t pretend to understand her situation but she definitely frustrated me?

Wouldn’t always recommend this story but if the right kid asked I would recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

Since the blurb and cover of this book are a little bit vague, I didn’t quite know what to expect from this book, but I ended up really enjoying it! It features a main character with a disability that I’d never heard of before and creates this very human story of a disabled teenage girl navigating being both of those things. Ultimately it’s a book where disabled people are able to just be people while also acknowledging the various roadblocks society puts in the way of that. On top of that, I think there’s an important thread going through it of faith in the medical system and those who are supposed to care for us. It’s also the story of a girl navigating friendships and crushes and coming of age along the way. The part of me that did speech and debate in high school kind of wishes that had been a bigger element that we got to see, but it was still fun to see realistic representation of it! Ultimately, I thought this was just a really good book in general while also giving us a nuanced story of life spent in hospitals, and a multifaceted main character trying to figure out what she wants in life and working to achieve that. It was well worth the read and I definitely recommend it!

While I really enjoyed this one, let me just say the cover is entirely misleading. The cover says cute ya romance not angsty ya found family story with a subplot of romance. It didn't affect my review of the plot but it did make it very jarring to start reading expecting one thing tone wise and getting another so. I just wanted everyone to be aware.

I was not expecting the angst of this going into it so it took a moment to readjust but this is a very sweet book that is about Ellie and her journey to self acceptance with a hearty dash of found family and romance. I had not heard of VACTERLs before this book but it was enlightening to learn about and I love some great disability rep.

While, my disability is in general vastly different there are parts of Ellie that were all too relatable. I had a severe brachial plexus birth injury (nerve damage in birth paralyzed my right arm and hand but I was the 21st person in the world to have surgery to repair it.) As a result of surgery as an infant, my right arm functions largely well but will never straighten and lacks full range of motion. I generally have never let it stop me from doing anything I want but I absolutely know how it feels to have limitations that make you feel less than normal in high school when all you want to be is "normal." Outside of searching to see if I could get any college scholarships because of it (sadly no), I did everything I could in hs to pretend my arm was just like everyone else's. So, while different I totally got Ellie's impulse to just keep her non hospital life totally separate. There's not a lot of disability rep in fiction so I love to see it.

I loved her found family at the Family Care Home! And Ryan is just the best. I loved that through all of them we got such great perspectives on everything from friendship, the various stages of chronic illness, being a "sick kid", teenage romance, and more.

This is a heavy read for sure, but it is also beautiful and sweet and fun and absolutely worth reading.

an intimate, emotional look into living with disabilities and the toll they take on a person's body and heart.

Even though this book had similarities to others, it also felt very original to me. It was an honest and sometimes painful account of living with chronic disease and everything that goes along with it. The brutal impact on not just the patient, but also her parents and friendships is also explored through the words inside this book as we go along for the ride with Ellie.

Ellie has lived a lifetime in her young life - - a lifetime of surgeries and being poked, prodded and explored. A lifetime of having doctors "theorize" what may be wrong or "how to fix" Ellie's most recent issue. Ellie has lived a lifetime of trying to keep her two lives separate - - her life when everything is normal and her life when she's sick and away for surgeries. She tries so hard to not let the two cross. What she fails to realize is that she's missing out on extra support by keeping everyone separate. As the story progresses, Ellie will learn that there's so much more at play in her life that even she realizes. She will also learn more from her other friends who are suffering with their own illnesses and from the healthy friends that she's locked out of her life while she's been sick. She'll learn that balance is key.

Even though there were slow spots for me in the progression of this book, I really felt it had an important message that was worth sticking around for. It was a meaningful story and I did enjoy watching Ellie's character develop.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: The audiobook was really well done. I enjoyed the narration and felt that it was a good depiction of Ellie and the other characters in the book. It was very enjoyable. 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for early copies of both the ebook and audiobook.

I didn't hate this, but I didn't love it either. Overall, it was a good story.
I like how it outlined the importance of having bodily autonomy. I really liked all of Ellies hospital friends. I also like how it showed that not all doctors are the same. Some are really good, and some just unfortunately don't care. I also liked the love story. It was a cute YA love story.
I didn't like the main character. She was so bitter, rude, etc. It was annoying to read at some points. I also felt torn about her mom. I didn't like that she was using Ellies story for money, but I also understood where she was coming from. A mother will do anything, give up everything, for their child.
I also felt like Brooke and Jack's characters weren't developed enough. They were there but we didn't really know them. Brooke was supposed to be Ellies best friend, but there was barely anything written about their friendship. It seemed like her out of hospital friendships were shallow, but at the end, we see that they aren't.
Again, I liked the story overall, but there were some parts I felt just fell flat.

Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal was a really sweet YA story about a girl hiding her illness from her home friends as she just wants to be seen as "normal." As she builds relationships and friendships with other kids being treated at the same facility as her, she realizes they see her for who she really is and she comes to really love and appreciate that after a big breakdown. Her mother, who dedicates her life to her blog that chronicles her daughter's illness, much to her dismay, is a big storyline as well. The book touches on many topics, some difficult and sad but ultimately, it ends on an uplifting note of acceptance. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher for an eARC version of this novel! Opinions are my own.

#EllieHaycockIsTotallyNormal transported me back to a time when I was in and out of hospitals and doctors' offices. When I became a spectacle with rare conditions that every person in scrubs wanted to see for themselves. When the operating room became both haunting and familiar. @greth_schreiber beautifully explores the myriad of emotions and complexities of the roles we play and the relationships we navigate. She pulls the curtain open and puts words to an experience that is often difficult to describe, and I am forever grateful for that.

Thank you again to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review and to Gretchen Schreiber for giving so many a voice.

I really enjoyed this book. I especially appreciate that the main character isn't serving as a kind of martyr or saint because of her disability. We see her struggle, but we also see her as a person with a boyfriend and friends, in spite of her disability and with her disability as a large part of her life. As a person with chronic illness myself, I see some of the struggles I've faced - being told by a doctor that your symptoms are "psychosomatic" was something that stood out to me and made me want to scream for Ellie! There needs to be more books for young people with disabilities and chronic written by authors with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Thank you for this book, Gretchen Schreiber!

i’m submitting the reviews for books by you that I already have, but I will never request another one. In October one of your employees made a horribly racist statement and you have chosen to do nothing about it. People have continuously asked you to say that you don’t stand with what the employee said, and you refuse to. This is not someone who I want to promote ever because you are sending the wrong message. These reviews will not be posted on social media because you don’t deserve the promotion. By not speaking out you are also not preventing your followers from stalking and harassing people who are participating in the boycott. Your silence speaks volumes. I hope that all of your authors move to other publishers because you are standing with a genocide. You are also currently saying that you support black women in black history month but you have ignored their concerns for months and shown them no support.

Having a chronic illness, there are many things about Ellie in which I can relate. Thankfully for me, my illness was diagnosed as an adult. I cannot imagine having to go through something like this a a child, much less a teenager. I loved Ellie and the supporting cast of characters. How they were there for each other throughout it all was heartwarming. This was a great read.

(I got this as an ARC through NetGalley, but it will out tomorrow!) I’m so happy that we’re seeing more stories about disabled main characters written by disabled authors, and this one is an incredible addition to the collection. Ellie is a high schooler with a rare disease who has mostly managed to keep her “home life” and her “hospital life” separate, though it’s mostly left her without any friends who really, truly understand all of her. When she’s sent back to the hospital for a prolonged stay, she ends up making a new group of friends, and Ellie has to decide if she can handle really letting someone in all the way to her life.

Ellie is in and out of the hospital and care facility with a longterm illness. When she isn't in the hospital, she loves being on the speech and debate team, and has a best friend and boyfriend who she loves. But Ellie does not know how to talk to them about her illness because she doesn't want that to be the only thing they see about her. Meanwhile her mother writes a blog all about her illness.

I understand that the author has a lot of experience with longterm illness, and the difficulties with it, including not being believed about it. I appreciate what this book taught me about the complications with getting care, and what kind of care, and what happens when the care isn't "successful." The parts of the book that fell flat to me were the relationships between characters. Ellie says she's heartbroken about her boyfriend Josh, but honestly, she kept so much from him, so what was she really heartbroken about? And she very quickly moves on with another patient in the facility, Ryan. It was also unbelievable to me that she could have kept her illness hidden while her mom's blog was very popular. Also, we are in the age where everything is public. There's a lot of teenage angst here like The Fault In Our Stars, but Ellie is so reluctant to share her feelings with anyone that I found it difficult to connect to her in the same way I did the characters in TFOS.

If you are looking for a book specifically about teen illness, and longterm illness, this might be an engaging read.

Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a great glimpse into the battles a teenage girl faces when her two worlds collide. Hospital life and “normal” life are kept separate from each other. When she ends up back at the hospital she must decide if these two worlds can remain separate or if they can be safely combined. All teens should read this to remind them that another’s life is not always what it appears from the outside.

Ellie Haycock is totally normal, except in all the ways that she’s not. As someone who really enjoys YA and especially YA that has interesting MCs in different life scenarios than the norm, I was primed and ready to enjoy this one.

I wish this had been one I could enjoy.

Ellie as a character is painfully stubborn, moving far beyond a typical teenager and to the point of frustration. There’s a part of me that thinks I’m just too old to really empathize with the internal angst that Ellie has and yet another part of me that thinks Ellie was just stubborn for the sake of it. As a sick kid whose entire life has been shown online, the subject of a “mommy blog: sick kid edition” was waiting for the inevitable blow up from a mom who means well but never listens. However, it all felt like it was leading to a commentary on the exploitation of kids online, especially sick ones with the best friend who also put their story out there for the world to see, only to fall flat and be shelved away swiftly offscreen.

The romance at the heart of it was underwhelming, with neither character feeling particularly drawn to each other beyond plot convention. A subplot with an ex and with “normal” friends attempted to serve as a contrast to the main cast of sick kids both they and the “mains” just fell flat.

Interesting but unfortunately bland, Ellie Haycock is anything but normal, but not quite interesting enough.

I received this book for free from Wednesday Books in exchange for my honest review.

This one unfortunately just didn’t hit the spot for me. I typically really enjoy YA but I found Ellie really hard to connect with.

I def think that there will be lots that really enjoy this one!

Thanks to SMP & netgalley for the opportunity to read this one in exchange for an honest review!

This feels like an authentic story not only in terms of the author's lived experience, but also within the parent-child dynamic and, well, the cognitive dissonance that comes with being a teenager. While I don't have a chronic condition--I'm glad I learned more about VACTERLs, as I'd never heard of it before--I can empathize with the desire to compartmentalize one's life and keep friends at arm's length. Although Ellie is stubborn and, at times, annoying, it feels realistic based on everything else happening in her life. Also, as a parent I definitely teared up reading about Ellie's relationship with her mother--the target audience likely won't feel like this, but I appreciated it.

Ellie was born with Vaters a birth defect that affects her whole body. She has endured multiple hospital stays and surgeries. Ellie's mother Gwen has created a blog to bring awareness. Ellie is not a fan of the blog showing all the details of her life. Ellie has created two bubbles. Her home life where she has a boyfriend and she's on the debate team. Her hospital life with her best friend Caitlin who also has Vacters. When her two worlds collide. Ellie freaks out.

I found this book sad but also informational. I had never heard of Vacters. I understood where her mom was coming from and where Ellie was coming from. Ellie could definitely use some therapy to deal with all that she has endured.

By the time she’s in high school, Ellie Haycock has already had forty surgeries. Born with VACTERLs, she’s accustomed to hospital visits and seeing specialists. She has her hospital life and her everyday life, and she prefers to keep them separate.

Now she finds herself back at the Family Care Home near the hospital. Ellie and her mom are staying there while the doctors try to determine what is causing the current issue with her lungs, and her mom is documenting every moment on a public blog about life with a disabled child.

Books like this are important, but that doesn’t mean they are emotionally easy to read. I appreciate that this one is written by an Own Voices author, who can relate to her main character’s experience, and that she doesn’t sugarcoat the experience of being a minor with a disability, surrounded by adults who make all the care decisions, or how medical professionals do not always have concrete answers or treatments for what’s going on.

This book dives into a high-stress situation with ambiguous outcomes where private moments are made public without consent. Understandably, Ellie struggles with how to respond and react in this situation, and that can be tough to read.

One of the highlights for me was seeing the close-knit group of friends form at the Family Care Home and seeing Ellie give a second chance to a couple of individuals that she had written off initially. I also enjoyed the romance subplot and liked that it was not the central focus of this story.

I received an advance copy of the ebook from Wednesday Books and NetGalley. All review opinions are my own.