Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal" by Gretchen Schreiber is a compelling novel about a rare disability, VATER syndrome, that requires frequent hospitalizations. In an attempt to keep her hospital life separate from her "real life," Ellie pushes away those who love her. During her latest hospital stay, Ellie and her best hospital friend welcome a new member to their friend group, Ryan. Ryan encourages Ellie to open herself up and trust her friends and doctors, but will her deep-seated trust issues come between her and her new and old friends?

What I liked: I enjoyed the storyline and rooted for the characters. I appreciated hearing the perspective of someone with a disability and how Ellie pushed for her own body autonomy.

What didn't work for me: The MC's inner monologue slowed the pace of the book. I found myself frustrated that she was rehashing the same thoughts instead of moving the plotline forward.

Overall really enjoyed this. Had actually struggled with the ebook and tried the audiobook and enjoyed it much more! There was a lot of angst at times, but Ellie is a character with a lot of fire and anger about her situation, as she had a right to. Overall a really solid and important YA

Ellie’s life hasn’t been easy or “normal” – she spends almost as much time in hospitals as she does at home. She’s done a good job at keeping these two parts of her life separate, despite her mother’s blog documenting every step of their journey. But this time, Ellie makes friends during her hospital stay, one of whom she realizes she might have growing feelings for. But Ellie doesn’t know how to have faith in her doctors or her friends, and it might just cause more problems than she realizes.

Let me start by saying that I really liked the premise of this work and what the author wanted to do with it. The representation was solid, and I liked seeing a YA book that emphasized what it’s like for teens who are in the hospital so often. There were many details included that are going to be beneficial for folks who haven’t really considered what this scenario would be like. This should have made for a compelling read, but the work ended up falling short for me.

Some of my main issues came from the characters. Ellie was not a compelling protagonist. She was excessively jaded. I get how that’s perfectly reasonable given the situation and the things she had to deal with, but there were no positive or compelling aspects of her character to balance the anger and hate out, so she ended up being quite repetitive/annoying as the whole book is told from her POV. She also firmly believed until the very end of the book that no one in her life would understand what she was going through unless they also happened to be in a hospital long term. This ended up being true in her case because she tried zero times to explain anything to anyone. This was part of the point of the story, but it wasn’t incorporated in a way that was meaningful – we weren’t given a compelling reason for Ellie to feel this way, so again, her stubbornness just became frustrating.

Unfortunately, I also felt no chemistry was present in the romance. This book would have been much stronger if the author had focused on creating a strong friendship rather than forcing romance on the characters. There was also a major subplot relating to Ellie’s mom and her blog detailing Ellie’s life. I had a couple issues with this. Blog posts were included between the chapters, starting from when Ellie was a baby in order to provide some background on her and her family’s situation. However, the posts were often quite long, and it just didn’t mesh well with the primary plot. Shorter and fewer posts would have strengthened the story. There was conflict between Ellie and her mom surrounding the blog, and they both came off as selfish and unreasonable, which didn’t make for a compelling subplot.

This book has a good message and representation, but it wasn’t executed in a way that made reading this enjoyable. I’m sure some folks will really love this one, but it didn’t work for me. My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read this work, which will be published March 5, 2024. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

3.75 stars

Ellie Haycock IS "totally normal," especially for a YA character, in that she grapples with who she is, what she wants, how to stand up for herself, how to merge different aspects of her life, and how to get her parents on board with her incoming adulthood. The struggle is that a lot of people have different impressions of Ellie because she is apparently (as in one can ascertain through physical signs) disabled. Biases lead folks to make both inaccurate assumptions and also some correct assessments that Ellie's experience is a "totally normal" for her but maybe distinct from many readers' experiences.

One of many qualities that Schreiber reveals is the construction of a complex character. There were times when I was rooting HARD for Ellie. There were other times when I wanted to yell at her. There were other times when I wanted to have a long conversation with her about what matters when you're a teen and what matters in a couple more years. In other words, she's well drawn. Along with provoking a lot of contemplation because of her choices and responses, Ellie is also an important representative of a group that gets far too little play in general, including in YA literature. I really appreciated the author's note on this subject and the emphasis on one story versus a story that is meant to reflect ALL experiences.

While there are opportunities to develop certain relationships and expand individual conversations, overall, this is a compelling YA contemporary. I'll be recommending it to students and looking forward to more from this author.

I will be fascinated to see how the ableds respond to this book. It is unflinching in its portrayal of disability and chronic illness, and I wouldn't want it any other way. Ellie's anger is palpable in a wonderfully cathartic way. There are some aspects of the story I wish had been given more page time, but overall, I am so glad that teens will have this book. Disabled teens, yes, but more so their abled friends. Natalie Naudus remains one of my favorite narrators working in audiobooks today.

Audiobook Review - Hand this ones to fans of the Fault in Our Stars and Three Feet Apart. Teens who enjoy YA hospital dramas will enjoy this one. I found the author's note at the beginning heartwarming especially when she cautioned readers to skip her story if it is too much, but to still seek out stories that represent them. An enjoyable listen with a great narrator.

Ellie Haycock was born with Vacterls, a rare genetic condition that has affected her body in numerous ways since birth including a compromised immune system, cardiac issues, and visible physical differences. She has been in and out of hospitals since birth and has perfected the art of separating hospital life from "normal" life as a high school junior competing on her high school debate team and a budding romance with her long-time friend Jack. She knows the separation is necessary, not wanting to scary away her normal friends and not wanting to be reminded of her hospital stays by hospital friends when she's home. A long term stay at the hospital in the middle of Junior year threatens this separation as new hospital friends become important systems of support and her refusal to confined in home friends threatens to push them away. Can Ellie redefine "normal" for herself while advocating with doctors, navigating new friendships, and opening herself up to the possibility that the hospital doesn't have to ruin everything?

I really wanted to like this novel, there is some really important representation and conversations happening here. The strongest elements of this novel are the conversations taking place around disability identity and visibility, chronic illness, self-advocacy, and support systems. This book will connect and be meaningful for some teens. That being said, I unfortunately found Ellie to be really hard to connect with over the course of the novel. I don't believe characters need to be "likeable" for a story to be successful, but there was so much repetitive self sabotage and bad communication that at times she came off as whinny. The hyper-fixation on getting better to get her ex-boyfriend (Jack) back also seemed problematic. I wish that would have been flushed out a little more as her relationship with Ryan progressed. Overall the story just didn't quite land for me, but I'm still glad it is one being told.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press Wednesday Books for the opportunity to listen to this book.


This was a nice read. I'm glad I listened, almost didn't because it was YA. Nothing great, yet nothing bad. Gave some insight to how teens deal with the stress of in and out hospital life.

Solid 3

This book follows Ellie Haycock, a teen girl with VATERs, who tries to keep her “normal” like and hospital life separate. As much as she wants to, she is finding it harder to do that with her latestu trip to the hospital.

As much as I wanted to love this book, I just had the hardest time trying to get into it and finishing. It took pure determination to not DNF. I found myself not even wanting to pick it up. The main character was pretty annoying and seemed to just walk around with a negative attitude no matter what. Nobody likes a pessimistic person. The only good thing about this audio was the performance.

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an advanced audio of this is exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed this audiobook! The relationship between mother and daughter was rough but brings up the importance of communication. Ellie does not love mom's blogging about her which definitely makes things worse. I felt for Ellie and her hospital visits...
This book reminded be of Five Feet Apart.

Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal is an example of a book that I wanted to love but came away only liking it. I am not the audience for the book so I’m sure that had a lot to do with me not loving it.

Ellie is sick and has an illness that has been puzzling doctors, she has lost faith in them and their abilities. She tries to be two different people. Ellie at home/school and then Ellie at the hospital. This includes trying to keep her friends separate and never discussing her hospital issues with her school friends.

Ellie takes this separation to a whole new level and comes off extremely rude to everyone. When you have a young main character who is ill it’s weird to get annoyed with them. I want Ellie to be better and find out what’s wrong with her but I also wanted her to stop pissing me off.

I also had a hard time with Ellie’s mom. Through Ellie’s eyes, her mom made her illness about herself and her online presence by documenting everything. Through her mom’s eyes, she brought awareness and raised money. I expected to side with her mom but there were some moments where I felt Ellie was right for being upset with how her mom handled her illness.

“People are always willing to pray for you as if you are the thing that’s wrong and needs help fitting into the world and not the world that needs reshaping to make space for you.” This quote is so beautifully said and most disabled and/or chronically ill people will resonate with it.

Really enjoyable and sweet coming of age novel that touches on chronic illness. I loved the narrator and the book. I loved it and listened to it in one go.

Great book with a fresh perspective. I liked being able to hear a different person's view about disability and how to navigate it.

With comps of The Breakfast Club meets Five Feet Apart this debut YA coming of age novel had me very intrigued in. With this vibrant cover my heart was not prepared for Ellie’s story/reality.

The audiobook opened up with a great note from the author which set the tone for what was to come. I haven’t read many stories like this one. The POV of a young character advocating for herself with medical professionals as well as having to ask to be the one to tell your own story on your own time.

There is a bit of a romance throughout but what really stood out to me was the friendships! There were so many great details/situations throughout the book that made me reflect and I think this will be a very eye opening book for many and hopefully someone will see themselves in Ellie’s character.

Thank you Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio
Releases 3/5

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A sweet book with a message of being open to receiving help from your friends, standing up for what is best for you and managing expectations when life keeps giving you lemons. I enjoyed Ellie’s POV and how she developed into trusting herself as the story unfolds. A great book for YA audience.

This was a lovely YA story about a sick girl with a genetic disorder who learns to not define/limit herself by/through her ailments and differences. The way the protagonist thinks feels very true to teenagers.

Is the FMC a bitter, whiny downer for much of the book? Yes. Is that how teenagers (especially those with as much to be bitter about FMC has) can be? Also yes.

One quality that I really appreciated in this was aesthetic realism. So often hospital romances have '5 Feet Apart' syndrome, where the MCs are only ill in conventionally attractive ways - they're pale, they're very thin, etc. Basically sick-lit heroes tend to look like '90s grunge era supermodels, because these stories are only important if the audience can yearn for the beautiful, broken girl/boy. Boo.

In real life, sick/disabled people are often (not always) not conventionally attractive. This book features an FMC whose visible differences include a hand so malformed people are deeply uncomfortable when they look at her. She deserves (and gets) a friendship HEA and a romantic HEA all the same (in this case, with a conventionally attractive MMC... fine).

Especially in kid lit, it's important to break the association between beauty and worthiness, so I was thrilled the protagonist is described as she is.

📚 Series or Standalone: standalone
📚 Genre: YA romance
📚 Target Age Group: YA
📚 Cliffhanger: no

✨ Will I Reread: no
✨ Recommended For: fans of sick lit (Five Feet Apart, The Fault in Our Stars, etc.) and YA romance where the friendships are as important as the romance

💕 Characters: 4/5
💕 Writing: 4/5
💕 Plot: 4/5
💕 Pacing: 4/5
💕 Unputdownability: 4/5
💕 Enjoyment: 4/5
💕 Book Cover: 4/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners for the audiobook version of this book. I am not affiliated with either the entities listed above. I am not compensated in any way for my review. Everything I write is of my own personal thoughts, feelings, and opinions.

I like that the author makes a disclaimer at the start of the book about some of what you may encounter while reading and if this doesn't sound like something you would like to read to just stop now and she will not be offended in any way.
With that said this was a decent book. The author is writing about medical issues she has and what she went through as a minor. I feel like she left this very "G" rated and that is fine because I feel her target audience is more younger readers such as YA. She touches on surgeries and procedures- boy issues that pertain to teenagers- mom and dad issues along with mother/daughter issues. The author does an amazing job writing about everything she went through- she did great at writing her feelings that she was feeling at the time.
This would be a great book for individulas in the YA/teen category going through similar situatuions. It takes courage to write about yourself and your life.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was perfect for this book. I enjoyed the characters and it was interesting to learn about the disabilities while also seeing the different dynamics. I would love to read a sequel based on another person in their friend group, especially Ryan.

3.5 stars!

This book is not for everyone and that is okay. I have a hard time rating this book as it was good, but just not my cup of tea. I must say I am pretty squeamish and so the hospital scenes (basically anytime they talked about IVs and needles) made me tense up. This is totally a personal problem, but made it harder for me personally to get through. That said, the story itself, is beautiful and well written. I empathize with Ellie and everything she was going through - with her friends inside and outside the hospital, as well as having to deal with her mom who was blogging the whole thing. The story also read very YA with the way our MC was speaking to her friends, parents and medical professionals. I definitely went back and thought about how I spoke to friends and adults at that age.

The narrator was great and sounded very YA (this is a YA book) so that was a nice touch. Sometimes the narration of YA books can be off, and I find myself thinking that's not what someone that age sounds like.

thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!!

A REALLY great YA coming of age debut featuring a teen girl with a very unique condition that includes several serious disabilities and who also has a mommy blogger mother who has spent several years sharing her medical history with the world and just wants to be able to be a 'normal' highschooler.

This book discusses difficult topics from finding love with a physical disability, having autonomy over your own story and advocating for yourself with medical professionals. Highly relatable and great on audio narrated by my absolute fav, Natalie Naudus!! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!!