I know it’s totally normal to get emotional reading a book. Still, the way that ELLIE HAYCOCK IS TOTALLY NORMAL kept making me feel overcome with emotions - sometimes to the point I had to stop reading - was an emotional roller coaster that is not normal when I read. Gretchen Schreiber has written something extraordinary with this book. So many of the feelings - both big and small - that Ellie feels about life, health, friendships, relationships, and family, I have felt. Schreiber was able to write about them without dehumanizing Ellie or me. Plus, I feel like she gave a voice to voice: all of us sick kids who feel like our autonomy is constantly taken away, or we are medically gaslit because “it’s all in our heads.” 

 

I couldn’t read the physical book. My eyes kept blurring with emotion. But I will recommend the audiobook to anyone and everyone, mainly because one of my favorite narrators, Natalie Naudus, narrates the book. Naudus handles everything in the book with such care, and I love hearing Ellie and her friends and family wonderfully brought to life. 

 

This book will be difficult for some people to read because it contains many sick kids’ situations and frustrating medical gaslighting. But if you can take a chance and read it, Ellie and her friends will show you what many of us have gone through, are going through, and will always go through in our lives while trying to be totally normal. 

 

Thanks, Wednesday Books, for the arc!