Am I Normal Yet? (The Spinster Club Series #1) by Holly Bourne

Published by: Usborne

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary, Mental Health, Teenagers

Tagline: It's tough being a girl

Evie is a typical teenager. Okay, she's not quite as 'normal' as society might dictate. Instead, she suffers from a mental health illness that requires her to take medication. In fact, by the time we meet her, she's just coming off of them. All she really wants is to be normal and go out to parties, meet guys and potentially get a boyfriend like almost every teenager wants to have at that age.

But there's an issue. Generally the case for most teenage girls, relationships are messy and can often blur the line between sane and crazy (pardon my usage of the word). Evie is caught up with the emotions and rush of the moment, her mind and heart conflicting against one another as she tries to pretend that she is one of the girls, that she does not have anything wrong with her. But how much is enough?

In all honesty, I truly liked this book. Thinking that it was a series based around Evie solely, I picked the book up and devoured it instantly. As someone who had issues with OCD as a teen myself, I felt that this hit one issue that not many people write or know about without making obscene and stupid remarks about.

Evie is a great protagonist. Her friends are as well. They work well together and balance each other out as collectively one could consider them 'normal'. I think naming the series a spinster club is good and bad. They are just impressionable young women and spinster is usually a derogative term but in this case, they are trying to change the meaning to create something positive, the power of female friendship.

Perhaps this is what Bourne is trying to do. She is very honest and open about being a feminist, something that most female YA authors are speaking out about in a movement that is long overdue. I think this is wonderful. It's teaching the next generation of readers the basics of feminism whilst educating them on female friendship and that it is okay to be different. I can't think of anything better.

Am I Normal Yet? Can be purchased from Amazon now.