The narrator is seventeen-year-old Astrid, who has finished years of homeschooling with her father who lost his job and filled his life with controlling others’ lives.
Astrid is now starting High school.
Her father is not happy about Astrid’s forthcoming schooling,
nor the clothes her mother wears to work. He believes that social media is
breaking everyone’s brain and making them hate.
This is just one of his rants concerning capitalism and its influence on society, that he wars against with a distorted mindset; a thought process that forced his son to leave home.
But he is determined to hold tight to the control over the remaining members of his family.
Astrid lives with no phone, a whereabouts noticeboard that is updated and checked daily, the ban on certain foods, and a list of rules that command their life.
Her life is a formed pattern of isolation,
emotional abuse, shame and guilt.
She is filled with fear and self-consciousness at
her approaching first day at school, and all the days that will follow. This fear is
a generated extension of her father’s coercive control over her and her mother.
Having learnt to arrange herself in far too many
ways, Astrid puts up walls with people, to hide what’s happening and keep
her secrets. This prevents her from forming relationships with others.
All Astrid wants is to be normal.
What can be done to escape to another way of living,
and how, without being discovered and stopped?
This is a fantastic book addressing serious current issues. All the emotions and situations people experience with domestic violence, psychological abuse, manipulation, or control in any form, are conveyed through painful truths.
Powerful, interesting and believable characters, matched with superb dialogue keep the pages turning.
In beautifully written emotive prose, Crawford has captured every nuance of this subtle type of persecution.
For anyone effected by events and issues similar to the themes discussed in this book, there is a listing of help centers to contact.
Not to be missed!
A worthy winner of the prize. We look forward to hearing a lot from this gifted author.
Title: How to be Normal
Author:
Ange Crawford
Publisher: Walker Books, $21.99
Publication Date: 5 March 2025
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781760659752
For ages: 12+
Type: Young Adult Fiction
