Faking Normal Review

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Faking Normal
Courtney C. Stevens
HarperTeen
February 2014
5/5
Quotes:
“Right now we're both yard sales of emotions. A penny for pain. A dime for bitterness. A quarter for grief. A dollar for silence. It binds us together, but I don't want him to pay the price for the parts of me that are used and broken.”
 "There are no words to this music, and that makes me sad. Every song deserves lyrics. Deserves a story to tell.” 
“But today is better than yesterday. And this hurt is still a hole in me, but it's a shrinking hole.”
“I know these two weeks have been God walking right into my life like he has flesh and Kool-Aid coloured hair. The gospel according to Bodee Lennox. His safety. His protection. And love.” 

This book made me feel so many different emotions. It's sad and deals with a dark subject, but it also is filled with hope and love.  I'm a huge fan of books that tell unique stories in a fresh way. Courtney C. Stevens is seriously wonderful at this. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who has yet to read it for whatever reason!

Alexi Littrell has a secret that is continually tearing her up. To deal with this, she finds comfort in hiding in her closet and scratching the back of her neck. She hurts her outside in order to cope with how she's feeling on the inside. Bodee Lennox has his own personal tragedy, his dad recently killed his mother. Alexi's mom was close friends with her, so Alexi also attends the funeral. Bodee comes to live with Alexi and her family for the year. Bodee and Alexi gradually get closer as she finally comes clean about her past.

To be honest, I wasn't all that huge of a fan of the characters besides Bodee and Alexi. I thought that even her closer female friends like Heather were a little bit annoying. They accomplished what Stevens intended, just showing the life that Alexi had before she was raped. Although she tries to put on a brave face and act normal around her peers, she's an extremely broken girl. Sometimes it makes a huge difference to me when the supporting characters aren't all that interesting or quirky, but I didn't feel that way in this case. Our main characters were so fabulous that nothing else really mattered.

The romance between Alexi and Bodee is perfect. Bodee is a considered "that Kool-Aid freak" by some of Alexi's friends and even by herself before she got to know him. However, I like that once she befriended him, she didn't try to hide the friendship from her other friends. It did annoy me that Alexi seemed to be oblivious to how crazy he was about her, but I did like the slow build-up from friendship to relationship. Bodee shows his protectiveness for Alexi from the beginning, and he also was someone that she could trust with the truth about her rape.

The topic of rape has been used in many Young Adult books including Speak and Just Listen. What makes this one stand out from both of those is the twists and turns that are not revealed until towards the end of the novel. With the other books, it's pretty clear what happened and who did it, but this one will have you guessing up until the last page.