23 December 2013

Review: The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini

The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: September 25, 2013
Book Format: Hardcover
# of Pages: 387
Synopsis: Given the chance, fifteen-year-old Peregrine "Perry" Eckert would dedicate every waking moment to Creatures & Caverns, an epic role-playing game rich with magical creatures, spell casting, and deadly weapons. The world of C&C is where he feels most comfortable in his own skin. But that isn't happening--not if his parents have anything to do with it. Concerned their son lacks social skills, they ship him off to summer camp to become a man. They want him to be outdoors playing with kids his own age and meeting girls--rather than indoors alone, with only his gaming alter ego for company. Perry knows he's in for the worst summer of his life.

Everything changes, however, when Perry gets to camp and stumbles into the World of the Other Normals. There he meets Mortin Enaw, one of the creators of C&C, and other mythical creatures from the game, including the alluring Ada Ember, whom Perry finds more beautiful than any human girl he's ever met. Perry's new otherworldly friends need his help to save their princess and prevent mass violence. As they embark on their quest, Perry realizes that his nerdy childhood has uniquely prepared him to be a great warrior in this world, and maybe even a hero. But to save the princess, Perry will have to learn how to make real connections in the human world as well.

Bestselling author Ned Vizzini delivers a compulsively readable and wildly original story about the winding and often hilarious path to 

manhood.

My Review:
I won The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini a year ago, and this is my honest review.

The Other Normals is a story about a young boy, Perry who is according to his family not normal. He has not yet hit puberty, he does not really have any friends, and he plays this nerdy role playing game. He is absolutely obsessed with this game and it is one of the reasons his parents think he is not normal. So to fix this problem they decide to send him to a camp for boys to make friends.

This type of story is not the type I am used to reading so of course I was nervous that I would not be able to get into it. But I actually was able to get into it, and enjoyed it quite a bit. I think maybe I should start reading more of this type of books. I am not exactly sure what you would call the genre, action and adventure/fantasy maybe? But either way I would like to start reading more of these kinds of books every once in awhile.

Perry was interesting, I liked his character because from the beginning because he showed a lot of potential to change and that shows amazing writing skills. Which I long to have some day. I thought he was cute, and I felt bad for him many times because of how people treated him. I mean I know thats kind of how it works, nerds get made fun of but I feel like it is different when it is not happening in front of you, because I found myself feeling really bad for Perry and I totally wished I could jump in the book and stick up for him.

I also found myself annoyed with Sam quite often because he was so rude to Perry along with everyone else, and I guess that is what happens but it was just annoying because Perry only wanted a friend and he thought he had found one in Sam. Things ended up changing for the better which was good but I will not tell you what happens because that will spoil things!

The parts in the book that took place in the world of the other normals were interesting. Some of the parts bored me to death but the chapters were short so it was easy to get through some of the boring parts. But I have to give the author credit because there were some chapters in the other world were crazy action packed and I loved every second of those ones! Overall, I basically loved all the characters and the story kept me interested, and I definitely plan to read more of Vizzini’s books in the future.


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