Faking Normal by Courtney C. Stevens

Title: Faking Normal
Author: Courtney C. Stevens
Pages: 336


Alexi Littrell hasn't told anyone what happened to her over the summer. Ashamed and embarrassed, she hides in her closet and compulsively scratches the back of her neck, trying to make the outside hurt more than the inside does.

When Bodee Lennox, the quiet and awkward boy next door, comes to live with the Littrells, Alexi discovers an unlikely friend in "the Kool-Aid Kid," who has secrets of his own. As they lean on each other for support, Alexi gives him the strength to deal with his past, and Bodee helps her find the courage to finally face the truth.

A searing, poignant book, Faking Normal is the extraordinary debut novel from an exciting new author-Courtney C. Stevens.


My Rating:
✰✰✰✰

At first, I had a little trouble getting into this book. After reading the synopsis, I still didn't really know what this book would be about. Still, I do think that it doesn't really says too much on what the book is mainly about.

One of the reasons I really liked this book was because of the message it gave. I will talk about this more in the spoiler part of this review.

I  liked the characters and the writing. The writing was very easy to read and the all the characters were easy to distinguish. 

After about half way into the book, I started to really enjoy it. I would recommend it, but it does have a more serious tone.

More Points (May Contain Spoilers)

I loved how Alexia and Bodee were there for each other. I really loved their supporting relationship and how it didn't become a romantic one at first. They were both similar in the way that they had their own method of dealing with pain. (Scratching her neck and counting, doing pull up under his bed.)

Bodee was such a great character. He was so solid and always there and had awesome hair. I really felt bad for him and thought that it was crazy how his dad choke his mom to death. I really could picture it when Alexia went back into his house and saw the crime scene.


I always had a feeling that Bodee was Captain Lyric. I didn't really believe that Hayden was him. But I did not really like the whole idea of someone leaving lyrics for her. I felt like it didn't really serve a purpose and was just a subplot. I think that that was my main problem with this book, there was many things that just felt unnecessary.
 
As far as all of the characters go, they were all good and played a great role in the story.  I did think that Ray and Liz didn't do much for the story. Alexia's friends were okay.

I did not know that Craig was the one that had assaulted her, and I was very glad when he left.