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odetooblivion 's review for:
We Are Totally Normal
by Naomi Kanakia
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this book truly deserves NO attention, is highly problematic and shouldnʼt have been published.
we follow nandan, insecure about his sexuality that he recently discovered. he has problems with accepting himself and coming out seems impossible. thatʼs something i personally liked, because the struggle of accepting yourself and coming out as a queer person is real and that struggle hurts. i, myself, am pretty comfortable with my sexuality right now, but still suffer from not being straight A LOT. but, being honest, this is the only thing i liked. but just after a few pages i started questioning if he ever really questioned his sexuality or if he just wanted to “join a funny tiktok trend”. like, nandan, are we a joke to you? being jailed, even killed, in over 60 countries of the world seems pretty easy to you, huh? plus, before hooking up with dave, he hated men – and dave. however, dave was not better. not a single bit. like girl, you acknowledged the fact that nandan just wanted to pretend to be queer after “finding out” heʼs straight, because he was scared to lose his friendships, because his friends “only liked him for being queer”. first off, why would you even stay friends with them? secondly, why did dave do NOTHING? literally, nothing at all. i have never ever gotten more fake dating vibes than here. it felt like nandan and dave were just pretending to date so nandan could get back with his ex girlfriend again. i wish they did ( acknowledging the fact that heʼs also got some serious issues with women, he better should not date her anymore ): it was literally just hooking up throughout the whole book, trying to get closer to the girl he likes. nandan spends a whole-ass book on hooking up with a boy heʼs disgusted by. he used dave to be liked better and be more likeable to certain characters, while “sceretly” not enjoying just a little bit of the things he did with dave. and, for the love of God, why did he imagine avani while doing it? nah. i am pretty sure that not just nandan was disgusted by the things he did with dave, but dave also was. i donʼt think dave liked a single bit. while i think that dave deserved better, he really isnʼt better than nandan at all. ending the story, nandan finally “builds up the courage to tell the others that heʼs ʼrestraightenedʼ” – but guess what: during the last few pages of the book nandan and dave are hooking up once again, confessing their love to each other.
another thing: avani doing her nails and him calling her, quote, “such a girl”, is offensive towards non-cisgender folks – which avani acknowledgedes, but then nandan immediately makes fun of her. suddenly she’s worth makknv fun of? gross. and GOD, this book is mysogonystic – the way nandan and his friends talk about avani? no. and they were talking about carrie like she needed her girlfriend to finally be a part of the cool kids and finally be accepted and be her own person. also, nandan used his sexuality to get closer to girls – like no dude, do not use being gay as a weapon to invade safe spaces for TEENAGE girls.
so, as you might have guessed, this wasnʼt a good read at all – the plot, characters, conversations, relationships, et cetera were just confusing and non-sense. highly problematic, zero stars. and kanakia should definitely get over her mysogonystic and homophobic shit.
we follow nandan, insecure about his sexuality that he recently discovered. he has problems with accepting himself and coming out seems impossible. thatʼs something i personally liked, because the struggle of accepting yourself and coming out as a queer person is real and that struggle hurts. i, myself, am pretty comfortable with my sexuality right now, but still suffer from not being straight A LOT. but, being honest, this is the only thing i liked. but just after a few pages i started questioning if he ever really questioned his sexuality or if he just wanted to “join a funny tiktok trend”. like, nandan, are we a joke to you? being jailed, even killed, in over 60 countries of the world seems pretty easy to you, huh? plus, before hooking up with dave, he hated men – and dave. however, dave was not better. not a single bit. like girl, you acknowledged the fact that nandan just wanted to pretend to be queer after “finding out” heʼs straight, because he was scared to lose his friendships, because his friends “only liked him for being queer”. first off, why would you even stay friends with them? secondly, why did dave do NOTHING? literally, nothing at all. i have never ever gotten more fake dating vibes than here. it felt like nandan and dave were just pretending to date so nandan could get back with his ex girlfriend again. i wish they did ( acknowledging the fact that heʼs also got some serious issues with women, he better should not date her anymore ): it was literally just hooking up throughout the whole book, trying to get closer to the girl he likes. nandan spends a whole-ass book on hooking up with a boy heʼs disgusted by. he used dave to be liked better and be more likeable to certain characters, while “sceretly” not enjoying just a little bit of the things he did with dave. and, for the love of God, why did he imagine avani while doing it? nah. i am pretty sure that not just nandan was disgusted by the things he did with dave, but dave also was. i donʼt think dave liked a single bit. while i think that dave deserved better, he really isnʼt better than nandan at all. ending the story, nandan finally “builds up the courage to tell the others that heʼs ʼrestraightenedʼ” – but guess what: during the last few pages of the book nandan and dave are hooking up once again, confessing their love to each other.
another thing: avani doing her nails and him calling her, quote, “such a girl”, is offensive towards non-cisgender folks – which avani acknowledgedes, but then nandan immediately makes fun of her. suddenly she’s worth makknv fun of? gross. and GOD, this book is mysogonystic – the way nandan and his friends talk about avani? no. and they were talking about carrie like she needed her girlfriend to finally be a part of the cool kids and finally be accepted and be her own person. also, nandan used his sexuality to get closer to girls – like no dude, do not use being gay as a weapon to invade safe spaces for TEENAGE girls.
so, as you might have guessed, this wasnʼt a good read at all – the plot, characters, conversations, relationships, et cetera were just confusing and non-sense. highly problematic, zero stars. and kanakia should definitely get over her mysogonystic and homophobic shit.