A review by tasharobinson
The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini

2.0

Really creative, colorful take on the "mundane person gets drawn into fantasy world as their savior" genre, but this book is missing any sense of solidity or depth. The protagonist is immature to the point of implausibility — like when someone implies he's immature, so he drops his pants to show the entire camp his lone pubic hair and shout that he is a man after all. After a string of events on that level of ridiculousness, it becomes hard to empathize with him as a character, or care what happens to him. The action and adventure is enjoyable, but none of the people seem like people, so much as like silly plot devices. I enjoyed this as a distraction on a long train ride, but don't feel any particular need to go on to the inevitable sequel.