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A review by aly_bu
The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini
4.0
I love Ned Vizzini.
He bit off a bit more with this book than I think he was ready to chew. His characters were (as always) brilliantly crafted, and the idea of the correspondents made character creation even dicier; he had to create similarities without giving away pairings. The plotline was solid as well; a perfect action/adventure/coming of age story that makes it easily relatable for teens and fans of all genres.
The 'more than he could chew' part comes with the world-building; in crafting an alternate reality that split off 600 million years ago, Vizzini really, really struggled. This book was not meant to be consumed as hyper-realistic, but even then there were massive holes in crafting the world of the other normals that made it hard to buy in. I would have loved to see more world-building, and I don't think it needed to come at the expense of any other part of the book; it wasn't too long to begin with, and the short, tiny chapters made it all easily digestible.
That said, Vizzini created a funny little world to take in and I once again had my heart opened to a less-lovable character like Perry. Kudos for that.
He bit off a bit more with this book than I think he was ready to chew. His characters were (as always) brilliantly crafted, and the idea of the correspondents made character creation even dicier; he had to create similarities without giving away pairings. The plotline was solid as well; a perfect action/adventure/coming of age story that makes it easily relatable for teens and fans of all genres.
The 'more than he could chew' part comes with the world-building; in crafting an alternate reality that split off 600 million years ago, Vizzini really, really struggled. This book was not meant to be consumed as hyper-realistic, but even then there were massive holes in crafting the world of the other normals that made it hard to buy in. I would have loved to see more world-building, and I don't think it needed to come at the expense of any other part of the book; it wasn't too long to begin with, and the short, tiny chapters made it all easily digestible.
That said, Vizzini created a funny little world to take in and I once again had my heart opened to a less-lovable character like Perry. Kudos for that.