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A review by isabelsdigest
I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
LISTEN TO THE AUDIOBOOK
I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are
by Rachel Bloom
“I was an abnormal person who can now pass as normal, and I felt like a spy”
There are two self-imposed rules for my nonfiction books: they have to be memoirs or teach me something. In those categories, of course, an autobiography, literary criticism, or something like Cultish makes me connect with actual reality. Within those rules, I have two more for memoirs: they need to make me or make me completely miserable and sad.
I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are checks the first box.
Honestly, I don’t know if it is a memoir, essays, or something else, but with Harry Potter fanfiction, a full-on musical about Rachel’s college life crisis (please pick the audiobook! You need to hear that), chapters about amusements parks for adults, and deep discussions about love, mental health, pleasure, pooping, this book is the chaotic the word vomit of a very talented person in the best way possible.
I want to acknowledge that I picked this book as an audiobook to accompany me in my daily walk to university, and like an idiot, I didn’t look who Rachel Bloom was, what this book would be about, or anything else that very serious reviewers do -I just liked the Little Mermaid reference.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I want to say that yes, if you love Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (show that I still need to watch), then this is going to be great for you (I think). But don’t worry! I didn’t know anything about Rachel Bloom and I still enjoyed it, why?
Well, because the center of I want to Be Where the Normal People Are is not about Bloom’s celebrity status or a letter to her fans; it is about her questioning about normalcy, and why can she never reach it. That quest for being normal and fit in is the same I experience every day of my life, and maybe you do so too.
Do you vividly remember middle school? If you do, it might be because of the following reasons:
a) you peaked back then
b) you were miserable
c) you are a nostalgic fool
d) Your parents got divorced right after that.
I am painfully option b)
And Rachel Bloom knows that, she squeezes every strand of the loser kid in me and says ‘hey, yours was nothing, look at me! I was a theatre kid!’ and sure, that might not be for everyone, but the vindication I received from this book is astronomical. Maybe we are all live the same life and this is all due to the simulation and nothing is real…or maybe there is something universal in reconciling your individuality with the average 13-year-old definition of cool.
As I said before, this book is funny. Funny-funny. The type of funny that made me laugh under my mask on my way to school and made people think that I am even weirder than what I already am- nice paradox out of a book about normalcy.
Something I find even more interesting is that while the book was wrapping up, the Covid-19 pandemic hits the ending, and with that, our collective new definition about 'normal'. Memorable life, memorable book, please go listen to the audiobook and laugh a bit.
I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are
by Rachel Bloom
“I was an abnormal person who can now pass as normal, and I felt like a spy”
There are two self-imposed rules for my nonfiction books: they have to be memoirs or teach me something. In those categories, of course, an autobiography, literary criticism, or something like Cultish makes me connect with actual reality. Within those rules, I have two more for memoirs: they need to make me or make me completely miserable and sad.
I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are checks the first box.
Honestly, I don’t know if it is a memoir, essays, or something else, but with Harry Potter fanfiction, a full-on musical about Rachel’s college life crisis (please pick the audiobook! You need to hear that), chapters about amusements parks for adults, and deep discussions about love, mental health, pleasure, pooping, this book is the chaotic the word vomit of a very talented person in the best way possible.
I want to acknowledge that I picked this book as an audiobook to accompany me in my daily walk to university, and like an idiot, I didn’t look who Rachel Bloom was, what this book would be about, or anything else that very serious reviewers do -I just liked the Little Mermaid reference.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I want to say that yes, if you love Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (show that I still need to watch), then this is going to be great for you (I think). But don’t worry! I didn’t know anything about Rachel Bloom and I still enjoyed it, why?
Well, because the center of I want to Be Where the Normal People Are is not about Bloom’s celebrity status or a letter to her fans; it is about her questioning about normalcy, and why can she never reach it. That quest for being normal and fit in is the same I experience every day of my life, and maybe you do so too.
Do you vividly remember middle school? If you do, it might be because of the following reasons:
a) you peaked back then
b) you were miserable
c) you are a nostalgic fool
d) Your parents got divorced right after that.
I am painfully option b)
And Rachel Bloom knows that, she squeezes every strand of the loser kid in me and says ‘hey, yours was nothing, look at me! I was a theatre kid!’ and sure, that might not be for everyone, but the vindication I received from this book is astronomical. Maybe we are all live the same life and this is all due to the simulation and nothing is real…or maybe there is something universal in reconciling your individuality with the average 13-year-old definition of cool.
As I said before, this book is funny. Funny-funny. The type of funny that made me laugh under my mask on my way to school and made people think that I am even weirder than what I already am- nice paradox out of a book about normalcy.
Something I find even more interesting is that while the book was wrapping up, the Covid-19 pandemic hits the ending, and with that, our collective new definition about 'normal'. Memorable life, memorable book, please go listen to the audiobook and laugh a bit.