I loved that this book had a disability rep, there aren’t that many books out there like this one and I loved it. The message bet was wonderful. My heart really went out for Ellie. I absolutely loved seeing her sanding up for herself. The narrator did a great job and really enjoyed her.

Disability representation has been lacking in the publishing world for so long so I was so excited to dive into Ellie Haycock is Totally Normal. A story about a girl who doesn't want to be a poster child for inspiration, I can relate to Ellie in so many ways as a childhood cancer survivor. I really enjoyed Gretchen Schreiber's choice to write the rough and raw edges as Ellie comforts peer conflicts, complex and difficult medical decisions, bodily autonomy and family drama. A must read!

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the gifted ALC. I thought narrator Natalie Naudus did a fabulous job at expressing the emotions of the characters in the story.

This book had to get me at the right time - I tried a few times but when it was finally the right time, I loved this book and how it spoke to the parent/child relationship, patient/doctor relationships, finding autonomy, who has permission to do different things and the culture that is hospital living. It was a look from the side of a patient or person with a persistent health issue how words, phrases, and actions intended to be harmless and helpful to someone who is well or able-bodied can do harm and/or show ignorance but also how much it means to have someone reach into that world. It was a lovely look at relationships and how they can be bonded, broken and repaired.

#netgalley
#elliehaycockistotallynormal

There's been an increase, recently, in books about characters with chronic illnesses. These books show us "sick" kids who are realistic and complex. They don't soldier bravely through and teach us a lesson about strength and dignity or whatever. They're kids. Ellie, in this book, is in many ways a normal teen. She cares about what her peers think. She wants to ignore distasteful things. She's self-centered and stubborn. She's also atypical. Her history informs her view of everything she encounters. Being chronically ill changes everything in her life. And that's the central struggle here, finding a balance between these two views. She isn't always a likable character but that's okay. It's very human. While the plot is predictable the characters and their interactions are dynamic enough to make for compelling reading.

Ellie Haycock is Totally Normal is a quick YA read (or listen, as I did). The audiobook starts off with an author's note stating that this story is based on her own life story. Having that kind of knowledge going into this book allowed me a different perspective as I began. Ellie is living with a disability and has spent nearly her whole life in the hospital, going to appoitments or in surgery.
As a teenager, she is ready to live her own life her own way. And to do that, she thinks she needs to keep her school/home life separate from her hospital life. Meaning, her school friends have zero idea about her extensive medical history and she wants to keep it that way. While I feel for her and her desire to be a "normal" kid, it's hard to feel sorry for her because she's incredibly stubborn and sometimes really mean to the people who want to get to know her better.
However, knowing how this runs close to the author's life, it's easier to sympathize and understand the course of events. It can't be easy when you are seen as different and it was a great prespective to allow the ability for more understanding.

I really enjoyed this book as someone who also struggles with chronic illnesses in a daily basis. I love watching as Ellie started a shy meek young girl and blossom into herself and become a beautiful young woman. It was such a sweet moving story about Ellie finding her place in the world.

I really felt for Ellie, and I liked the story that was told using the medical diagnoses she'd been dealing with as a child and her sanding up for herself. I felt for the mom and ultimately I liked how the story played out.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC of Ellie Haycock is Totally Normal.

I obviously started this book with a little bias toward liking our main character Ellie- having the kinship of sharing a first name. But as I read on, I just fell in love with her. Like many that have read this book I am a woman with several chronic illnesses (nothing to the degree of Ellie though). Watching her grow into a strong young woman over the course of this book felt so special. The Ellie we start with tends on more shy, just trying to survive to get back to her school friends and boyfriend who she has largely kept separate from this part (the sick part) of her life.

Ellie also struggles with her mother and her blog which details every little thing that Ellie goes through medically for the entire world to see, which makes Ellie feel almost like a character in her own story. This seems like a very timely subplot as the number of mommy bloggers, instagram and YouTube influences have blown up- showing the reverse uno of how it feels to have a mother detailing their life on the internet and how it affects relationships within the family structure.

Like all teens and adults, there comes a time in your life where you start to realize that some of your friends are significantly better friends to you than others. When Ellie's two separate worlds collide, she starts making some observations on how her friends treat others and what type of people she cares to surround herself with and make her feel better, rather than worse.

The chronic illness medical side also cannot be ignored in this book. Schreiber did an excellent job with the ins and out of what it is like to have a chronic illness, as she has the one which Ellie struggles with in this book. Ellie's medical struggles are in fact largely based on what Schreiber herself has gone through. This book definitely provides a voice to those experiencing serious illnesses, especially those which are invisible.

This book was a 10 out of 10 for me. I loved every second of it.

As for the narrator (I received the audiobook version), Natalie Naudus did an excellent job. I felt like her voice perfectly matched Ellie's personality. I will definitely be looking into more books narrated by her.

5 stars for making me sob 😭 and then making me smile 😊
This book definitely deals with some heavy topics regarding health, chronic illness and disability. It’s also a coming of age story about a girl who just wants to be normal. There are fights with friends and family and then making up with friends and family. Overall, it was a great story.

This was a great YA story that introduces us to Ellie Haycock, who is a medically complex kid. As an occupational therapist myself, I’m always on the look out for books that my pediatric clients or their parents may relate to or give them something of value. I also enjoy reading things that may give me a new perspective. I enjoyed this quick read, also available on audio (5 stars for the narrator who made this an engaging audiobook). The story was a little redundant at times and you felt like the main character and her mom were having the same argument and that it was teenage things that happened. As an adult reading it, it was still a valuable and good read. As a teen reading it, I think would be even better! I give props to the author for taking her own experience and turning it into something wonderful other kids can turn to as a comfort to know they aren’t alone! All that being said it’s a fun, cute story with a medically complex main character that spends time in the hospital and in school. She has friend groups in both places and has to navigate a world in which dealing with medical issues is the norm. 4 stars! Well worth reading and a fun and engaging writing style!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me an ARC copy of the audiobook in exchange for my review!

Ellie Haycock was born with a litany of genetic abnormalities that have necessitated regular stays at the children's hospital for treatments. She wants to keep her "normal" life and her "medically fragile" lives separate, and largely ghosts the friends in whichever group she isn't with at the time. Ellie has to learn that she cannot separate the two parts of her life - that it is one big whole. She also needs to confront her mother's constant and invasive blogging about her medical journey and the affect on her privacy.

This was a moving glimpse into the life of kids who consistently require medical interventions, their treatment by their peers, the support system of kids in a similar position, and their hopes for a normal life. It was told with both optimism and realism about the devastating toll on the kids and their families.

Natalie Naudus was chef's kiss perfection as always.

This was a cute but also sad coming into her own story. As a fairly healthy person, it is nice to see more stories of those who suffer from chronic conditions in mainstream books. And to the characters be written as fully-fleshed out humans (as they are in real-life) as opposed to their illness/disability being their only "personality" trait. I love that Ellie could get through to her mother about how much her blog was hurting her and her mother actually listened! My favorite part of this whole book was that her friends were not going to allow Ellie to hide half of herself and they were not going to be left behind in some misguided attempt to protect them.

Even though this book had similarities to others, it also felt very original to me. It was an honest and sometimes painful account of living with chronic disease and everything that goes along with it. The brutal impact on not just the patient, but also her parents and friendships is also explored through the words inside this book as we go along for the ride with Ellie.

Ellie has lived a lifetime in her young life - - a lifetime of surgeries and being poked, prodded and explored. A lifetime of having doctors "theorize" what may be wrong or "how to fix" Ellie's most recent issue. Ellie has lived a lifetime of trying to keep her two lives separate - - her life when everything is normal and her life when she's sick and away for surgeries. She tries so hard to not let the two cross. What she fails to realize is that she's missing out on extra support by keeping everyone separate. As the story progresses, Ellie will learn that there's so much more at play in her life that even she realizes. She will also learn more from her other friends who are suffering with their own illnesses and from the healthy friends that she's locked out of her life while she's been sick. She'll learn that balance is key.

Even though there were slow spots for me in the progression of this book, I really felt it had an important message that was worth sticking around for. It was a meaningful story and I did enjoy watching Ellie's character develop.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: The audiobook was really well done. I enjoyed the narration and felt that it was a good depiction of Ellie and the other characters in the book. It was very enjoyable. 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for early copies of both the ebook and audiobook.

This book is so freaking powerful. i'm so glad that the main point of this book wasn't the romance, but coming to terms with ones own struggles. This will be recommended to all my friends. So good.

Ellie spends a good majority of her life in hospitals because of a disability caused by health issues. This story is full of teenage drama between family and friends as Ellie learns about friendship and love. At times it gets heavy with lots of things to process and ponder. Be aware that there is some swearing that might be uncomfortable for some readers. I enjoyed experiencing a different point of view on life. I also found it interesting that the story was based on the author’s own experience. I think this added authenticity to the characters and their feelings. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Natalie Naudus which was wonderful to listen to because of the different voices for each character. My favorite was Caitlin.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start by saying that the premise of this book was good. The world needs more books, especially YA books, featuring characters with disabilities.

BUT that being said, the execution of the story and character development fell flat a bit for me. I found Ellie to be wildly unlikeable. I was mostly just annoyed and at some moments angry at her rather than being able to empathize with her or relate to her - and this is coming from someone with chronic health issues (albeit not nearly as severe as hers)! Even trying to imagine myself as a teenager again with a teenage brain, I still couldn't relate to her ways of approaching the world and relationships.

I will say that the saving grace was Ellie's feelings towards her mother's "mommy blog" about Ellie's life and struggles. I grew up well before the mommy blog trend, but I can imagine that growing up having all of your medical issues and personal life put on the internet without your consent and control would cause a lot of distress. I think that as the current generation grows up to realize that so-called influencers have been posting about them online since they were infants, I think this is an important and relevant topic to bring up and write about it.

A quick read, and overall I'd recommend for teens looking for a books about characters' experiences living with disabilities.

By the time she’s in high school, Ellie Haycock has already had forty surgeries. Born with VACTERLs, she’s accustomed to hospital visits and seeing specialists. She has her hospital life and her everyday life, and she prefers to keep them separate.

Now she finds herself back at the Family Care Home near the hospital. Ellie and her mom are staying there while the doctors try to determine what is causing the current issue with her lungs, and her mom is documenting every moment on a public blog about life with a disabled child.

Books like this are important, but that doesn’t mean they are emotionally easy to read. I appreciate that this one is written by an Own Voices author, who can relate to her main character’s experience, and that she doesn’t sugarcoat the experience of being a minor with a disability, surrounded by adults who make all the care decisions, or how medical professionals do not always have concrete answers or treatments for what’s going on.

This book dives into a high-stress situation with ambiguous outcomes where private moments are made public without consent. Understandably, Ellie struggles with how to respond and react in this situation, and that can be tough to read.

One of the highlights for me was seeing the close-knit group of friends form at the Family Care Home and seeing Ellie give a second chance to a couple of individuals that she had written off initially. I also enjoyed the romance subplot and liked that it was not the central focus of this story.

Natalie Naudus has a knack for narrating teenagers in angsty situations, and we see that exhibited in this audiobook. She captures the array of emotions that Ellie feels.

I received an advance copy of the audiobook from Macmillan Audio and NetGalley. All review opinions are my own.

A heartwarming young adult fiction!

Thanks NetGalley and Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners for the ALC.

Kudos to the author on this well accomplished debut 👏.

Synopsis –

Ellie Haycock, 16, is very good at compartmentalizing her life – Hospital Ellie and Home/School Ellie. She is a skilled orator/debate aspirant at school, has a great set of friends and an understanding boyfriend, Jack. Her mom is a popular blogger and regularly posts about Ellie’s health and illnesses. With another looming hospital stay, can Ellie start trusting her team of doctors? How can Ryan, her eternal optimist hospital friend help?

Review –

The narrator Natalie Naudus excelled in portraying Ellie’s character. Through her narrative, we get to dive deep into the mindset of a teenage girl, understand her emotions, deepest desires and thoughts as she navigates her school, family, hospital lives and friendships. Her voice adaptation also worked greatly for other characters.

The author handles Ellie’s disability with the highest amount of care, delicacy and sensitivity it requires. She brings out all the nuances of a teenager battling health issues, the challenges it adds to her already tricky teenage life - while she craves to be ‘normal’, tries to fit in, aims to be successful for her debate team and strives to make her parents proud.

I was glad that Ellie had several hospital friends and committed parents as her support system. While the relationship she shares with her mother is complexly layered, with its share of ups and downs, it is also beautifully rendered and touched my heart.

The writing is richly emotive - for I could really feel and empathize with Ellie’s raw feelings, as she works through conflicting opinions, wants, needs and beliefs about the medical system that she must now rely on, to go back to normalcy. I cheered on for her and was happy with how everything turns out in the end.

The book instills hope, joy and draws attention to the silver lining in our lives. It also invokes awareness, empathy and understanding about what it is to live with chronic illnesses, endless surgeries and hospitalizations. Definitely worth a read!

I listened to the audiobook and Natalie Naudus does a great job, as always, giving voice to this story. Ellie's life is full of difficulties and my heart went out to her and her family. Disabilities, medical challenges, teen romance, and a mommy blogger are a few topics the author brings awareness to in this story.

Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal by Gretchen Schreiber

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Wednesday Books for the free audiobook.

Blurb:
The Breakfast Club meets Five Feet Apart in this big-hearted novel from debut author Gretchen Schreiber.

✨My thoughts:
I really really enjoyed this story. I have never read or listened to a story like this because I don’t like to be sad on purpose but here we are. Natalie Naudus (narrator) had me completely lost in this story and had me feeling all of the things. With the talent of both the author and the narrator, it really set this book up for success. I loathe any parents that uses their children for blogs, YouTube etc. however, I ended up feeling for Ellie’s mom too. As a mother, she was also trying to cope and deal with the health of her daughter. Truthfully, my heart aches for Ellie. she has two separate lives, just trying to feel and be as “normal” as she possibly could in her shoes. I have not experienced a life like this but it felt all too real and my heart goes out to those who do. I think the narrator did a remarkable job telling this story and I hope the author is proud. Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal is out now!

Happy reading! 📖✨