We Are Totally Normal by Naomi Kanakia
CW: Underage Heavy Drinking, Microaggressions, Manipulative Behavior, Depiction of Sex Between Minors, Homophobia, Queer-phobia, Internalized Queer-phobia, Drug Use, Sexism, Ableism, Importance of Social Status, Toxic Masculinity
3.5/5
I discovered this book when looking for Jewish YA books to read next, but I was misled by the faulty algorithm in Google searching. I fell for it because the author's name is Naomi, a common Jewish name. This is not a Jewish book, but it is queer! It certainly wasn't my favorite, and the audiobook had its own problems, but I believe the controversy surrounding it is a bit harsh. I think people were judging the book for the wrong reasons. Yet, I don't believe I would recommend this book to most people.
We Are Totally Normal is about Nandan, a Desi teen in California who is figuring himself out and making mistakes while doing so. He sees the world of high school in a sociological way. The school's elite are "The 99" and everyone has a role in the school and each other's lives. Everyone values different things, which Nadan uses to his advantage. He desires close friendships with the girls in his life, to be seen as indistinguishable from them. He also wants a relationship with Dave, a cute nerdy boy on the fringes of “The 99”. Unfortunately for both Dave and Nandan, Nandan has no idea what his queer identity is or if he even has one.
I was not very far into the book when I realized it wasn't going to be Jewish, so I started looking for reviews online to see if that was true. While there, I discovered that people have some very heated opinions about the book and the characters. This, more than anything, compelled me to read the whole book. I wanted to have my own take added into the mix. Those that have negative feelings towards the book as a whole can be forgiven, but I believe those that took their issues with the characters out on the book are misguided. Many found Nandan to be manipulative, annoying, and not worthy of Dave. They also found the popular girl, Avani, to have no redeeming qualities and that it didn't make sense for Nandan to defend her. I personally don't think that characters have to be good or likable for a book to be well written. I also think that focusing on the faults of a few characters distracted reviewers from the fact that all the characters were flawed (outside of Nandan's mom).
Interviews with the author (linked at the bottom) prove that Kanakia didn't want a clean teen romance. The messiness, uncertainty, and lack of cuteness was intended. I didn't fault We Are Totally Normal for any of these things. However, I still didn't like the book very much. I truly wanted to, but neither the story nor the audiobook were kind to the reader. The audiobook was poorly balanced in terms of sound, especially for a shorter book like this. I struggled to hear Dave and couldn't turn the sound down soon enough for Nandan or his friend Mari. The story felt unresolved in the end and it was difficult to keep some of the characters straight. I also felt that the running gag's pay off was anticlimactic. These are the reasons I rated this book a 3.5/5.
Overall, I don't think this book is terrible or worthy of controversy, but you can probably skip it in favor of one of the author interviews below. Naomi Kanakia is a joy and learning what went into the book behind the scenes was nice. If you do choose to read We Are Totally Normal, keep in mind that it was never intended to be a sweet romance.
Written Interview: https://thenerddaily.com/rahul-kanakia-author-interview/
Video Interview: https://itgetsbetter.org/blog/kanakia/
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