Thursday, November 1, 2012

The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini


Genera: Fantasy/humor/contemporary

Subjects: Parallel universes, other worlds, adventure, RPG, nerds

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 387 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: HarperCollins: Balzer & Bray

Summary/ product description: “The Other Normals centers on 15-year-old Peregrine “Perry” Eckert, who’s seriously obsessed with an uber-dorky role-playing game called Creatures & Caverns. Concerned about his stunted social skills and need for fresh air, Perry’s parents decide to ship him off to summer camp to become a man. He anticipates the worst summer of his life until he arrives at camp and stumbles into the World of the Other Normals, a place where his nerdy childhood may serve him well — but not without connecting with the real world first.”

My Rating: êêêê

My Review: This book was really funny. So many ridiculous things happened. The characters themselves were pretty funny too. It felt kind of like a parody of some epic fantasy story, with some sci-fi thrown in. Perry is very naïve for a nerdy mathlete/RPGer. And very immature. He kind of reminded me of my brother, except my brother addicted to Call of Duty and other war games instead of WoW and RPG stuff. Ada and Mortin are pretty cool characters. Perry likes Ada a lot.

 There are some very unique creatures in this fantasy. Lots of unique world building. It’s almost a dystopian, but it’s really a parallel world or mystical creatures, some from mythology and other created by the author. You’d have to read it to understand how unique this book really is.

It reminds me of a few other books. Parodies by the Harvard Lampoon have similar humor. And There Is No Dog was also a funny one. If you like fantasy stories with faeries and elves and such, or are into RPG and WoW, then this is one book you can relate to. I also recommend this to all the nerdy and geeky guys out there (you are loved, we aren’t trying to make fun of you). I think this book would make a funny movie. Fantasy-comedy. It reminded me of that Scott Pilgrim movie, also.

Cover Art Review: This cover really captures the content. You have the figurines in the background and a guy who’s supposed to be Perry on a figurine stand. It’s just a good, fully, well designed and simple cover.

 

~Haley G

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