A review by bookalchemist
A Shot at Normal by Marisa Reichardt

1.0

This was....such a disappointment. The author says at the end that the idea came from reading about anti-vax people and wondering what it would be like to be a teen raised in that environment, but disagreeing. It feels like that was about as much research as she did into that kind of household, and it felt incredibly stereotypical. I am not about to defend anti-vax people, but I do think that if you're going to portray a crunchy household, try to make it feel real. She's not allowed a phone, but her dad does copyediting (I assume on a computer? it's never mentioned). Her mom makes natural deodorant and shampoo, but before the winter dance she mentions putting on makeup (and it is not said that this is homemade, or a questionable/one-time decision).

And above and beyond that there's the weird portrayal of the 'normal' teens, and Juniper's strange sense of privilege, and how the whole thing wanted to be a high school movie and managed to grab all the worst characteristics of that.

I really hope other authors explore the idea of being raised anti-vax because there's a lot of potential.