A review by starryorbit12
A Shot at Normal by Marisa Reichardt

challenging emotional informative reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The concept of the book was quite interesting because teenagers attempting to circumvent their anti-vaccination parents is something we are starting to see in real life. The authors note at the end mentions that this book was inspired by what would happen when this unvaccinated children grow up and want to choose something different. A lot of her thought processes actually match some of what we see happening in reality. The book does a great job at focusing on Juniper's struggle with being taught to have her own mind but not respected when her opinion differs from her parents. Juniper's parents highlight something we see often with parents in which they project their own insecurities onto their children. Juniper's mom doesn't listen to Juniper's experiences or wants just so she can project her own crappy school experiences when she talks about attending a public school. Juniper's dad choose to cite medical terminology he doesn't actually understand and debunked vaccination research instead of listening his daughter so he can protect the feeling of superior he feels for "all organic and natural" lifestyle. I really love the conversation that Nico and Juniper have about organic food and her parents inability to see their own privilege. There privilege is directly reflected in their anti-vax position and what leads to
baby Katherine's death and how incredibly sick Juniper gets. Juniper is intensively hospitalized with the measles and her siblings are young. There are so incredibly lucky that they didn't die, and that luck is used to justify baby Katherine's death in there mind because their children were fine. The don't even acknowledge how lucky they are that it was only Katherine that died.
Her parents are also a reflection of the idea that "parents teach their children how to walk and talk and then spend the rest of the childhood telling them to sit down and shut up" without even realizing that. They feel superior in there homeschooling because they are "teaching there children to critically analyze instead of regurgitating state standardized testing" but they don't even acknowledge that ignore any analysis that contradicts there beliefs. The refuse to listen to Juniper. At the same time, the book shows that like many parents they do love and care for their kids. Not everything is bad, they just refuse to acknowledge there flaws. That's also the biggest issue I have with this book. Juniper and Nico are the only characters that grow.
Juniper wins her court case to be vaccinated, and the book just ends. Her parents have been straight up ignoring her existence. They drop this huge bomb that her mother had two miscarriage before her in their court argument. After that, there is no resolution. She just gets her first vaccine. Her parents didn't need to change there position, but why never even acknowledge her's which is all she wanted. There is no acknowledgment of the way they treated her after the court notice. They don't even accept her just legal outcome. She doesn't even talk with her parents after the court scene.
The whole books core is about Juniper's relationship with her parents, and the conclusion just seems to forget that. Her parents don't grow to even at at least acknowledge her position, and the book just ends without any sort of conversation acknowledging what happened. It just hints that things will be okay and skips over a meaningful conclusion. The closing is just too short and lacks the substance the rest of the book has.
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