Book Review for Perfectly Normal by Amy Martin

Perfectly Normal, by Amy Martin, is a young adult fantasy that intertwines the ignorance of the past with hope for the present.

In a small town near the contaminated Rocky Ridge Lake, Rachel Lord is enjoying senior year with her two best friends, Janey and Ellie. One night, Janey disappears, and Rachel decides to go out looking for her. After an unfortunate car accident, Rachel wakes up in Dani Maguire’s body, one of the popular girls at school. As Rachel tries maneuvering her way through Dani’s life, she realizes that there is more to the situation than meets the eye. Just what exactly happened to her, Janey, and Dani? And how are they connected to the disaster at Rocky Ridge Lake so very long ago? In this enchanting story, Martin invokes the age-old consequence of what happens when knowledge falls into the wrong hands, all the while gives rise to a forgotten legacy filled with magic and mischief.

I liked reading about Rachel and Ellie’s friendship. It’s clear they both care about each other in a way that’s more permanent than their dull interactions in high school. They both love Janey as well, and care enough to be concerned that she’s missing. Dani, on the other hand, isn’t forgivable; I was disgusted by how she treated her former friends. Although she may be sympathetic, in the end I can’t help but agree with Ellie, that they do need to be careful around Dani. The fact that Luke, the all around nice guy, was thinking about breaking up with her, was little solace. Not only that, but to find out that one of the mean kids was actually a witch isn’t a pleasant surprise when you hate them with all your guts. Still, these interactions parallel with the witches who did everything they could to protect their lands. Just like the mean kids in high school, they didn’t realize that with time comes change.

This brings me to a prominent theme in the book; you need to be able to adapt to change. With Dani gone, Rachel and Ellie had to move on with their friendship because they knew they couldn’t wait for Dani to just suddenly change her mind. In the same way, the Clairvox witches had (supposedly) burned their spell books, if only to try and help future generations blend in with modern society. While this can be humorous at times, it can also be dangerous. As the witches demonstrated, there were other powerful covens nearby, and unless you know how to control your magic, you’ll be easy prey for them. High school parallels with this too to a lesser extent. This particular theme was well-executed, and was also one of the highlights of the book.

Thus, I would give this book a rating of a 3.7 out of 5 stars. While the character parallels were wonderful, I would’ve preferred there to be more details behind Rachel and Dani’s relationship. However, the theme of change was excellent, the many conflicts in the book dealing with how frightening change can be. As such, I would recommend this book to fans of Never Ever by Sara Saedi.