Fifteen Seconds of Normal
By: Alex Marestaign
Step 1: Transfer high schools Step 2: Hide your Tourette’s Step 3: Find your fifteen seconds of normal Kaeya Garay has a plan. And it seems to be working.But when a curious interruption named Thatcher Kelly stumbles upon her “safe” place in the school’s abandoned art gallery, her grand plans for normalcy are suddenly derailed. Set over the course of three weeks, Fifteen Seconds of Normal is the quirky saga of a literature obsessed teen on the edge of a meldown and the hope driven heroine who begins to pull him back. Fans of Eleanor and Park be warned. You won’t be able to put this one down.
Everyone is familiar with those internet memes? What many tend to forget is that those pictures are of real people. With lives. And Hearts. Thatcher Kelly becomes familiar with this in the beginning of Fifteen Seconds of Normal. When his “normal” is snatched away he finds a new one in the hidden art gallery where he meets the beautiful Kaeya Garay. A girl with secrets of her own.
I’ve met people with Tourette’s and I didn’t know much about it really until I picked up this book. The storyline begins like any other contemporary read but stretched into the unknown territory about the harsh judgmental society we live in today.
Thatcher Kelly is a sweetheart, honestly, there needs to be more guys like him out there. It almost seems rare now to find one. OR maybe I’m not looking hard enough? Either way, his selfishness and devotion to his sister makes this protagonist a cuddly teddy bear I want to hug every moment.
Kaeya Garay took me a while to be able to pronounce her name. Something about the “e” in the middle just threw me off. But her character and perfect flaws made up for it. She channels the classic teenager in high school. She just wants to be “normal.” Which is shown as she constantly tries to jump hurdles that she only needs to walk around. As the reader, you learn along with her about the lesson of just being yourself.
The overall storyline was good, but I feel like the author could have stretched it out a little longer. Add a bit more drama maybe? Allow the relationships to grow and get more intimate? It would make the book a little more longer and add more emphasis to the characters. Because the book flew by way too fast; or maybe I just plowed through it because of how great it was.
Either way, this book is filled with good content, interesting characters, and full of cute little jokes and quirks. I highly suggest it.
[A Review copy was sent in exchange for an honest review]
