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Anything But Normal (2010)

by Melody Carlson(Favorite Author)

2.79 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0800732588 (ISBN13: 9780800732585)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Fleming H. Revell Company

review 1: Sophie Ramsay is seventeen and a senior, but is not looking forward to her last year of high school. It could have been a fabulous nine months of enjoying her friends, her great classes, her journalism interests, yet her nine months are spent living out the secret of last summer. Melody Carlson, a veteran YA writer, who specializes in teen girl perspective covers the consequences of sexual pressure in Anything But Normal. Sophie, an active, committed Christian, strayed from her abstinence pledge and now faces the emotional, physical, spiritual dilemma of that decision. Presented with honesty and realism, teens will no doubt read with compassion how Sophie tries to deal with mistakes from the past and how they collide with her present.Melody Carlson knows how to present top... moreics that apply to teens today, especially girls. It’s not difficult to guess that Sophie’s secret is being pregnant, and the book doesn’t offer too much in the way of originality. On the positive side the book presents an honest, realistic portrayal of a “good” girl who made a bad decision and how that decision now affects her present and future. Unfortunately, the plotline gets bogged down at times with a moralizing tone. Sophie often laments how she only had sex twice and didn’t like it either time and doesn‘t want to have sex again until she gets married. Sophie also chastises her friends for dressing like “sluts“ considering they have made purity vows. Overall, the book offers a frank expose of sorts about a young woman who desperately wants to avoid the truth of her situation. Most of the book centers on her trying to cope alone with her pregnancy and she doesn’t even reveal her situation to her parents until she is five months along. From there the book rushes towards her having the baby without much more exploration on how her pregnancy affects her life. The confrontation scene between the two families could have been developed more with a focus on Dylan, the baby’s father, and his reaction since he also broke his purity vow. His motivations are not explored nor are his feelings about the situation truly developed. A book to consider more for its frank approach to teen pregnancy than for its originality in plotline.
review 2: I personally loved this book! I thought that it was a good depiction of teenage pregnancy. Though never personally experiencing something like this it seems that many girls go through a period of denial that they are pregnant. I love how the author portrays this through Sophie. I believe her parents reaction and that of the baby's father are fairly accurate reactions. I also think that Sophie's friends reactions were fairly accurate to how people would react in real life. I also liked how Sophie was able to live life basically normal despite her situation. I also love how the author shows Sophie's decision to give her baby up for adoption, that she is giving her daughter a better life with two parents who will love her and provide the loving environment that she alone cannot give. I also like how Sophie says that one day she will make a good mother. I think that although this story deals with a topic that is devastating to teenage girls it is a story of hope and that God can help us make the best of our mistakes and forgive us of them. Another thing that I really liked about this book is that it is not at all graphic in either the sexual content or the birth of Sophie's baby. Sophie is already pregnant when the book begins and she only tells of how she felt of when she became pregnant, but does not describe anything in detail. There was no offensive language either. I would recommend this book to any teenager who would like to learn more about the realities of teen pregnancy, because within the story Sophie meets other teens who are pregnant and through those experiences we learn more realities of teen pregnancy. I loved this book!!! less

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