I want to start this review by addressing our male lead. Bodee is a rather interesting name. And it suits a rather interesting character. One of the main reasons I had wanted to read this book was that the blurb says that the book contains a "quiet and awkward boy next door". I feel like, in YA, there are too many bad boys and just confident love interests in general. It's actually fairly rare to find a quiet and/or awkward male lead. And wow, Bodee was an excellent one. I suppose recently, there have been a gradual increase in the number of more interesting love interests- and I have to say, this is I change I wholeheartedly support.

I suppose, in a way, Alexi's secret was fairly obvious, and at times it seemed a bit silly to have her talk about her "biggest secret" because it was so obvious to the reader. At the same time, it was completely acceptable, because to all the other characters in the book (except Bodee) it was indeed a secret. I guess that's the privilege of being able to see inside her mind as a reader.

There was only one major issue I had with this book- and this was how the main conflict was resolved. I feel like the "villain" of the novel got off a little bit too easily. On one hand, I did understand why it was that he got off somewhat easily, but just on a very fundamental level, I disliked how the issue was kind of swept under the rug in a way (sorry, it's difficult to talk about without spoilers). I did recently read an interview with the author where she said that she didn't want to deal with this issue because the book was more so about Alexi's journey, and I suppose that's understandable.

Faking Normal is definitely a very unique read. I do agree with the statements in the blurb- Courtney C. Stevens blew me away with this thoughtful, realistic, compelling debut. She's certainly been etched onto my list of authors to watch out for.