Twelve Steps to Normal - Farrah Penn

Twelve Steps to Normal by Farrah Penn
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

Blurb (on back of book): James Patterson presents this emotionally resonant novel that shows that while some broken things can't be put back exactly the way they were, they can be repaired and made even stronger.
Kira's Twelve Steps To A Normal Life
1. Accept Grams is gone.
2. Learn to forgive Dad.
3. Steal back ex-boyfriend from best friend...
And somewhere between 1 and 12, realize that when your parent's an alcoholic, there's no such thing as "normal."
When Kira's father enters rehab, she's forced to leave everything behind--her home, her best friends, her boyfriend...everything she loves. Now her father's sober (again) and Kira is returning home, determined to get her life back to normal...exactly as it was before she was sent away.
But is that what Kira really wants?

MY OPINION: ****

I honestly ended up loving this book a lot more than I originally expected to!

Our main character, Kira, has been forced to leave her entire life behind so that her father can attempt to deal with his substance abuse and alcohol addiction after his mother ("Grams") passes away. She is reluctant to return after her father claims to have fixed it after going to rehab. She has left her best friends, her boyfriend, and everything about her old life behind.

When she returns, Kira is mostly set on trying to revert her present life back to what it used to be before her father spiraled. She makes a list of twelve people that she wants to attempt to fix/push away in order to bring her life back to what it used to be. I found this idea slightly petty and a little bit irritating because A) you should enjoy what you have and be grateful for it and B) some of the things she wanted to do really objectified human beings, which is not how anybody should be treated. Nevertheless, Kira attempts to follow her list.

Her father has a surprise for her when she returns home: he has allowed three other recoverees from where he went to rehab for to live with them without asking for Kira's permission first. I personally think this is a very nice to thing to do but I also understand why Kira was so angry and reluctant to accept them in her home. I mean, if I just returned home to a "healthier" dad and found random strangers sleeping in our guest room, I would probably throw a tantrum too. Hopefully, I would be more tactful than she was but still. The feelings would be mutual.

Peach, Nonnie, and Saylor are not the most admirable people in the beginning. Maybe this is because we are reading from Kira's perspective, and she took an instant dislike to them for obvious reasons. However, I never ended up really liked any of them except Nonnie. Peach was slightly annoying and she kept overstepping in Kira's boundaries, and Saylor seemed as if he wasn't supposed to be there. I mean, he was helpful but he didn't really add much to the story and could have easily been cut out altogether.

Kira goes back to school to find that there is an unclosable distance between her and her old best friends: Whitney, Raegan, and Lin.

WHITNEY. Oh my GOD I hated her so much. Maybe this is biased because again, we're reading from Kira's POV, but she was SOOOO annoying. She obviously doesn't understand what girl code is...

Let me educate those of you who don't know.

BASICALLY (the clean version): SISTERS BEFORE MISTERS. If your BFF likes a guy, you back off even if you like him, because she liked him first. If your BFF is dating somebody, don't try to flirt with them. AND UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DO YOU STEAL YOUR BFF'S BOYFRIEND. OR START DATING YOUR BFF'S EX. THAT IS A NO-NO.

Whitney also didn't seem as if she cared about their friendship though Kira describes their past relationship as caring and honest and open. I mean, if I had a friend like that from before, even if she iced me out, I would try to at least have a decent conversation with her.

Raegan is overly focused with being class president and she's given herself all of these duties in order to forget about the fact that her mother is pregnant with a surprise little sister that she never really wanted. Kira's relationship with her is less distant but I still could feel the ice between them.

AND LIN. Aww, I loved her so much. She seemed like the only one who actually cared about their relationship. She also didn't try to force Kira to do things that she didn't want to do and she was a kind and caring friend who actually listened to what her friends had to say. I have friends like that and I also have friends like Whitney so I mean, I guess I can relate.

Jay is Kira's ex-boyfriend and boy, did I hate him. I mean, in all of the flashbacks of their cutesy relationship, it never seemed like they were in love. He treated her kind of awfully and didn't seem to care about important things like her birthday or Christmas. He would rather be off partying and flirting with girls who aren't his girlfriend. I don't know what Kira or Whitney ever saw in him. I mean, he didn't even sound that attractive so...

ALEX. HE WAS SO CUTE AND I LOVED HIM SO MUCH. I mean, I honestly loved his personality, his confidence, and who he was. He was so kind, which is already more than you can ask for in teenage boys nowadays. Trust me, I know. On top of that, he was honest and loyal and funny. Like, where is this boy? The way Kira first described him made him seem less attractive but over the course of the novel, we really get to see where things start to change.

Let me just say that that ending was beyond depressing. That's all I'm going to say.

The writing in this book was fairly fluctuating between dialogue and description, something that I appreciate. I would recommend this book to readers looking for a serious YA novel.

Main Character: Kira
Sidekick(s): Alex, Lin, Raegan, etc
Villain(s): Change, drinking, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.