Torn from Normal [Kindle Edition]

 

 

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The book starts out with Danny, who is overcome with immense sadness. His best friend, Andy, committed suicide. He sets out to tell that story, and begins to write, sending the reader off into the world of Andy Riley.

Andy Riley is a regular teenager. He has stress, friends, and a lot going on his life. So when he runs away from home, things are thrown out of proportion. He lives with his Aunt Lily, a completely disgusting personality who yells at him and amuses herself by sending her dog, Fido, out to torture him. She's couch bound and abusive, and he finds solace in leaving her behind.

While travelling as far away as he can, Andy thinks back to his best friend and his father, Marvin. They're like family to him. And he thinks back to how his entire life came about. His father, a trucker, has a heart attack and suddenly dies, leaving the family under a cover of depression. Andy's life starts out hard, and it doesn't get much better.

Bartloff gives us a lot of characters to work with, each interesting and compelling in their own sense. Andy's a difficult protagonist to work with - a thinker who loves to hop around from one place to another. Danny is our other big player; a very good friend to Andy, and intent on having him as a foster brother. The plot is much the same; filled with a veil of tragedy and sadness framed by the opening passage about Andy's eventual suicide.

While the premise of the book is very interesting, I myself could not get into it like I thought I would. The characters are fine enough, but they never really feel real, even Andy. His constant stream of tragedies felt so unheard of and humorless, that it felt too unreal. Not to mention, the book moves a lot in the first 50 pages alone, constantly streaming the readers new information about Andy's past. It's a lot to work with, and makes you wonder why the pacing is so fast for a subject that's meant to be examined.

Editing issues were also a big slowdown, with many areas needing a good comma or two in them. It wouldn't have been much of an issue, but the shear amount of grammatical editing that felt left out really made the experience bitter. Another minor quip was that the back cover left no suspense to the story. It felt as though I was building up to absolutely no surprises.

Despite these issues, Bartloff has gleams of great writing within the book. As many times as I cringed at a lack-of-comma, I also smiled at the placement of a thought-provoking metaphor or description. The description was one of the book's strongest aspects, working well with the protagonist's constant thoughtfulness, based on his situation. Some descriptions, however, tried to retain the voice of a teenager, and the working of the narrative made said descriptions seem more awkward than needed.

Overall, TORN FROM NORMAL was an interesting and thoughtful read that dealt with many hardened issues among teenagers today. Unfortunately, clunky grammar and some bad plot dealings bogged it down from being a really powerful read, despite some fairly interesting characters and descriptions. The subject of suicide still holds strong, and the message of treating people right will always be welcomed, though hopefully Barloff's next book will be a bit more polished.

Reviewed by: John Jacobson, aka "R.J. Jacobs"

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