The Art of Being Normal - Lisa Williamson

PI had been looking forward to reading this book for a while, as I'd read so many positive reviews for it, and had it recommended in my local waterstones. Usually, this would set my expectations too high, but I went into this book with an open mind, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

David has always felt that he should have been born a girl, and because of this everyone who doesn't know this about him assumes that he's gay. This includes his parents and the school bullies. He has been dying to tell his parents for a long time, but can't bring himself to tell them in case they react badly. David is the first perspective this book is told from.

The other perspective is of the new kid at school, Leo Denton. All he wants is to survive his last year of high school without being noticed, but ends up falling for a popular girl in his class, getting him unwanted attention. 

I love books that are told from multiple perspectives, and this book does it brilliantly. It also deals with sensitive subjects, such as transgender issues and bullying, in such a way that you feel like you are going through it yourself reading it. I really connected with the characters, and LGBT or otherwise, I think anyone would enjoy this book. 

It really stresses the fact that not everyone is happy with who they are born as, and everyone is different in some way, and the sooner people understand that, the better the world will be. As a cisgender straight girl (props to James Dawson's 'This Book Is Gay' for teaching me the appropriate terminology!), I've never experienced anything that David goes through, but I would never discriminate against a person like him, because it's not his fault he wasn't born in the right body. But there are many people that don't understand this, and this is why we need diverse books, so that those people will begin to realise what transgender people go through.

I absolutely adored this book, and I can't wait to see what else Lisa writes.

Verdict: 5/5 :D