ELLIE HAYCOCK IS TOTALLY NORMAL

A teen with a rare illness struggles to bridge her hospital and school relationships.

Ellie Haycock insists that her high school friends—especially her boyfriend, Jack—never know how thoroughly VACTERLs affects her life. If they knew, surely they’d abandon her, just as her elementary friends did. The genetic disease has left Ellie with heart, kidney, spine, and limb issues. She’s had over 40 surgeries, and now she and Mom are staying in hospital lodging while Ellie’s doctors investigate a troubling new lung issue. Worse, Mom not only decides on Ellie’s medical treatments but publicly blogs about Ellie’s experiences and the stress of raising a disabled child. Luckily, Caitlin Barrie, Ellie’s “best hospital friend,” is a fellow VACTERLs veteran, ready to dispense support and no-nonsense advice. New hospital friends provide further distraction—especially Ryan Kim. Though Ryan’s insistence that Ellie should trust doctors who can’t fix her is as frustrating as Caitlin’s urging her to trust her friends, his tough love begins to feel unnervingly like romantic love. But Ellie’s pervasive distrust risks destroying her home and hospital friendships alike. Though the secondary characters feel somewhat two-dimensional, and Ellie’s development comes late in the story, Schreiber, who has VACTERLs herself, portrays myriad challenges of chronic illness, including post-traumatic stress from surgery, with often brutal frankness. Ellie’s relationship with her mother is gut-wrenching and nuanced, exploring issues of privacy, sacrifice, guilt, and love. Ellie and Caitlin read white; Ryan is cued Korean American.

Honest and illuminating.