Waiting for Normal (review)

Addie's life isn't easy: her father died when she was little, and her mom and stepfather have recently divorced. Dwight, her stepfather, has custody of her two younger half-sisters and would love to have Addie as well, but Mommers wants someone with her to handle things like cooking dinner and holding down the fort while she chases her next dream of a new lover and a successful business. The fort, as it happens, is Dwight's trailer; Mommers' last business venture cost the entire family their house, and Dwight has taken the younger girls north to his job site, where they manage to carve out the normal family life that eludes Addie. Addie makes the best of things, though, as she finds supportive friends in Soula and Elliot, the people who run the gas station/convenience store across the lot. If you look up "resilient," "trooper," and "enabler" in the dictionary, you'll find a composite portrait of Addie; her unflagging cheerfulness and good nature, especially in the face of her mother's cavalier attitude toward child-rearing, will be endearing to some readers and maddening to others as she endures increasing neglect with quiet resignation. Readers familiar with genre conventions will know that the quirky, big-hearted Soula is doomed from the first mention of chemo (someone has to die, after all), but her loss is moving just the same. Addie's team of rescuers, though tardy, comes through with everything one could hope for to ensure our long-suffering and deserving heroine her happy ending; what would otherwise come across as some pretty serious maternal selfishness and abuse is softened by the comforting conclusion.