Title: My Friends Are All Strange
Author: Margaret Lesh
Publication date: October 18th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Rating: 4 / 5 stars
My friends are all strange.
Right now I’m living at Brookside, a place for people like me. I’ve met a kitty girl, a brooding beautiful boy, one who can’t be touched, and others. My new friends. Strange people. People like me.
I’ve always been different, but lately, more so. My hands sometimes don’t seem to be attached to the rest of me. I cut up all of my clothes. I’m hot, so hot, all of the time. If I sleep, a wizard haunts every dream. I don’t sleep. Sometimes I want to run, but where do you run to when you’re trying to escape your own mind? I don’t know if I’ll ever be the same. I’m smart. I’m nice, sometimes. I just want to be normal(ish). But, right now, my friends are all strange… Like me.
Dark, funny, snarky, seventeen-year-old Becca struggles to cope with mental illness in My Friends Are All Strange, the gripping contemporary young adult companion novel to Normalish.
This. Book. Was. Amazing!
Lately, I am really interested in reading YA books with mental illness thrown in the mix, and I guess I’ve come to have a high standard on the theme because of all the other books I’ve read, and lucky for me, this book didn’t disappoint.
In fact, this book is kind of refreshing, because I like Becca so much better than the whiny main character from the book I read before this one.
This book managed to bring me through a roller coaster of emotions since the very beginning, which surprised me. It’s rare that a book made me emotionally invested since the very beginning. But it did; it made me laugh and cry. And it made me frustrated and angry and annoyed (yes, Troy, I’m talking to you. Or about you. Whatever). Becca’s journey as she struggles with her sanity, the friendship she made along the way… it is just beautiful.
I’ve mentioned that I like Becca. But the one I love the most is probably Roman. He is so sweet. And that’s not just because I have this soft spot for an artist…who happened to be a social outcast.
To sum it up, this book was a beautiful coming of age story, with beautiful friendship and romance thrown in the mix. (Yes, I realize I used ‘beautiful’ a lot). I think fans of Am I Normal Yet would enjoy this, as well as readers who love YA books with a touch of mental illness.
I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.
Author Bio:
California native Margaret Lesh lives in a narrow canyon populated by herds of wild burro and packs of coyote. The canyon is also populated with her creative, handsome husband, her feisty mother-in-law, her not-brave-at-all Border Collie, Echo, and sometimes her son (who is away at college. And she is not quite sure how that all happened so fast).
She writes books to entertain young and not-so-young readers as well as herself. She believes tacos are magic.
GIVEAWAY: Open Internationally
Erucchii's Books and Recs 
Thanks for a great review. The book sounds fascinating.
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Erucchii, Thank you so much for taking the time to read and review My Friends Are All Strange! I’m so glad you connected with Becca, and Roman. (I’m working on a novella-length book featuring his character since so many people have commented that they want to hear more about him.)
I so appreciate this! And I’d love to see this review up on Amazon, if you have the chance.
All best,
Margaret
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