Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal is the debut novel from Anna Whateley. Anna has a PhD in literature from Queensland University. She’s an own voices author of young adult fiction that engages with diversity and the depth of human experience.

Peta Lyre lives in a world that isn’t made for her brain. She’s got an alphabet to contend with including ASD, ADHD and SPD. She’s also been brought up with a list of rules about what to do and what to avoid to help her seem ‘normal’ for whatever normal is worth.

From the offset Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal engages with Peta’s diagnoses, or alphabet. We are given insight into her feelings about being on the Autism Spectrum, her challenges managing the range of sensory sensitivities that present in her life and her need for medication to manage her day. We understand that Peta’s neurodiversity is who she is but that it also presents challenges that she must face, in large part because the neurotypical world does not cut her much slack.

The novel centers on friendship. Peta has her best friend Jeb. They’ve known each other for years and Jeb is the kind of person who cares enough to know when Peta needs him. Jeb is a study in masculinity that refuses to fit rigid definition. He’s strong enough to stand up for himself but does not let that make him hard. It was wonderful to see portrayed the ideal of men as supportive and present without needing to be dominant.

When a new girl starts at school, Peta suddenly finds herself with two best friends and a whole lot of confusion. Sam wants to know if Peta and Jeb are a thing. Maybe she is a third wheel. Peta’s not great with idiosyncratic language and even less sure about the language of relationships. As Peta revels in having an expanding circle of friends she must also deal with exactly how she is feeling about Sam and their growing closeness.

Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal shows us the journey Peta has to make to fit into a world that won’t shift for her. The story takes us into her family (her parents abandoned her with her aunt), the world of therapy (where it’s a mix-bag of individuals who both help but also patronise) and the world of just life.

Peta has always been told she needs to follow the rules to be normal. But not why normal is so desirable. As we move with Peta we see the enormous cost constant vigilance takes on her and come to question whether a rigid notion of normalcy is really so great?

I read because reading opens up windows on worlds that I could never hope to visit without books. Books take us outside ourselves and into other people's perspectives. In Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal we are given access to a world that is too often hidden behind labels and stereotypes.

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