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ellie haycock is totally unlikable
Jun. 4th, 2024 11:30 pmwhaddup dreamwidth today i'm here to talk about a book that was BAD
ellie haycock is totally normal is an ownvoices book about chronic illness that takes main character ellie through navigating a breakup, a new mystery illness, and her mom's disability parent blogging. premise sounds fine on the surface. unfortunately, none of these conflicts really crest into anything that leads to a satisfying resolution. ellie's boyfriend breaks up with her in the first quarter of the book, she spends the rest of it trying to get back to him while juggling a completely unbelievable romance with a fellow spoonie, and then when she finally talks to her ex again they're just like ok are you cool? cool. we're not dating. like, nothing HAPPENS. ellie's actions toward her mom and friend are totally justified (she's dealing with some surgery-related trauma and disappointment and also is just, like, majorly in pain) but everyone acts like she was in the wrong and then it takes her all of five seconds to patch things up with both of them. there's plenty of conflict happening here, but none of it goes anywhere.
also, medium-sized complaint, but the book never really explains what VACTERLs, ellie's disability, is? it explains what some of the letters stand for, it explains that it's genetic, but we're left with a lot of missing pieces. caitlin, for example, is described as looking dramatically different from ellie due to the different ways their condition affects them, but aside from the esophageal dilation sideplot we never hear about what caitlin's life looks like. (also, she never gets a boyfriend so HER breakup plot in the first few chapters is totally pointless.) i am one of the rare people who actually knew what VACTERLs was going in, i had a friend of a friend in college who had it so i'd looked it up, but most people... aren't in that situation and therefore wouldn't know what the hell the author is talking about.
ultimately i think if the whole mommy blogger conflict had really been explored more in detail and taken up more space in the book it would have been better and more interesting. because there's an interesting dynamic there where this is how ellie's mom processes her scary reality and also ellie's agency being taken away from her at the same time. and then it just never got fulfilled.
ellie haycock is totally normal is an ownvoices book about chronic illness that takes main character ellie through navigating a breakup, a new mystery illness, and her mom's disability parent blogging. premise sounds fine on the surface. unfortunately, none of these conflicts really crest into anything that leads to a satisfying resolution. ellie's boyfriend breaks up with her in the first quarter of the book, she spends the rest of it trying to get back to him while juggling a completely unbelievable romance with a fellow spoonie, and then when she finally talks to her ex again they're just like ok are you cool? cool. we're not dating. like, nothing HAPPENS. ellie's actions toward her mom and friend are totally justified (she's dealing with some surgery-related trauma and disappointment and also is just, like, majorly in pain) but everyone acts like she was in the wrong and then it takes her all of five seconds to patch things up with both of them. there's plenty of conflict happening here, but none of it goes anywhere.
also, medium-sized complaint, but the book never really explains what VACTERLs, ellie's disability, is? it explains what some of the letters stand for, it explains that it's genetic, but we're left with a lot of missing pieces. caitlin, for example, is described as looking dramatically different from ellie due to the different ways their condition affects them, but aside from the esophageal dilation sideplot we never hear about what caitlin's life looks like. (also, she never gets a boyfriend so HER breakup plot in the first few chapters is totally pointless.) i am one of the rare people who actually knew what VACTERLs was going in, i had a friend of a friend in college who had it so i'd looked it up, but most people... aren't in that situation and therefore wouldn't know what the hell the author is talking about.
ultimately i think if the whole mommy blogger conflict had really been explored more in detail and taken up more space in the book it would have been better and more interesting. because there's an interesting dynamic there where this is how ellie's mom processes her scary reality and also ellie's agency being taken away from her at the same time. and then it just never got fulfilled.
