This debut novel and winner of the inaugural Walker Manuscript Prize is a story about a family under the influence of a controlling father.

Astrid is starting Year 12 and going to high school for the very first time. She’s been homeschooled because her father doesn’t trust the outside world and keeps a tight leash on her and her mother. He doesn’t allow her to be a normal teenager, and she and her mother must tiptoe around him, catering to his every whim, or else he will explode. Astrid resents her older brother, who escaped a few years ago and left them behind. All she wants is to blend in and be normal, but she doesn’t know all the unspoken codes of communication, she’s shy, and is hiding a terrible secret about her family.

Astrid makes a friend, Cathy, who loves music like her, and she is attracted to cool girl Leila, but she can’t trust either of them with her secrets, which makes her uncommunicative and makes forming friendships a challenge. There are misunderstandings and confusion, but eventually Astrid and her mum devise a plan to escape her father’s controlling influence for good, and she will need her new friends to help.

How to Be Normal is a deeply engaging read about coercive control written by an author with personal experience of it, who never lets the narrative get too dark or confronting. I highly recommend this novel for readers aged 12+ who like contemporary stories.