(2) YA Joel Teague--an affable, self-deprecating teen living in 1990s Michigan--is at a crossroads. After years spent in and out of inpatient psychiatric care following an unspecified "Bad Thing That Happened," Joel is now seventeen and long past his last flare-up. When his therapist prescribes a part-time job, Joel gets hired at ROYO Video. There, he takes the Star Wars–inspired nickname Solo and, with it, the chance to reinvent himself as "Normal"--as long as he keeps his history secret from his gaggle of quirky, cinematically pseudonymed young coworkers. In this pop culture–heavy period piece, Solo narrates his own halting, sometimes misguided emotional coming of age with an earnest, immediate voice. His friendship with Baby--a tough, straightforward, pregnant colleague standing at her own crossroads--becomes both a safe haven from his increasingly difficult parents and a proving ground for his complex relationships with others: for example, when she pushes him to examine his behavior around a gay coworker with a crush on him, and around his troubled but alluring boss. The ­lingering, ­often-alluded-to mystery of Solo's past casts an uneasy tension over his social wins and losses. The traumatic story he eventually reveals is neither tidy nor redeeming, but ­neither, Solo learns, is life--even for Normal people. Authentically flawed characters and imperfect connections add heft to this bittersweet workplace dramedy.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2021