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How To Be Normal (And Other Lies I Told Myself): A Queer YA Survival Novel
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Feb 26 2026
Pages: 136
Weight: 0.42
Height: 0.29 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Owen Blake wasn't planning to come out.
He was planning to optimize.
At fifteen, Owen developed a system for surviving high school that involved careful posture calibration, tone management, controlled eye contact, and never - under any circumstances - hesitating when asked a direct question. It was a practical solution to a social problem: if he could become confident enough, likable enough, normal enough... then maybe honesty wouldn't ruin everything.
So he stayed busy after school.
Agreed quickly.
Laughed at himself first.
Learned how to sound less like himself when reading aloud.
He became the therapist friend.
The safe friend.
The observant friend.
The friend who didn't need to talk about dating.
And for a while, it worked.
Told through a series of quietly disastrous experiments in self-presentation, How to Be Normal (And Other Lies I Told Myself) is a sharply funny and painfully honest self-help memoir from someone who had absolutely no business giving advice - especially to himself.
Perfect for readers who loved Heartstopper, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, and anyone who has ever decided that everything was fine because it seemed easier than admitting it wasn't.
Nothing is wrong.
Nothing is fixed.
And that might be the most honest thing of all.
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