How to Be a Normal Person

Gustavo Tiberius just might be my favorite character of all time. Aside from the fact TJ knows humor and can write so that you find yourself putting the book down to get all the giggles out, this book is a while new breed. It handles asexuality so well (they're people too and need love just like everyone else) but because asexuality is a topic not discussed a lot, I love the way it's handled in this book. I love their relationship and you really care about all the supporting characters as well. I buy this book for people often. It's one everyone should read.

5 Hearts for both ebook & Audio Reviewed by Prime for both.

Ebook review:

I am going to be totally frank from the outset: I am ever so slightly a massive fan of TJ Klune’s novels. I have now decided that I have a personal definitive rating of TJ’s books and this one falls second, behind Bear, Otter and the Kid (series). For the sake of all our sanities, I am not going to gush further about how awesome all of TJ Klune’s books are.

Like other books by the author, this is full of hilarious descriptions of other characters/situations, a lot of laugh out loud conversations and enough feelings to send the reader on an emotional roller coaster.

So… How to be a Normal Person... Like all of TJ Klune’s books this is a quirky but thoroughly relatable look at how two guys who are poles apart in personality can get together and fall in love.

The story is mostly told from the POV of Gustavo Tiberius – aka Gus. Gus struggles with his social skills and before the death of his father; his father was also one of his only friends and his link to the rest of the world. In the small town he calls home, Gus has a very settled life with a set routine.

He also has some interesting acquaintances, including a cafe owner obsessed with alliteration and three lesbians who may or may not be sisters that are the sole members of the town’s vespa gang. Then there is Casey – the asexual stoner hipster who turns up in town to work for his aunt, the owner of Gus’s local cafe.

It doesn’t take Casey long to realise that Gus is a bit of an oddball (which we learn more about through some of Casey’s POV sections). He’s a scruffy looking surfer dude that sounds very yummy and very sexy!

Both these guys are relatable and the attraction is both sweet and sexy. Yes, with Casey being asexual there is not a lot of physical love in the book. However, there is a very gentle and passionate romance coming to life within the pages that is not dependent on the characters having sex with each other. It is very clear that both of the guys bring something that the other needs in his life.

My heart ached for poor Gus. I really connected with him. I suppose that is because, partially, I can recognise some of his anti-social behaviours and also because we get a couple very important lessons here. The lessons being that you can pretend to be someone else but it is not necessarily going to make you happy or feel good within yourself.

I hate that Gus needed to “be a normal person” so that he could be with his asexual stoner hipster, Casey. Seriously, I want to give Gus hug even though I think I know his character well enough to imagine the reaction!

If you have followed the author’s blog, you may know that this is a somewhat personal book and he is ready to explain what it is to be asexual for those of us who do not understand. In this situation, I have to say that I love Casey. He is just a lovable ball of energy and happiness. Although he doesn’t get pleasure from sex, he is ready with a hug to brighten the day of everyone around him. Isn’t that just the most awesome type of person?

As a bit of a teaser, while some of Gus’s flash backs to conversations with his father are both sweet and at some points very sad, they were also quite funny. Then there are the “recorded phone calls” with his internet provider – OMG, so funny, I loved the book for those few bits of dialogue alone.

Audio Review:

I am not going to make it a secret – I absolutely adore TJ Klune, I love how he can make you laugh so hard for the entire length of a book also make you feel feels that give you the “Wookie cry face”. How to be A Normal Person does exactly that! Of course, I have to add that the brilliant narration by Derrick McClain is just spot on and pulls all the right emotions and his tone is so perfect as the voice of main character Gustavo Tiberius.

Ok, yes, I did read this book when it came out but for me the audiobook just elevated the story to an entire other level. Gustavo Tiberius is a bit of a “Grumpy Gus” and has exactly zero social skills despite having the friendship of some rather quirky characters including 3 elderly ladies who are either in a lesbian three-way or are sisters (and the only members of the town’s vespa gang) and Lotte who owns that coffee shop down the street. His one link to the world, his father known to everyone as Pastor Tommy died of cancer a few years ago. He runs his father’s video rental store, which Gustavo only can get by because he happens to also be the land lord to much of the town’s shops – another part of his father’s legacy.

Then one day Casey shows up. Casey is a stoner hipster that makes me think of Shaggy from the Scooby Doo gang and brings to mind the line from Star Wars “…half-witted, scruffy looking nerf-herder” as the perfect description. Casey is the exact opposite of Gustavo – he loves social media, he loves people… he also happens to be a famous author. In many ways, I think that Casey is much like Pastor Tommy (who was also a stoner) and supports the old proverb that you look for a partner with the same personality of your father/mother, depending on your sexuality.

With Casey showing up, Gustavo starts to learn more about himself and his feelings. And that is where the title of the book comes into play: How to be a Normal Person. To be with Casey, Gustavo thinks that he needs to research and go through the steps to be a normal person so that Casey would be attracted to him. It seriously made me want to cry for Gus, but then again that is the message of the book – it’s ok to be yourself, even if you an anti-social realist who doesn’t have the internet or a smart phone, or if you are an asexual stoner hipster who can hastag like nobody’s business.

As a bit of a teaser, while some of Gus’s flash backs to conversations with his father are both sweet and at some points very sad, they were also quite funny. Then there are the “recorded phone calls” with his internet provider – OMG, so funny, I loved the book for those few bits of dialogue alone.

Fans of TJ Klune will not be disappointed, to those that don’t know TJ Klune – you need to get onto it. The well paced and well developed story hits all the emotional highs and lows that all I can say is I recommend this to everyone who loves MM romance!

Many of my friends kept telling me to read this. They said I'd love it. They told me I'd laugh until I cried... they were so right. I did laugh... a lot. I found myself sitting on my bed reading passages of this book to my husband and HE was laughing so hard.
Gus is one of the most brilliant characters I've ever read. I don't know if it's because I actually get him. Like, so much of his mind I understand. I'm weird, and my whole life I've been told I'm an oddball and I do strange things. I don't conform. Well, Gus is so much like that and I got it. He is so refreshing. Watching him and Casey was like the best banter. Whether they were stoned talking about silly book plots, or telling each other that they wanted to go on like a billion dates forever, or simple just were. It was a wonderful thing to witness.
All the characters in this story were perfectly done. The We Three Queens were excellent. Hilarious. Lottie with her lattes and her drag queen hair. Even Casey's friends. I will also never be able to call my internet provider ever again without laughing my butt off.
This is the sort of book you read when you are really looking to connect with something. It's a feel good, be good, kind of book. It's a book that says, be who you are, love who you are, and find people who are searching for the same thing.
Well done!

\"He wondered, as the door closed and those Vespas fired (whined) up, when exactly he’d lost control of the situation and found himself with people that could be considered friends. If he had warm and disgustingly fuzzy feelings at the thought, well. No one was there to see them and hell would freeze over before he’d ever admit it.\"
Gustavo Tiberius is, to put it mildly, one of the best characters I have ever read. I love him. I love this book. I love TJ Klune. See? Putting it mildly. I'm actually facing a very large conundrum here. Something that has never happened to me before. I haven't got a clue how to review 'How to Be a Normal Person'. I mean, I can gush over how funny and witty it is, and how much I loved all of the characters. And I can talk about how much I learned about what it really means to be asexual. Or I can delve deeply into the main characters and what has brought them to this place in their lives. Nah. I think I'm just going to tell you what it meant to me.
I got tears in my eyes every time, every single time, Gus would remember stuff his dad, Pastor Tommy, had said to him throughout his life. All I could think was what an amazing man he had for a father, even though most people would've probably said it was a shame he was raised by a stoner. I just thought Gus was lucky and the love he and his dad had for each other showed even three years after his dad died.
I adored the Internet advice and I now know what's wrong with me. I've never asked Google the right questions! It's that simple. Gus asked so many wonderful queries and the answers were, at times, hysterically funny and realistically astute. It would have never occurred to me to ask the Internet how to be a normal person. But, then again, that's something else I loved about Gus. He is abnormal, weird, and strange. He's also charming, funny, smart, and a Grumpy Gus who loved his father. And he is falling in love with an asexual, stoner, hipster.
\"But really, though. Maybe he wasn’t normal, okay? Maybe he wasn’t like everyone else. But even though he’d tried to become something better, pieces of who he really was still poked through and those were the pieces that Casey seemed to cherish the most about him. Casey had never asked him to change.\"
The stoner conversations reminded me of so many things, and brought back wonderful memories. The way Casey thought everything about Gus was amazing, when Gus had never thought that about himself. Ever. The ridiculousness of some of the conversations made me laugh, and sometimes made me yearn.
Basically, I've got a lot of love for this book and for the author. He constantly surprises me, amazes me, gives me Wookie cry face, and makes me snort water out of my nose. Mostly though, he makes me feel, and speaking from experience, I'd rather feel deeply no matter how much it might hurt, than feel nothing at all.

By far the funniest book I have read in a long time. I laughed out loud through the entire thing. The writing is so clever and relatable and has great characters. Loved everything about this book.