Sherry Cracker Gets Normal by DJ Connell. Blue Door, £12.99.
DO not be deceived by the chick-lit style cover as this is no girly romance.
Sherry Cracker is socially awkward, eccentric and has a freakishly extensive knowledge of tartan. When her grammatically challenged boss Mr Chin gives her £100 and a weekend to get normal or “Chin find new worker for replacement”, Sherry embarks on an adventure replete with oddball characters, humorous misunderstandings and mysterious dealings, unwittingly ending up making life very difficult for the bad guys.
Author DJ Connell’s peripatetic lifestyle may be why it is sometimes difficult to fix a national identity to the characters and even the fictional town in which the book is set.
Also, with every person being as odd as the next, they all tend to blend into one. But, all in all, it’s a funny and endearing coming-of-age story, and a quirky summer read.
Zahra Saeed
