Sixteen-year-old Peta Lyre, who is autistic and has ADHD and sensory processing disorder, is considered to be a success story of social training. Peta struggles every day to follow her therapist's massive list of rules, but with hard work and medication, she can almost pass for normal. A school ski trip and romance with a new girl named Sam Shir-Del lead Peta to wonder if she really wants to be normal at all.
Peta Lyre's Rating Normal contains examples of:
- Big Brother Bully: Peta's best friend Jeb is beaten by his older brother Damon, as well as his father.
- Character Tics: Peta jiggles her leg and shakes her hands. She does her best to suppress those movements.
- Dedication: "For all the wildthings"
- Disappeared Dad: When Peta's parents were together, her dad spent most of his time up north driving trucks, avoiding the family. He hasn't talked to her since the divorce.
- Domestic Abuse: Jeb's dad used to beat his mom, until a few years ago when the neighbors called the cops. She refused to press charges, but the incident apparently spooked him enough that he never beats his wife anymore, only his kids.
- Dysfunction Junction: Peta goes to a special college for kids with problems. Most of her classmates have a tragic backstory of some kind.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Jeb has a creative personality and wants to work in film, but his father wants him to work as a car mechanic in the family business, especially since Damon failed to get an apprenticeship.
- Fingore: Big Kat, a girl from Peta's school, is a recovering heroin addict. Once she got in a fight with a fellow addict, who bit off her little finger.
- Gayngst: At Sam's old school, a classmate kissed her. When Sam tried to hold her hand the next day, the other girl pulled away and laughed, saying Sam was just an experiment. The other kids found out and harassed Sam for it. She got a boyfriend to shut them up, but couldn't bring herself to do more than kiss him and eventually broke up with him. Her vengeful ex told everyone that she wasn't a lesbian, just a slut, which made the bullying even worse. Her family ended up moving to give her a fresh start at a new school.
- Held Back in School: Kat is nineteen, and trying year eleven for the third time.
- Imagine Spot: Peta has italicized imagine spots a few sentences long.
- Limited Wardrobe: Invoked by Peta, who only wears checked shirts and jeans so she won't be paralyzed with indecision every morning.
- Missing Mom: Peta's mum "quit" last year. She went west in search of something, she never said what. Peta now lives with her Aunty Antonia, aka Ant, who is actually her mum's brother's ex. She's much happier with Ant, thanks to her difficult relationship with her parents and the fact that she can go to the same school as Jeb.
- No Medication for Me: At one point, Peta stops taking her pills because her hyperfocus will make her a better skier. She goes back on them once school starts again because hyperfocus isn't useful in school, and because the pills make her more balanced.
- Picky Eater: When Peta eats burgers, she has to layer them so that certain ingredients don't touch.
- Poster-Gallery Bedroom: Jeb's room is decorated with posters of cars and movies. The car posters were Damon's; Jeb can't remove them, since it would damage the paint.
- Put Off Their Food: Ant likes to tell anecdotes from her job at the pharmacy during dinner. When she launches into a story about an old man's dentures, Peta eats quickly so she can finish before the story gets gross.
- Sensory Overload: One purpose of the medication is to make Peta less prone to this.
- Shower of Love: After a dance in which beer is spilled in Peta's hair, she and Sam take a shower together, where they kiss.
- The Unfavorite: Jeb's father's favorite son is Damon, who shares his interest in cars.Jeb: I'm not the kind of son he wants. Damo is. But he's not smart enough, can't think for himself, problem-solve the engines. I can. I just don't want to, and he knows it.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Peta's parents openly disliked her, spent years trying to make her normal, and finally left.
- Working Out Their Emotions: After a rift in her relationship with Sam, Peta spends the day on the slopes. Skiing is something she can be good at without having to follow lots of rules, and the discomfort and exhilaration provide a welcome distraction.
