C R OW N C I T Y B O O K R E V I E W | A N OV E L BY M A R I SA R E I C H A R DT
A Shot at Normal IN UNPRECEDENTED TIMES BY JENNIFER MOORE PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARISA REICHARDT
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made us not only keenly aware of our own and family members’ sniffles and coughs, but it has also tasked us with greater responsibility for protecting the health of others, including strangers on the streets and in grocery stores. The emerging availability of vaccines represents a new and hopeful chapter in our shared saga, but how we respond to the fast-tracked immunizations, as well as the challenge of balancing our own health and rights with the health and rights of others, depends on our unique circumstances and the impact the virus has had on us and our loved ones. Into these unprecedented times drops Coronado High School classmate Marisa (Matherne) Reichardt’s eerily prescient third novel, A Shot at Normal, released to bookstores on February 16. Reichardt chronicles how individual choices impact public health through teen protagonist Juniper Jade, who launches a legal fight against her Marisa in Santa Monica neo-hippie, anti-vaccinationist parents for her right to with her acclaimed trio. access immunizations after she contracts a serious case of the measles and unwittingly spreads the disease. In 2018 and 2019, when she first conceived the idea and wrote her next book, Reichardt could not imagine just how relevant the themes and conflicts faced by Juniper, her family and her community would be. She intuitively captures the skepticism, fear, vulnerability, loss, anger and guilt so many of us have felt and expressed during this time of heightened powerlessness. Where this book hits a particular and timeless sweet spot is in its poignant and empathetic exploration of the differences in how risk is perceived, calculated, weighed and then responded to among members of one family. I’ve been a fan of Marisa Reichardt’s writing since we were classmates at CHS, where her poetry was featured in our yearbook and her talent recognized by faculty when she was selected for the coveted Bobbie Booth Creative Writing Award during senior 54
CROWN CITY MAGAZINE
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MARCH 2021
