As an editorial assistant for a scholarly journal, I can confirm that this is indeed sadly normal. I can't tell you how many email reminders I have to send reviewers to remind them to read the #$%* paper and send me their review. It usually has nothing to do with the quality of the submission and everything to do with the fact that volunteering to review a submitted article ends up at the bottom of the priority list for many (though not all) faculty members. If you had another journal in mind that could give you a quicker turn around time, you could always email Journal # 1 and (politely) tell them that you need to hear one way or the other by X Date. Then if that dates rolls around and still nothing, then you can email them to withdraw your paper and send to Journal #2 (though unless you know it will be faster you're probably just signing up for more of a protracted wait). If you do choose to withdraw, it's all about how you phrase the email...