Tag: Mental Health

Grey Land #1: The Call – Peadar Ó Guilín

What was I thinking?! I discovered this book in 2016 and gave my initial read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. What?? This is clearly a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book! I’d borrow more stars right now if that was possible!

Put to the ultimate test for your survival, you will find out exactly what you’re made of when you’re Called; literally if you’re not quick enough, wily enough or lucky enough. At some point during your adolescence you will be Called to the Grey Land. Your body will return, dead, alive or somewhere in between, exactly three minutes and four seconds after you disappear, but in the Grey Land you must survive an entire day of horror beyond measure.

Cowards have the opportunity to become heroes. Those who are certain they will survive aren’t so sure once they breathe in the acrid air and encounter the first of the Sídhe (fairy, in English) who want to play with them, agonisingly twisting and reshaping their body beyond recognition.

‘The Nation must survive! The future is ours!’

With only one out of ten people surviving the Call it’s wise to not get too emotionally attached to anyone. However it’s impossible not to have a few of the teens penetrate your protective emotional armour. My favourite character doesn’t survive their Call but their time in the Grey Land proved to me exactly why I loved them from the moment I met them.

While at first glance it seems clear who the monsters of this story are, the longer I read the more I questioned my initial judgement. It appears there are monsters on both sides of this war and I felt some surprising empathy for the Sídhe as I learned more of their history.

This is the spirit of the Call itself. Deadly and inevitable and imminent.

This is one seriously messed up fairy (Sídhe) tale and I love it! It’s a brutal and at times quite gory story, with characters I cheered on to survive (or otherwise), and locations that came to life in my mind. This is definitely not a world I would ever want to visit because there’s no way I’d survive the Call, but I was fully immersed the entire time in this imaginative, well thought out world.

I have the Hugo Awards to thank for finally getting my act together to reread it. The Invasion is a finalist in the 2019 Hugo Awards category, Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, so I had the perfect excuse to revisit the awesome horror of the Grey Land in The Call.

Books within the book: I wish I could get my hands on the hundred page History of the Sídhe book mentioned in The Call, as well as all the volumes of the Testimonies.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Imagine a world where you might disappear any minute, only to find yourself alone in a grey sickly land, with more horrors in it than you would ever wish to know about. And then you hear a horn and you know that whoever lives in this hell has got your scent and the hunt has already begun.

Could you survive the Call?

by Categories: ReviewTags: , , , , , , 1 Comment

Glimpse – Carol Lynch Williams

This is a tough book to read. Important, but painful. Lizzie, Hope’s older sister, has been hospitalised after a suicide attempt. She’s not talking so no one knows why she did it. Well, almost no one.

Hope can’t understand what was causing her sister so much pain and she’s at a loss when her sister’s psychiatrist seeks her insight. It doesn’t help that their mother is doing everything in her power to silence both of her daughters.

Shame
makes a person
keep their lips pressed
tight together.
I know.

Never tell no one,
Momma says.
And I
don’t.

Lizzie’s psychiatrist thinks there may be clues about what was happening in Lizzie’s life and mind in the lead up to her hospitalisation in her diary, but they don’t know where it is.

We Chapmans stick together. We don’t tell nothing about our lives. Not to doctors or nurses.

This book’s content, while I found it predictable, was so painful to read, yet at times I was overwhelmed by gratitude that these sisters had Miss Freeman to love them and Hope had her best friend (other than her sister), Mari.

While it would have been heartening to read a happily ever after ending, I found the actual ending realistic. Although I’m certain there’s still plenty of therapy to come for the Chapman girls I was also hopeful that, with ongoing support and their individual and combined strength, they would begin to heal. While it’s not necessary for the story I would like to read what happens next, probably from Lizzie’s point of view.

I became a fan of novels in verse because of Ellen Hopkins. While the format worked for this book at times, I felt a lot of the time as though I was essentially reading prose where someone had added random line breaks. I’d like to read one of this author’s novels that’s not in verse for comparison as she really got inside the characters and swept me along for the entire journey.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. If you are experiencing sexual assault or have in the past, please know that you are not alone. There is help available, which you are worthy of. If you need to talk to someone about this and you don’t know who to contact in your country a good place to start is http://www.hotpeachpages.net.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

In one moment,
it is over.

In one moment
it is gone.

The morning grows
thin, grey
and our lives –
how they were –
have vanished.

Our lives have
changed
when I walk in
on Lizzie
my sister

holding a shotgun.

Twelve year old girl Hope’s life is turned upside down when her older sister Lizzie becomes an elective mute and is institutionalized after trying to kill herself.

With raw and haunting writing reminiscent of Ellen Hopkins and Elizabeth Scott, Carol Lynch Williams is a promising new YA voice.

by Categories: ReviewTags: , , ,

The Devil Aspect – Craig Russell

Spoilers Ahead!

‘Maybe it would be best,’ she said at last, ‘if you left the Devil alone in his hiding place.’

This book had so much to love – a serial killer on the loose, a medieval castle with a dark history that’s now an asylum and a psychiatrist delving into the minds of the most notorious murderers in Europe, all steeped in folklore and mythology and set in the lead up to WWII.

I adored the settings, from the creepy castle to the shadowy forests and the bone church. The writing flowed well and it felt like the author had done a lot of research, particularly around Central European myths and legends, which I need to learn more about now that I’ve had a taste. I really enjoyed the blend of psychology and mythology.

Here am I and I here stay, for this is where Evil resides. Here am I and I here stay, for this is where the Devil hides.

The idea of having a front row seat (nestled behind the safety of the pages) when infamous criminally insane people told their stories was a big draw card for me. While I was interested in the backgrounds of each of the Devil’s Six, none of them gave me the chills I experienced when I first met Hannibal Lector so many years ago.

I found myself just getting into one of the Six’s stories and then it would be over; I’d want more but the story moved on. Each of the six could have had an entire book devoted to their story so sitting in on one session with their psychiatrist was never going to be enough for me. I was disappointed when I found some of their stories fairly predictable, especially the Vegetarian’s.

Has obsessing over more than 300 episodes of Criminal Minds finally ruined me? I am notoriously terrible at figuring out who did it and why, yet there’s been a disturbing recent development; I’ve been working out who did it early on and then spending the rest of the book hoping for a blindside that never arrives. It happened again here and I don’t know if it’s because I’ve magically levelled up in my ability to sniff out the clues from the red herrings or if it really was that obvious.

Thank you to NetGalley and Constable, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group UK, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

In 1935, Viktor Kosárek, a psychiatrist newly trained by Carl Jung, arrives at the infamous Hrad Orlu Asylum for the Criminally Insane. The state-of-the-art facility is located in a medieval mountaintop castle outside of Prague, though the site is infamous for concealing dark secrets going back many generations. The asylum houses the country’s six most treacherous killers – known to the staff as The Woodcutter, The Clown, The Glass Collector, The Vegetarian, The Sciomancer, and The Demon – and Viktor hopes to use a new medical technique to prove that these patients share a common archetype of evil, a phenomenon known as The Devil Aspect. As he begins to learn the stunning secrets of these patients, five men and one woman, Viktor must face the disturbing possibility that these six may share another dark truth.

Meanwhile, in Prague, fear grips the city as a phantom serial killer emerges in the dark alleys. Police investigator Lukas Smolak, desperate to locate the culprit (dubbed Leather Apron in the newspapers), realizes that the killer is imitating the most notorious serial killer from a century earlier – London’s Jack the Ripper. Smolak turns to the doctors at Hrad Orlu for their expertise with the psychotic criminal mind, though he worries that Leather Apron might have some connection to the six inmates in the asylum.

Steeped in the folklore of Eastern Europe, and set in the shadow of Nazi darkness erupting just beyond the Czech border, this stylishly written, tightly coiled, richly imagined novel is propulsively entertaining, and impossible to put down.

by Categories: ReviewTags: , , , , , , ,

SHOUT – Laurie Halse Anderson

This is the story of a girl who lost her voice and wrote herself a new one.

I expect I’m one of the only ones reading SHOUT before they’ve read Speak. I’ve had Speak on my ‘I absolutely have to read this book’ list for as long as I can remember but still haven’t read it. I searched my local library for it but they don’t own it. I tried for several years to buy it on Kindle but it wasn’t available to purchase in my country (I just checked and it’s still not an option). I finally bit the bullet and added it to my Book Depository order last year and it’s been looking at me ever since from my shelf, quietly asking me why I haven’t opened its pages.

Honestly? It’s intimidated me. It’s the book about sexual assault and while I’ve read so many others, I think I’ve worried about what it will bring up for me when I do finally read it. So, long story slightly shorter, my plan is to SHOUT, then Speak, and then SHOUT again. I’m interested to see if my perspective on SHOUT changes after I’ve read Speak. I guess time will tell.

The first section of this book is essentially memoir in free verse. Laurie takes the reader on a journey through a series of childhood memories; a father haunted by war when alcohol isn’t numbing his memories, a mother silenced, her own experiences of school, work and surviving sexual assault. I really loved reading about Laurie’s experience as an exchange student in Denmark and would happily devour as much information as I could about those 13 months; what I’ve read has sparked an interest in Danish culture.

The second section, which begins almost two thirds of the way through the book, broke my heart as Laurie shared just a handful of stories about her interactions with other survivors, whose young bodies have been invaded and lives changed, most often by those they know and should have been able to trust. Although this section made me cry one of the things that got to me the most was something hopeful – the colourful ribbons tied to fences in Ballarat, Australia in support of the abused, which ultimately created Loud Fence. The images of those ribbons of support broke me.

This section includes responses from readers, students who have heard Laurie speak, teachers and librarians; those who need to share their story, those who don’t understand what was so bad about Melinda’s experience in Speak, those who want to censor “inappropriate” reading material.

I’m not sure how to sum up the third section other than to say that it was the shortest section but also the one in which I shed most tears. Laurie’s final poems about her parents simply gutted me.

Although it’s clearly stated in the blurb I still hadn’t thought there’d be as much memoir as there was in this book. I’d expected a greater percentage of poems to be directly addressing sexual assault, even though there are plenty that do. When my expectations didn’t line up with reality I thought I’d be disappointed but I wasn’t and I’m already ready for a reread. I expect that I will revisit this book each time I read one of Laurie’s books that are mentioned here, to search out her favourite scenes and glimpses of the story behind the story.

There’s a vulnerability here and it’s entwined with strength, determination, courage, resilience and so much compassion. While I finished this book with a contented sigh I’m still yearning for more. Luckily for me, as this is the first of Laurie’s books that I’ve read (shame on me!), I still have plenty to explore.

Thank you, Laurie Halse Anderson, for sharing some of your life in this book, for breaking my heart, growing my empathy, giving me so many amazing passages to highlight and inspiring me. I will see you on Ultima Thule.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson is known for the unflinching way she writes about, and advocates for, survivors of sexual assault. Now, inspired by her fans and enraged by how little in our culture has changed since her groundbreaking novel Speak was first published twenty years ago, she has written a poetry memoir that is as vulnerable as it is rallying, as timely as it is timeless.

In free verse, Anderson shares reflections, rants, and calls to action woven between deeply personal stories from her life that she’s never written about before. Searing and soul-searching, this important memoir is a denouncement of our society’s failures and a love letter to all the people with the courage to say #metoo and #timesup, whether aloud, online, or only in their own hearts. Shout speaks truth to power in a loud, clear voice – and once you hear it, it is impossible to ignore.

by Categories: ReviewTags: , , , , , , ,

The Quiet You Carry – Nikki Barthelmess

none of us can understand what’s going on in another person’s life from the outside looking in. No one can really see the quiet you carry, unless you let them.

Victoria lives with her father, stepmother and stepsister. Well, she did until the night her father locked her out of the house. Suddenly this shy, studious 17 year old finds herself stuck attending a new school in a new town and living with a foster mother who appears to hate her. Everything she thought she knew about her life has crumbled around her in a confusing mess.

Foster care isn’t one size fits all in how kids wind up in care in the first place or their experiences once there. There are so many negative stereotypes about foster kids so I was delighted to discover that Victoria wasn’t a stereotype. It never occurs to her to quit school and give up on her dreams because of circumstances outside of her control. There’s no smooth sailing here but she’s determined to move on from this experience and not allow it to define her.

Victoria’s foster care experience, while it sounds horrendous, is fairly average. Some foster kids fortunately land in families that provide the love, protection and encouragement they so desperately need and at the other end of the spectrum there are those who wind up in abusive situations that mimic those they were removed from. The portrayal of overworked caseworkers is sadly realistic and the shame of being a foster kid is all too real.

Nikki Barthelmess notes that while this book is fiction, she spent a number of years in foster care herself. I think it’s a testament to Nikki’s resilience that she has managed to articulate so well the way foster care feels. While there are some minor details in the way things unfold in the story that I could perhaps question (and will in a minute) I have nothing but praise for the authenticity of Victoria’s feelings from beginning to end.

I loved that Victoria has Christina and a boy named after a vegetable supporting her the entire time, before they know her story and, even more importantly, after. She also has supportive teaching staff, who truly can make a world of difference in a foster kid’s life.

I only hope that foster kids who read this book have someone in their corner as well because foster care can be such a lonely and terrifying experience. Even with support being a foster kid can make you feel so separate from other kids, who are worried about things like makeup and clothes while you’re worrying about the potential consequences if you tell the truth about what’s happened to you and where you’ll go next if this foster home doesn’t work out.

I found it difficult to believe (maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part) that in juvie a male worker would be responsible for searching a teenage girl. I would hope that if it was protocol to do a physical search for new arrivals that a female worker would do this for girls. I also found it weird that Victoria’s best friend doesn’t try to make contact with her when she drops off the face of the Earth; sure, Victoria doesn’t have access to a phone or social media anymore but her email account is still active.

Because of my own experiences and those of other foster kids I’ve known I had expected this book’s contents to be more brutal. I’m not saying everything is peachy or anything. My content warnings alone give you some indication of what to expect. I’m sure that what’s described in this book would be shocking for a lot of people so I expect I’m an outlier in this regard.

There needs to be more YA and kid’s books about the foster care system. When I was in the system I would have loved to have seen any aspect of my experience mirrored by a character I was reading about. This book will hopefully be an eye opener for people who don’t know the foster care system from the inside and provide much needed empathy and validation to those who find themselves fostered, for whatever reason.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Flux, an imprint of North Star Editions, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Victoria Parker knew her dad’s behaviour toward her was a little unusual, but she convinced herself everything was fine – until she found herself locked out of the house at 3:00 a.m., surrounded by flashing police lights. 

Now, dumped into a crowded, chaotic foster home, Victoria has to tiptoe around her domineering foster mother, get through senior year at a new school, and somehow salvage her college dreams … all while keeping her past hidden.

But some secrets won’t stay buried – especially when unwanted memories make Victoria freeze up at random moments and nightmares disrupt her sleep. Even worse, she can’t stop worrying about her stepsister Sarah, left behind with her father. All she wants is to move forward, but how do you focus on the future when the past won’t leave you alone?

by Categories: ReviewTags: , , , , , ,

Outside – Sarah Ann Juckes

This is a story where the less you know before you read it the better so while I’d usually provide content warnings before my review they’ll be at the end of this one, so it’s up to you if you want to read them or not.

Ele lives Inside a Tower with the Others and collects Proofs of the Outside. She dreams of being an Outside Person instead of an Other but knows there are Dragons, Giants and Ogres Outside. Inside is anything but a fairytale because of Him but Inside is all she knows.

Ele is one of those girls whose story and spirit will super glue themselves inside your mind. Her resilience and spunk under unimaginable circumstances inspire me to want to be as brave and capable of facing my fears as she did hers. Her love of reading endeared her to me and, like [book: Matilda|39988] before her, she reinforced my belief that with books and your imagination you can endure and ultimately overcome any adversity.

Her voice, which I originally found disconcerting and disorienting, became easier to read the more I got to know her. Having only known Inside she doesn’t speak like any other character I’ve read. I loved her descriptions of objects that you and I take for granted and sometimes it took me a while to figure out what it was that she was experiencing.

Maybe it’s because I’ve read so much fiction and nonfiction with similar themes or because I try to focus on all of the details in books I plan on reviewing but I picked up on clues of some potential surprises early on. I was disappointed that there were no big revelations for me but from what I can tell based on early reviews I’m an anomaly. I did keep waiting for the police (or anyone in authority, really) to show up and I found it somewhat suspicious that it took so long but also acknowledge that for the story to unfold the way it did they couldn’t get involved too early.

Free Bonus Short Story! If you sign up to join Sarah’s Reader’s Club at her website you’ll be emailed Inside. It’s available in MOBI, ePub and PDF formats. It accompanies Outside and is really, really good, but I cannot stress this enough – please read Outside first or you’ll be in Spoiler World before you know it. I’m not sure if there’s an expiry date on this offer but the link worked at the time I posted this review.

THUMP-THUMP-KNOCK
KNOCK-THUMP-KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK-THUMP
THUMP
THUMP-knock-knock
KNOCK
THUMP-scrap
knock-knock-THUMP
THUMP
scrap
KNOCK-THUMP
KNOCK-THUMP-KNOCK
KNOCK-THUMP
KNOCK-scrap

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Children’s UK for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

The Proof of the Outside follows the story of Ele, who is held captive in a small room by a man known as ‘Him’. Ele is determined to prove there is a world Outside. And when she finds a hole in the wall, the proof starts leaking in. In this dark and compelling debut novel, Ele’s strong and heartbreakingly optimistic voice shines through, revealing an important lesson about the power of stories to save lives.

by Categories: ReviewTags: , , , ,

Manga Classics: Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë

Story Adapter – Crystal S. Chan

Illustrations – SunNeko Lee

Jane Eyre was one of my Nan’s favourite books so I have intended to read it for the past 30 years. Over the years I’ve tried and failed to make it past Jane’s childhood. I was so mad at the way she was treated, especially by Mrs Reed and John, and when I finally made it to the beginning of her time at Lowood I was so infuriated by the injustice of her life that I discarded this story and moved on to something else; probably something with unicorns.

Now I’ve finally learned the rest of the story thanks to manga! While I’m not the hugest fan of Jane’s story due to my romantiphobia (I would like to think that had I been in Jane’s shoes I would have bailed on both potential suitors and enjoyed my life as an independent single woman) I was engaged in her story from beginning to end. I appreciated Jane’s strong will and independent spirit, especially considering the adversity she faced, and I think it was Jane’s perseverance that would have drawn my Nan to this story.

I adored the illustrations in this book, although Jane’s gorgeous doe eyes made it difficult to take her seriously when she spoke of her plain looks. I loved that, in true manga style, this story reads from right to left and was surprised by how quickly I became used to reading this way.

Thank you to NetGalley and UDON Entertainment for the opportunity to read this book. I’m all doe eyes for manga right now and want to work my way through the rest of their Manga Classics series.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

As an orphaned child, Jane Eyre is first cruelly abused by her aunt, then cast out and sent to a charity school. Though she meets with further abuse, she receives an education, and eventually takes a job as a governess at the estate of Edward Rochester. Jane and Rochester begin to bond, but his dark moods trouble her. When Jane uncovers the terrible secret Rochester has been hiding, she flees and finds temporary refuge at the home of St. John Rivers. 

by Categories: ReviewTags: , , , , ,

Fierce Fairytales: Poems and Stories to Stir Your Soul – Nikita Gill

In these short stories and poems you’ll find well known fairytales with insights into characters, backstories and different endings. Sleeping Beauty doesn’t wait for a Prince to awaken her; she does it herself. Jack is willing to face a giant to escape his abusive mother. Tinkerbell embraces her anger.

My absolute favourite was this empowering gem:

Once Upon a Time II

But the universe never promised
you this would be easy,
after all, you are the hero here.

And heroes are meant
to be forged golden
from the blaze.

It is up to you to rise again
from the fragmented shards
your foes left of you.

You must lift a sword
with reborn strength and take on
the demons in your ribcage.

You must devastate the chains
every violent person
has brutally placed on you.

And you must show them all
how they were simply
characters in your story.

But you, you are the author
of this spellbinding tale
built of hope and bravery.

Out there may be monsters, my dear.
But in you still lives the dragon
you should always believe in.

Each time I read it I can feel myself sit up straighter and the resolve to rise up gets stronger. I don’t usually quote an entire poem but I had to here. I love it!

Towards the end of the book I began to wonder if the author had run out of fairytales and was simply fuelled by anger. Poems like The Modern-day Fairytale and Ode to the Catcaller Down the Street felt like I was suddenly reading another book altogether, one that wasn’t enchanting and empowering, just mad. Perhaps if there were two sections in the book the shift would have been easier to process.

Some stories and poems fuelled my hope, showing me victims becoming survivors and villains humanised. Others left a bitter aftertaste. Life’s like that though. While we want our happily ever after, it’s not guaranteed. When we think we have nothing left we find reserves of strength we didn’t even know we possessed. Some things life chooses for us but it’s our choices that define us.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Poet, writer, and Instagram sensation Nikita Gill returns with a collection of fairytales poetically retold for a new generation of women. 

Traditional fairytales are rife with cliches and gender stereotypes: beautiful, silent princesses; ugly, jealous, and bitter villainesses; girls who need rescuing; and men who take all the glory.

But in this rousing new prose and poetry collection, Nikita Gill gives Once Upon a Time a much-needed modern makeover. Through her gorgeous reimagining of fairytale classics and spellbinding original tales, she dismantles the old-fashioned tropes that have been ingrained in our minds. In this book, gone are the docile women and male saviors. Instead, lines blur between heroes and villains. You will meet fearless princesses, a new kind of wolf lurking in the concrete jungle, and an independent Gretel who can bring down monsters on her own.

Complete with beautifully hand-drawn illustrations by Gill herself, Fierce Fairytales is an empowering collection of poems and stories for a new generation.

by Categories: ReviewTags: , , ,

Someone Else’s Shoes – Ellen Wittlinger

Twelve year old Izzy wants to be a comedian but life hasn’t been funny for a while now. Since her parent’s divorce she rarely sees her father. He’s remarried to someone too young for him and they’re having a baby soon so Izzy feels like she’s been replaced. Izzy lives with her mother who seems too preoccupied with everyone else’s problems to listen to Izzy’s.

Her mother’s dentist boyfriend has a 16 year old son, Ben, who is mean and scary. Plus Izzy now has to share her home with her annoying 10 year old cousin, Oliver, and her Uncle Henderson. Oliver’s mother died by suicide and while Izzy is sad about her aunt’s death she doesn’t really understand why it happened or why it’s making her uncle act so strangely.

Izzy knew from experience that when something bad happened to you, your friends got scared, as if they could catch your problems.

Izzy, Ben and Oliver come from different worlds and don’t seem to have any common ground but they wind up on a road trip together searching for Uncle Henderson when he suddenly goes missing. The three kids, through death or divorce, have all experienced the loss of a parent and they all feel abandoned. They each deal with feeling invisible in their own way. They’re kids that wouldn’t normally choose to spend time together but discover they’re not so different after all.

I initially found Izzy’s attitude annoying and sorry, Izzy, but I think your comedy routine needs some work. She grew on me though. Throughout the book Izzy becomes more empathetic and learns that not all change is bad. I thought Oliver was a sweetheart from the beginning. The character that surprised me the most was Ben who, while I think we’re supposed to dislike him (at least initially), I loved from our first meeting.

“Be always tender, a little fragile. It’s not a weakness if your heart breaks just a little.”

I loved that this book didn’t shy away from difficult discussions. Izzy asks questions about her aunt’s death by suicide that I expect would be typical of any child trying to understand and I thought her mother’s answers were quite sensitive and age appropriate. I appreciated that grief wasn’t one size fits all in this book; each character responds to loss in their own way.

I did have a problem with one aspect of the discussion surrounding suicide. I’m not sure how others will feel about this and perhaps I’m being overly sensitive but I was wary of the discussion of the method used. While all of the details are not revealed enough were that I wondered about the wisdom of their inclusion.

Given the subject matter this could have been a devastating book but it was ultimately hopeful, with a focus on the children supporting one another and becoming family.

10 September is World Suicide Prevention Day. In America National Suicide Prevention Week is the Sunday through Saturday of the week surrounding this date. In 2018 this is 9 to 15 September.

If you are thinking about suicide, please know that you are not alone and help is available.

In Australia you can call 13 11 14 or visit https://www.lifeline.org.au

In America you can call 1-800-273-8255 or visit https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org

A list of international suicide hotlines can be found at https://www.befrienders.org

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Charlesbridge for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Izzy, a twelve-year-old budding comedian, feels pretty miserable about her family life – her father is remarried with a new baby on the way, her mother is dating Izzy’s dentist, Dr. Gustino, whose rebellious sixteen-year-old son Ben is a huge hassle, and now her cousin Oliver and Uncle Henderson are moving in with Izzy and her mother. Of course, Izzy feels bad for her ten-year-old cousin – his mother recently committed suicide – and Uncle Henderson has become zombie-like ever since.

When Uncle Henderson disappears one day, Izzy finds herself on an impromptu road trip to upstate New York with Oliver and Ben, the three of them seeking family and acceptance.

by Categories: ReviewTags: , , ,

What If? – Anna Russell

Josh is a drummer, is good at maths and loves The Beatles. He also needs to count the cracks in the ceiling and perform specific rituals exactly the right way or something really bad will happen. Josh has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and that is why I needed to read this book.

I have a family member with OCD and I was the one that unofficially diagnosed them several years before someone qualified to do so concurred. Besides living with it I’ve spent countless hours researching OCD to try to get into this person’s head, to understand why the light switch has to be turned on and off so many times and why they’ve had a catalogue of obsessions and rituals, some constant and others morphing, over the years.

When I discovered this was a hi-lo book I was initially disappointed as my first hi-lo experience was a let down. I was pleasant surprised by this book though, finding the explanations of what OCD is and how it affects Josh’s everyday life easy to understand and accurate. I really liked Josh’s psychiatrist, who takes a perplexing condition and explains the basics in a down to earth way.

There are descriptions of Josh’s struggles before and after his diagnosis and I appreciated that his treatment was multifaceted. I did feel that Josh’s acceptance of his condition and how quickly he began to learn to manage it wandered into wishful thinking territory but acknowledge that that may be my experience talking.

I thought the information given to Josh about a family member towards the end of the book was obvious from the beginning but again I concede that my experience may account for my “I already knew that” moment. I loved that the other characters accepted Josh and tried to understand what he was going through and that his diagnosis wasn’t the end of the world, resulting instead in learning to manage it and accepting help from others.

I was interested in the characters’ stories but didn’t become emotionally invested with anyone. However I don’t think it’s fair to automatically expect a lifelong bond with characters you meet during such a short book.

While I would have liked the impact of Josh’s diagnosis on his family to be explored further I understood that the length of the book made a deep dive on the issues raised prohibitive. Similarly the impact of the death of another character’s parent was only lightly touched on. I loved the way that music was woven through the story.

I really liked that this book was told in verse; the way it was written made poetry more accessible than anything I came across in high school. Besides its intended purpose as a hi-lo book I think What If? would also be a helpful introduction to OCD for teens who have recently been diagnosed and their family members, regardless of their reading level.

Thank you to NetGalley and West 44 Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Josh Baker isn’t sure why his brain tells him to do things that other people don’t need to do: checking his locker again and again, counting cracks in ceilings, and always needing to finish a song, for starters. He is a talented drummer, a math genius, and he knows everything about rock and roll. Yet, he knows his problems have the power to hurt his family and make him fail at school. When Josh is diagnosed with OCD, it’s a blessing and a curse. Can he overcome his thoughts, or will they break him?

by Categories: ReviewTags: , , , ,