Good morning !
As I was feeling a bit depressive lately, I was feeling to read something much more raw and on the Mental Health topic.. as I couldn’t find anything I’ve wanted on my libby’s app, so I went ahead and picked up this one from my owned TBR shelf ! (which has only been there since 2018.. *aherm*)
5 / 5 stars
Representation; Agoraphobia, Anxiety/Depression and OCD. (#OwnVoices)
Trigger warning; Self-harm
This was exactly the kind of MH books I was aiming for! Right from the first chapter, I was sucked into the book – easily able to read 10s of pages in one sitting.
I love how Norah refer to her illnesses as “being sick”, as it’s exactly what I do too! Although I do not suffer from agoraphobia like her, the anxiety/depression part of her I could understand quite well. I specially liked the small detail of having an “outside” person make the assumption that she didn’t looked sick – because frankly, we probably all heard this atleast ONCE.
Her mom is such the sweetest.. they have a really strong mother/daughter relationship; her mom trying her best to help and be supportive to her daughter, who tells her everything and seek her for comfort. It seems like she did her researches with her daughter’s therapist, as she really understands what’s going on in her daughter’s mind and rarely say something wrong. Seeing such a good representation of a healthy mother/daughter relationship warmed my heart!
Unlike other works, this wasn’t a « Love cures all » type of book; though love did helped her upon recovery, but she did it all herself. I adored Luke and just how sweet and thoughtful this guy was.
This story being written after Louise’s own thoughts and experiences made all so much more real, and of course had me tear up at her author’s note. I definately need more books like this one in my life!
Puppy!! So cute!
Great review! Also, cute pup!
I have CFFM, and sensory processing disorder, both of which are not ‘visible’ in my appearance. Neither is it obvious that I am missing an eye and have comprised vision. I want to throttle people who say “well, you don’t look sick”. There are times I do wish these people would suffer the same, and be given the same contemptuous question and attitude. It’s not like people suffering from these things *wanted* their bodies to turn on them. I certainly don’t enjoy spending all day,every day, exhausted and in pain levels that if just dumped on an unsuspecting person would drop them to the ground. Just because I can function well enough doesn’t mean I’m okay. Doesn’t mean I need to pretend I’m healthy and well just to please people. My agoraphobic sister doesn’t *want* to be so terrified at times that even leaving the bedroom, much less the house is difficult to impossible. My bond sister doesn’t *want* to suffer from excruciating trigeminal pain triggered by even mildly cold temperatures. Yet all three of us look fine and two of us can hide the problems in public most of the time. But when I can’t and I get that nasty comment, I just wanna land a fist in someone’s face.
Heh, apologies for the rant. This sounds like a good read. I’ll have to check it out.
Thank you!
No worries, all three of you are so strong ❤️ My mother was on dialysis for years with kidney failure. People always diminished it for her aswell as she’s one to be known to always smile. I’ve seen the backstage of it and how much she was suffering..
Oh, I’m so sorry about your mum. I worked at a hospital for a time. I saw the dialysis patients after they were done with treatment. It wiped them out. I wish people could just be more understanding and not assume that *looking fine* doesn’t equal *being healthy*.
This sounds like a great book. I love books around mental illness – having suffered with severe anxiety for around 7 years myself. So it’s really nice to see people like me represented in books. I’m definitely on the lookout for more MH related books atm!
It was a wonderful one !
Have you read Eliza & her Monsters? It’s one of my favorite anxiety rep, I could definately see myself in her behavior (though sometimes a bit rude.. some readers didn’t like that part of her. But I sadly did that in the beginning..)
This sounds like an amazing book. I’m not much of an outside person so will definitely be adding it to my tbr list to see how the main character’s journey unfolds. 🙂 x
Sounds like a great read, what really makes me happy about this review is you stating that love wasn’t a cure-all. I hate how romanticized people try to make mental health as if the right person can just ‘fix’ you when it’s more than that, you don’t need to be fixed, and having someone can be helpful but it’s about so much more. Loved your review!
Thank you !
Yes, omg I agree. Nobody else but yourself can make the steps to get better (sadly) – love can make it easier but it can’t be cured just by it.
Great Review! This is such a fantastic book and I’m happy to see you liked it a lot as well 😍 I wish Under Rose-Tainted Skies got more love, I like how close Norah and her mom were as well, plus the romance was really cute without falling into the ‘love cures’ trope!
Agreed!