Rating: 5/5
Review:
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!
What an utterly brilliant book! I took a bit of a chance on it because I am
not in the target audience being male and in my early 60s…and I thought it was
absolutely terrific. It is completely
engaging, very funny in places and has some very important things to say.
The book is narrated in the first person by 16-year-old
Evie, who has OCD and anxiety which have meant that she has spent some time in
psychiatric institutions in the past. As
the book opens she is recovering and starting Sixth-Form
College. This is the story of her struggles (and joys)
with friends, boys, her family and her illness.
It is brilliantly done; Evie's voice is completely engaging and
convincing, characters and her perceptions of them are excellently drawn and
Evie's thoughts about her mental state seem utterly real to me. Obviously, I'm not the ideal person to judge
the accuracy of this portrait of what goes on inside a teenage girl's head, but
as a male ex-teenager (all right, a *very* ex-teenager) I found it absolutely
convincing.
I also thought that Evie's OCD and anxiety and her thoughts
and attitudes to it were superbly done.
There have been some superb books written from the point of view of
someone with a mental illness; Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident…, Nathan
Filer's The Shock Of the Fall and Gavin Extence's The Mirror World of Melody
Black spring to mind. I think this is
the equal of any of them, which is really saying something. It is lighter in style and an easier read,
and I laughed out loud very regularly - but that's a good thing, and this still
has all the insight, compassion and depth of those great books. (And the short section headed "What
Really Pisses Me Off About People And Mental Health Problems" are the most
insightful, the funniest, the angriest and the truest three pages I have read
for a very long time indeed.)
Just as important as this is the theme of feminism, the
effects of sexism in all its forms and how damaging it is to women, *and* to
men. Holly Bourne articulates this
brilliantly and it is a real joy for me to read ideas in which I have believed
profoundly for many years, expressed with such clarity, wit and humanity. I wish that every 15- and 16-year-old, male
and female, would read this. I wish
*I'd* read it when I was that age, too – but at least I've been able to read it
now.
I'm sorry to gush, but I really thought this was something
very special. It is gripping, engaging
and genuinely profound, and although it is aimed at Young Adults I think adults
of any age would enjoy it and get a huge amount out of it. I certainly did, and I would urge anyone to
read it. It's terrific.
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