My Heart and Other Black Holes - Jasmine Warga

Synopsis

Aysel and Roman are practically strangers, but they've been drawn into an unthinkable partnership. In a month's time, they plan to commit suicide - together.

Aysel knows why she wants to die: being the daughter of a murderer doesn't equal normal, well-adjusted teenager. But she can't figure out why handsome, popular Roman wants to end it all....and why he's even more determined than she is.

With the deadline getting closer, something starts to grow between Aysel and Roman - a feeling she never thought she would experience. It seems there might be something to live for, after all - but is Aysel in so deep she can't turn back? 

~~~~~

'Maybe we all have darkness inside of us and some of us are better at dealing with it than others.'

I was keen to read My Heart and Other Black Holes when I found out about it, as the storyline and themes really interest me personally. I read it quickly and found the story gripping and compelling, and I felt compassion for Aysel and Roman, two young people, total strangers, who plan to take their own lives, together. 

For the most part I thought this was an excellent book; I was so glad to see something written in young adult fiction exploring difficult, complex feelings of guilt, and dealing with deep depression, and in this case focussing on teenagers. This is an impressive, moving and honest debut novel with a frank and well portrayed depiction of depression, sadness and self-blame. 

There are some excellent scenes and a real understanding and compassion of depression is demonstrated in the writing, as well as the difficulty some people can have with interactions with others, retreating into themselves so far that their outlook on the world becomes very bleak indeed, believing they are everything their illness tells them they are. The author convincingly depicts problems within different relationships, whether between siblings, mother-daughter, mother-son - so as well as depression and the individual, the novel looks at different family structures and friendships too and how they are affected. 

My main quibble was that I personally was not a hundred percent sure about the ending and whether it felt right to me, but I would definitely recommend others read this novel and decide for themselves. This story affected me in the way I think I thought the book The Fault in Our Stars would but didn't. 

I read a proof copy a while ago now and I hope when the finished book appears here in the UK that there will be appropriate help and support links at the back for the UK for anyone who might need them (as the novel is set in the USA). I do think it is important that topics like this are covered, sensitively. 

I did find parts of this story upsetting and notice my mood drop, so if you doubt your strength do think about whether it is the right time for you to read this, and whether it will help you. 

Review copy received via amazon vine 

Reasons to Stay Alive - Matt Haig

Synopsis from goodreads:

I want life.

I want to read it and write it and feel it and live it.

I want, for as much of the time as possible in this blink-of-an-eye existence we have, to feel all that can be felt.

I hate depression. I am scared of it. Terrified, in fact. But at the same time, it has made me who I am. And if - for me - it is the price of feeling life, it's a price always worth paying

Reasons to Stay Alive is about making the most of your time on earth. In the western world the suicide rate is highest amongst men under the age of 35. Matt Haig could have added to that statistic when, aged 24, he found himself staring at a cliff-edge about to jump off. This is the story of why he didn't, how he recovered and learned to live with anxiety and depression. It's also an upbeat, joyous and very funny exploration of how live better, love better, read better and feel more. 

Published by Canongate

~~~~~

'When you are depressed you feel alone, and that no one is going through quite what you are going through. You are so scared of appearing in any way mad you internalise everything, and you are so scared that people will alienate you further you clam up and don't speak about it, which is a shame, as speaking about it helps. Words - spoken or written - are what connect us to the world, and so speaking about it to people, and writing about this stuff, helps connect us to each other, and to our true selves.'

I read Reasons to Stay Alive the same day it arrived in the post. 

I'd been looking forward so much to this book arriving.

Actually, both looking forward to it, and a bit trepidatious about reading it. 
For one thing, I thought, if I don't read it straight away, I might put it off and become more and more scared about starting it. So I opened the cover and just read it. 

It's not always easy to comment about something that deals with subject matter which relates very personally to you. 

But I want to try, because if ever there was an important book it's this one. 

Because, speaking from experience, depression can be an isolating, frightening, misunderstood illness, and if there's anything that's able to help with a sufferer feeling a bit less alone and bit more understood, then that 'thing', be it a book, a film, whatever, is worth shouting about. 

Words I would use to describe this book, for someone who doesn't want to read or can't manage to read a big long review just now, (based on my experience of desperately wanting to understand more about this illness but recoiling at the detail in some books that I just couldn't cope with on my own at times when struggling):

kind, understanding, honest, helpful, warm, positive, open, important, cheering, supportive, encouraging, straightforward, a friend.

This book helps because it grasps what depression is like, how it can take over your life and make you feel like you are not yourself anymore, the depression is you. How can the book do this with so much insight and comprehension? Because the writer has been there and knows.

Author Matt Haig describes his own personal experiences with depression and anxiety, the worst and lowest point he found himself at, what he has done to try and get better, how he has found ways that sometimes help him, and the things that he wants to live for. 

It was wonderful to read of how books, and then starting to write, have been so important in helping Matt. He recommends here some of the books that he read when he felt unwell. I find solace myself through reading as much as I am able to, and still want to try writing one day, so it was encouraging to read how these things helped the author.

He also discusses some of what he has learnt about the illness; I found the mentions of evolutionary psychology interesting and maybe one day I'll read more about this - has the world moved on too fast for our minds? I think that was the sort of idea, if I've grasped it correctly. 

The book informs, or reminds us, depending on your knowledge, that there is still a huge amount that is unknown about this illness:

'The more you research the science of depression, the more you realise it is still more characterised by what we don't know that what we do. It is 90 per cent mystery.'

In terms of my thoughts about the book, all I can say is what the book did for me, as I was reading it, and after I had finished. I hope that this is helpful.

For someone struggling with depression (and anxiety), this book could make a difference to you in these ways - these are some of the things I thought and felt about it as I read:

It will help me

It will help someone who loves me

It's kind and understanding and honest

It's easy to read, and well presented, decent sized decently spaced print and a manageable length, something that can't be underestimated when you're depressed

It's open and honest and it shows me that there is a chance to get through each day

It shows that I are not alone in thinking awful things, in thinking I might never feel better, and it understands - this is huge - it understands that sometimes doing the tiniest smallest things are terrifying, and they are major accomplishments. In particular I'm thinking of the part about going to the shop on your own when you are very low. 

It understands the battle to try and hold on to a positive thought. 

It offers me reasons to be hopeful, to be strong, and ways to look at things differently, positively.

I feel like someone else in the world understands me now. I feel a bit less alone, a bit less scared, a bit less guilty and anxious and burdened. 

It helps you understand that everyone's experience of depression differs, that there is no one size fits all approach or answer to it, but it offers things to try that have worked for the author.

Just to reiterate one of my feelings about it mentioned above - I think it will be helpful to read for someone who loves you and is trying to help you with this illness, to help them see it from the inside as well as the outside, it offers some clarity and insight that a person really suffering might not be able to put into words very well for themselves, - how do you explain depression? - and it will help them to encourage their loved one that they are not the only one who feels depressed like they do (a common feeling). 

There's a couple of pages headed up 'Things depression says to you'. I nodded at it all so I marked the whole pages. Things like...
'Why are you trying to apply for a job? Who do you think you are?.....
Why are you crying?
Because you need to put the washing on?
Look at the people walking outside....
Why can't you be like them?'
Those pages alone really helped me feel a relief that somone understood. And they might just help others without experience of it to gain insight. And to me, both of these things, the compassion given to sufferers and the understanding given to others, breaking down stigma, are really, really important. 

Many other words that struck a chord as I was reading, here's a couple of them: 

'...the sheer exhaustion of never being able to find mental comfort. Of every positive thought reaching a cul-de-sac before it starts.' 

'days contained thousands of tiny battles'

There are so many sentences I will revisit and re-read, that struck a chord with me and had me nodding in agreement, thinking 'yes, that!', or passages that had me in tears, or sections that felt like a comfort, like a virtual hand holding mine or a virtual friend offering understanding and kindness, and I think and hope I will be able to find encouragement in this book in any future times that I might need it.

It was great to see the quote from Stephen Fry on the book's cover, someone else in the public eye whom I like and admire for breaking down stigma surrounding mental illness.

I hope these thoughts have made some sense and it's not all too incoherent I just felt this was a brilliant book and I had to write about it.

Thank you Matt Haig for being brave enough to look back on his memories and experiences and write this book, thank you to the publisher Canongate for bringing it to us. 

Lacey's House - Joanne Graham

'I wanted to walk right out of my life and leave it behind.'

Sometimes one way I can see how much I loved a book is by how many sentences or paragraphs I tab with little sticky notes to come back to and think about again once I've finished. There were a lot of places I marked in this book. There were parts of the prose that resonated with me, that moved me, and parts where the use of language particularly appealed to me. In summary, I thought this was a very special book. 

Rachel Moore has suffered a sad loss and moves from Birmingham to the countryside, to get away and start afresh. She is a solitary soul, having grown up in care, though having a brief period with some loving foster parents. She meets Lacey Carmichael, the older lady living next door. Lacey is another isolated soul, teased by the local children, labeled as the mad woman down the road, she is misunderstood and lonely. Then she is accused of a terrible crime.

A connection forms between them, and they begin to trust each other, and to share painful things with each other that they have never told anyone else. They've both experienced such sadness and from sharing their secrets a friendship blossoms despite the difference in their ages. The development of this friendship between Rachel and Lacey over the course of the book is wonderful and fascinating to observe. As time passes, Rachel thinks about how she feels about Lacey: 'I found that I cared for her very deeply, that her vulnerability had somehow pulled me closer and I carried her words, her story, like a heavy cloak about my shoulders.' Rachel attempts to express the pain and sorrow in Lacey's past through her artwork. 

'Her memories came home with me. Walking straight into my studio, I mixed them with acrylics; different shades of blue and deep, swirling turquoise that I threw at the huge canvas as I painted her sorrow, a raging, tumultuous thing that, when I was finished, left me breathless and empty.'

The chapters alternate between the two of them, Rachel's in the first person and Lacey's in the third, and the story progressed and worked really well written in this way.

Rachel likes and trusts Lacey, but doesn't yet know the whole truth; she, and the reader, are kept in suspense. Rachel fears that in the future she too might experience the depths of isolation that Lacey has;

'In fifty years time would it be me standing where Lacey was, with the past eating into me from the inside? I recoiled from the idea of experiencing for myself the stark loneliness that had been so apparent in Lacey's eyes.'

Joanne Graham writes with immense insight, empathy, warmth and poignancy about these women's lives and pasts, and writes sensitively and honestly about themes of mental health, loneliness and loss of a child, about damaging things that happen in people's lives which they are scarred by and understandably spend much time and energy grappling with. I felt emotional as I read, I was angry at the cruelty in Lacey's past, at what people could get away with. So much of a person's past can be hidden away, unknown, unvoiced. I empathised with and liked both Rachel and Lacey, and they both felt very real to me as I was reading. As Lacey thinks to herself, 'How sad for them both that they had to grow up without loving families.' As well as creating engaging, rounded characters, the author tells a powerful story. 

For me, Lacey's House is a wonderful, incredibly moving and very special story of female friendship across generations. It has stayed in my mind since reading it and it made me think. Beautifully, sensitively written, perceptive and touching, I think it was a very worthy recipient of the Luke Bitmead Bursary, a superb debut novel and I'd say it's one of my reading highlights of the year so far.


Thank you to the publisher for kindly sending me a copy of this novel for an honest review. 

Author links - twitter @YarrowH | website

Published by Legend Press

Mental Health Awareness Month - June 2014

Hosted by Leah at Uncorked Thoughts and Ula at Blog Erised - Click here to find out more. 

Please see the detailed information below all about what this is and what's going on, and follow the link above to read more. 

Briefly though, the aim is to spread awareness about Mental Health and without going to details here this is something that is very close to me so when I saw the event I knew I'd love to join in and help spread the word. I'm aiming to read at least one book that discusses or deals with mental health, more if possible. I'll also try posting recommendations of books I've already read and/or am aware of. The one that springs to mind immediately is The View on the Way Down by Rebecca Wait which I read and reviewed last year, and which I also reviewed for Mind, the mental health charity, recently. 

If any authors are interested in guest blogging on this theme by the way, please do get in touch.


I am going to aim to read:

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

and also, if possible,

A Note of Madness by Tabitha Suzuma
Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks

Thank you to Peggy @ The Pegster - Reads for blogging about this, I first read about it on her blog.

~~~~~

Information below from Leah's blog:

Hey guys! Mental Health Awareness Month is something I've been tweeting about quite a lot lately and I'm really excited to share with you guys what I've got planned. MHAM is a month in which myself and Ula @ Blog of Erised  want to spread awareness about mental health issues and how they affect people. We're really excited to be hosting this MH month; it's something which is close to both of us and I hope you guys want to take part! Here's some information about the month on the blog:

What is Mental Health Awareness Month?

It's an idea that me and Ula came up with to draw attention to all things MH. It doesn't get enough attention and there's still far too much stigma attached to it! I thought the best way for us book bloggers to do this was to dedicate June to reading and reviewing/discussing books that discuss Mental Health. There's going to be a variety of things going on on mine and Ula's blogs, as well as others. There will be guest posts, interviews, giveaways, challenges and all sorts of events going on as well as reading books that explore issues of MH!

When is MHAM happening?

It starts June 1st and runs through until the 30th of June.

What are the rules?

There aren't any rules really! Whether you're a blogger, vlogger, on Goodreads, an author or anything feel free to take part! The more the merrier. The aim is to spread awareness about Mental Health!

What books are there on MH that I can read?

I've been preparing a shelf on my Goodreads profile especially for this month! Here's a little list to get you guys started. Just follow the link for more :)

Playing Tyler - T. L. Costa

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock - Matthew Quick

Girl, Interrupted - Susanna Kaysen 

Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

Amy & Matthew (Say What You Will) - Cammie McGovern

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

It's Kind of a Funny Story - Ned Vizzini 

The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer

We're going to be using the hashtag #MHAMJune on Twitter when talking all things MH! 

The Forgotten Seamstress - Liz Trenow - Review & Author Q&A

Today I am very pleased to be part of the blog tour for The Forgotten Seamstress, the new novel by Liz Trenow. Below you'll find a Q&A with the author, and my thoughts on the novel.

 Q&A with author Liz Trenow

Thank you for taking part in this Q&A Liz. Could you tell us what the thinking was behind The Forgotten Seamstress – did the idea for the story grow from one initial thought/idea/experience in your life or several?

Liz Trenow

Several: the idea of setting a novel around a quilt started some years ago when I visited the quilt show at the Victorian and Albert Museum in London. One of the quilts there had a secret hidden inside it.  I won’t tell you how, because it would give away a part of the plot of The Forgotten Seamstress!

Then, when I was researching my own family history (they have been silk weavers for three hundred years) I went to the Warner Textile Archive in Braintree, Essex, and chanced upon a case of the ‘May Silks’. These are unique and very beautiful damasks and brocades, some with interwoven gold and silver threads, hand woven for the trousseau of Princess May for her wedding to the heir to the British throne in 1893. The silks themselves were entrancing but it was the story behind them which most intrigued me.

I decided to set the novel partly in a mental asylum because, as a teenager, I was an inpatient in a ward set aside for minor clinical operations at an enormous Victorian mental hospital close to my home town. The sights and sounds of the place left a deep impression on me. It was like a country mansion set in its own grounds but surrounded by high fences – outwardly grand and yet with such an oppressive and ominous atmosphere.

What do you see as the pleasures and challenges of writing historical fiction? 

The pleasures are many – I love researching and fitting a set of fictional events and characters into and around real-life events.  Days in the British Library reading newspapers of the time are great fun and old movies and clips on U-tube are totally invaluable: there’s nothing like moving images to get the imagination going.

The challenges are also many – it is amazing what you need to know about a period when you are writing in it.  What are the sights, smells and sounds of the place? What did things cost? What sort of food did people eat – every day and on special occasions?  What did they wear? And the most challenging of all, how did they talk to each other – it is possible to research ‘period’ slang, but how were their sentences constructed?  You can never be perfect, but you try your very best to be as true to the period as possible.

Do you enjoy reading historical fiction yourself? Do you read a variety of fiction/non-fiction for your own pleasure?

I read all the time, and much of it is historical fiction (or fiction set in a period before our own, at least).  When I am researching and writing I mostly try to read novels set in or written in the period in which my own novel is set, and usually try not to read ‘out’ of this period, because it can be confusing.

I also read masses of non-fiction, particularly when researching – histories, biographies and a fair bit of ‘technical’ stuff. For instance, for The Forgotten Seamstress I had to find out what kind of treatments and drugs were administered to mental patients during the period in which Maria was incarcerated. As well as understanding quilting, I also had to learn about upholstery so that Caroline’s project was authentic and realistic.  When I was researching my first novel, The Last Telegram, I had to become a bit of a geek about parachute design and porosity.

I read that you had previously worked as a journalist – had it always been in your mind that you’d like to write fiction one day?

Many journalists say they’ve got a ‘novel in their bottom drawer’ and I suppose it was always in my mind that I would write a novel. I dabbled with short stories, plays and poetry along the way, but writing a novel was my ‘climbing Everest’ project. When I got made redundant I couldn’t pretend any more that I was too busy:  I had to bite the bullet and start writing. Doing an MA in Creative Writing helped a great deal because I met a group of other people who were also serious about writing.

Being a journalist helped in many ways: I can type fast, am not afraid of a deadline, discipline comes as second nature, I know how to research a topic and love interviewing people for my books.

But it is also a drawback because journalism is such a very different discipline, and it’s hard not to fall back into your old ways when writing fiction. For example, journalistic writing will describe an ‘action scene’ in fast, short sentences. In fact, time seems to slow when we are experiencing a traumatic event so we need to reflect this when seeing from the perspective of a fictional character. It is counter-intuitive, but so true!

Are you currently writing – can you tell us about your next work at all?

I am currently doing edits on the first draft of my next book, The Poppy Factory. It will be published in August 2014, marking the 100^th anniversary of the start of the First World War. As the title suggests, the story revolves around the work of the real-life Poppy Factory which still employs disabled veterans making Remembrance Day poppies in Richmond, Surrey. Besides a poignant First World War strand it also has a powerful contemporary storyline based on interviews with two extraordinary young women who served as army medics on the front line in Afghanistan.

My next book will go back in time to the 18^th century – set among the silk weavers of Spitalfields in London, where my family’s silk weaving history began.

Thank you very much indeed for being a guest on my blog, Liz!

Author's website www.liztrenow.net

~~~~~

Book review - The Forgotten Seamstress by Liz Trenow

'Her history was held in the fabrics she'd used, the designs, and the appliqued figures.'

I read some super reviews of Liz Trenow's first novel, The Last Telegram, which I then bought though sadly have not yet read. I was therefore really pleased to have the chance to read this second novel; it was a very enjoyable, absorbing and well-paced read which I escaped into and became immersed in the lives that were described to me. 

Maria Romano has grown up in an orphanage after the death of her mother when she was very young. Close friends with Nora there, the two girls are selected due to their needlework skills to go and live and work in a wonderful, large house for a very wealthy family. This turns out to be none other than Buckingham Palace and the royal family. Maria soon notices the handsome Prince of Wales, and he in turn is attracted by her beauty. He encourages her attentions and there is a passionate affair, then, during his lengthy abscenses, she is left alone and bereft, and it's at this time she begins working on what will become a very special quilt; her needlework skills are her comfort, the thing she turns to in order to escape her situation; as she says, 'it was a way of escaping my loneliness.' She longs for the Prince to return, to rekindle their love, yet there is of course no future for the two of them together; there never could be. Events turn from bad to worse for Maria, and she is sent off and locked away in an asylum, where she experiences great despair and confusion, losing most of her sense of herself, until she again eventually finds solace in her needlework.

We meet Maria and here her story via the text of audio cassette recordings that were made when she was  much older, seventy-four, when a lady was researching the history of mental health care. This was a clever device for telling Maria's story and I liked how this was incorporated into the novel, bringing her days back to life through her own voice. I was moved by her story, the intense joys and the terrible lows Maria experienced during her life, and by her mourning the loss of what her life might have been; 'how would my life be now, I wondered, had I never set eyes on him, nor he on me? What could I have made of myself, do you think…?'

Almost in the present day, we meet Caroline Meadows. At thirty-eight, she has just come out of a relationship and wonders whether she will find love again, is at a turning point in her career - working in a well-paid yet soulless job in London, she dreams of using her creative, artistic talents once again - and she cares for her elderly mum whose health is being to fail, sadly she is beginning to forget things. Whilst helping tidy her mum's home, they come across an item that was intended to be passed on to Caroline by her Gran Jean; a beautiful old patchwork quilt. Caroline starts to look in to the background of the quilt, and as she does so, more details emerge as to the provenance of it and the incredible story behind it, and she begins the journey following a fascinating trail into her past.

The past is vividly evoked through Maria's recollections of her memories and her life. It is sad to read how she isn't believed, her true past buried for so many years, her life reduced to being held a virtual prisoner in the hospital. The present day story is engaging too, a woman aware of her age, rethinking her life and looking back at what her amitions were when she was younger, wondering if she can bring them to life before it is too late; the reader wondering if she can find the inspiration to do so. 

The novel's title is apt; talented seamstress Maria does indeed seem to have been forgotten by history, until now. Liz Trenow has written an imaginative, touching, romantic, sad historical story and combined it very well with a modern day strand that slowly reveals the connections between past and present.

Published by Avon Harper Collins - ebook 5th December 2013, paperback 16th January 2014

~~~~~

Visit the rest of the blogs on the tour - details below

Freaks Like Us - Susan Vaught

‘There’s no running away from what’s in your own head.’

This is the story of three friends, one of whom, seventeen-year-old Jason Milwaukee, is the first person narrator. Sunshine goes missing and the mystery of the story is in trying to resolve where she is and why she has disappeared, with Jason struggling to remember what she had said to him before she disappeared, her voice fighting with the other, overpowering voices in his head.

Jason, who is telling the story here, is SCZI - schizophrenic. Sunshine is SM - selectively mute, and Drip (Derrick) has ADHD. Collectively they, and others like them who suffer mental illnesses tagged by such initials, refer to themselves as ‘alphabets’. As Jason’s father explains to FBI Agent Mercer, ‘”It’s a word Jason and Sunshine and Derrick use to describe themselves as a group. It feels better to them than any of the disorder-disability talk.”’

Jason often refers to his mother and father by their professional ranks of the colonel and the captain. His parents divorced when he was twelve and when we meet him he is living with his father. Jason is also referred to as “Freak” and tells Agent Mercer frankly: “Everybody calls me that. You can.”

The tension builds in the story as the hours go by since Sunshine has been gone. Susan Vaught's writing feels compassionate and honest in dealing with mental health in teenagers, how it feels to them to be different, to be classed as SED - Severely Emotionally Disturbed. The author is a practicing psychologist. She conveys the intensity of the struggle to deal with his affliction throughout every waking moment, through Jason’s hurried speech and transcribing the talk he hears from all of the different, competing voices in his head – the style of writing reflects the chaos of Jason’s mind and thoughts and the voices. Some of the thoughts they tell him are very negative and cruel: ‘He knows it’s your fault. He knows you’re an idiot. Fool on the hill. Fool on the hill. He’s got cold eyes. Why does he have cold eyes? He’s probably a serial killer.’

The author is careful to make it clear that he is not his illness; at one point he is talking and realizes these aren’t his thoughts but the thoughts of the voices he hears;

‘I hate it when I sound like my alphabet voices.

I hate it when I smear together like a wet photograph and get all sticky and can’t tell the crazy voices from my own voice and what I’m seeing now from what I saw before and what I want to see now and what I wanted to see before and –‘

His frustration at his real thoughts being clouded and hidden sometimes by everything else that is going on in his mind is difficult for him to bear.

I found this an unsettling and difficult read at times; some of the images Jason sees are a bit disturbing and the constant reminders of the cruel and confused voices littered throughout the text make for an uneasy read. But this is the author’s point; this is conveying the illness and the realities of what Jason endures. I’m glad the author attempted to portray this as it is. Anyone who has suffered or had experience of a mental illness will likely feel a resonance with this story, as will many compassionate readers who haven’t.

Throughout the story I found myself liking Jason and admiring him for who he is. I felt very sad and frustrated for him at times, when he was being bullied, or misunderstood by those who don’t know him, or when his unusual behaviour attracts unjustified suspicions that he might be guilty. Most sad of all was when he couldn’t reach inside his mind and find the memories and thoughts that he really needed, the clues that would help him understand about Sunshine, because the voices keep getting in the way, causing confusion. His deep affection and respect for Sunshine is evident throughout. I was so glad the three of them – Jason, Sunshine and Drip - had had each other’s friendship and understanding. It’s very clear that, as Jason observes, 'Some days life makes more sense than other days.'

The shift in the relationship between FBI Agent Mercer and Jason as the story progresses was very nicely done I thought. As he emerges with new understanding and consideration for Jason, so too does the reader.

A poignant, honest and distinctive young adult mystery novel with frank insights into mental health. 

Published by Bloomsbury Childrens Books