“Of all the things that mania is – in all its terrifying brightness, it’s loudness, its speed and its dazzling colours – the worst of all is its lonely.”

RATING:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SYNOPSIS:

Flora doesn’t do people”, not since the Incident that led to her leaving school midway through her GCSEs. The Incident that led to her being diagnosed with bipolar II. The Incident that left her in pieces. Until Hal arrives. He’s researching a story about a missing World War I soldier, and he wants Flora’s help. Flora used to love history before the Incident, but spending so much time with Hal is her worst nightmare. Yet as they begin to piece together the life of the missing soldier, a life of lost love, secrets and lies, Flora finds a piece of herself falling for Hal.

REVIEW:

Firstly, I want to say thank you to Usborne Books for sending me a copy of The Pieces of Ourselves by Maggie Harcourt, I am so grateful for this opportunity.

I am so interested in reading books with a positive mental health representation and I have not read anything that represents Bipolar, so I knew this was something that I would enjoy. I must confess, I know of Bipolar, I know the basics but I do not know a lot about it.  I was not sure whether I would be lost with The Pieces of Ourselves due to my lack of understanding. However, this is not the case. In fact it was the complete opposite. The Pieces of Ourselves, really educated me and opened my eyes to this subject. It really helped me to understand what have Bipolar entailed and also what it looked like through the eyes of people that did not have it.

I have never read a book by Maggie Harcourt before – I will be actively looking for more after reading this book. One thing I really enjoyed about The Pieces of Ourselves, is the writing style that the author adopts. I feel like her writing is just one big hug to the reader. I was instantly drawn in from page one and this was consistent until the very end. The prose within this book really flowed and made for a very easy to read book. The subject not so easy in parts but the style really helps the reader get through this.

I love the character development. I love the characters. Flora, I really built up a connection with her, I really feel like she is a wonderful character. I felt the emotions that she was feeling, and the hurt that she felt through the events that have occurred in her short life. I love how supportive her brother is to her, he may be one of my favourite characters. He has taken on so much at such a young age, and he embraces this. All he wants is what is best for his sister, for his sister to feel better and this really shines through in this book. I also really like Hal. At first I wasn’t so sure about him, but he was definitely a character that grew on me pretty rapidly and I ended up not being able to get enough. Special mention to his grandfather, who, despite only really seeing him a few times in the book, has a special place in my heart.

Honestly, this book is such an important read. It really studies Bipolar in a way that I have never seen in studied before. I feel that it does the matter a lot of justice and really opens up the eyes of a reader who has never experienced it before, whether that be first or second hand. I believe that everybody should read this book just to get an idea and open their eyes. I run a monthly book club on my instagram (theanxiousbookworm_) whereby we read a book each month with a mental health representation and discuss at the end of the month whether this is positive. I enjoyed this book so much that I have automatically made it our April read and I cannot wait for it to be out in the world and for everybody else to read it.