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SpineOut : August September 2015
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OutthismOnth Running Like China Sophie Hardcastle When I was 11 years old Mum told me, ‘One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name.’ Even before I heard these words I was always a child who crammed intense joy into tiny pockets of time. One day Sophie Hardcastle realised the joy she’d always known had disappeared. She was constantly tired, with no energy, no motivation and no sense of enjoyment for surfing, friends, conversations, movies, parties, family - for anything. Her hours became empty. And then, the month before she turned 17, that emptiness filled with an intense, unbearable sadness that made her scream. Misdiagnosed with chronic fatigue, then major depression, then temporal lobe epilepsy, she was finally told three years, two suicide attempts and five hospital admissions later - that she had Bipolar 1 Disorder. In this honest and beautifully told memoir, Sophie lays bare her story of mental illness - of a teenage girl using drugs, alcohol and sex in an attempt to fix herself; of her family’s anguish and her loss of self. It is a brave and hopeful story of adaptation, learning to accept and of ultimately realising that no matter how deep you have sunk, the surface is always within reach. For older readers In the Skin of a Monster Kathryn Barker Alice’s sister was her identical twin. They lived in rural Australia in a small town. One of those towns where everyone knows everyone. Three years ago life changed completely. Her sister shot seven people in their school. Alice doesn’t understand why. But as she wears the same face as the shooter, she is struggling with her own identity. Out of the blue, on a deserted country road she sees her sister. How can it be if she is dead? Suddenly she has found herself in a different world. A dream world that is confusing and one that has people but also populated with monsters. This different reality is populated with the nightmares of the real world. And she has the face of a monster. School shootings are a difficult subject for any writer, and for any reader, but the author balances this with a compelling story that is partly a dystopian fantasy set in an unusual dreamscape setting. It makes you think. What makes a monster? Is it what you see? It’s about consequences, understanding responsibilities and finding out who you are. Rating: This is a cracker of a read. read an extract here BOOKreviews
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