Mental health and me

So my blog is turning one tomorrow and I thought it was about time I wrote a post about my mental health, which was one my main reasons for starting this blog. This is a really brave post for me to write and I've never said too much about it before, but reducing stigma is so important and this seemed like the right time. 1-in-4 people in the UK will struggle with their mental health at some point in their lives, so why are we so afraid to talk about it? Being mentally unwell shouldn't be something to be ashamed of.

I've been struggling with my mental health since I was about 16, when I was in sixth form college. There's no significant event which triggered my decline but I'm pretty confident the extensive bullying I was a victim to throughout both primary and high school, finally took their toll.

My first attempt to get help for my difficulties was not a positive one, I visited my GP when I was living at home and I wasn't taken seriously, as is the case with many young people. I was told I didn't fit the criteria for depression because I hadn't experienced a "decrease in libido" despite me being a seventeen year old who had never been sexually active and who'd recently started identifying as a sex repulsed asexual. I was told I could "access online counselling" and sent on my way. Funnily enough, as a seventeen year old opening up and telling a professional that their mind is scaring them, I actually wanted to be helped. I was made to feel like I wasn't "ill enough" - which is never true if you open up and ask for help, you deserve to get it!

All About Mia by Lisa Williamson

Rating: 10/10
Published: 2nd February 2017
Publisher: David Fickling Books
Pages: 361
Synopsis from Goodreads: From no. 1 Bestselling YA author Lisa Williamson, comes another insightful and unputdownable teen drama - All About Mia. A brilliant look into the mind of a teenager stuck in the middle.

One family, three sisters.

GRACE, the oldest: straight-A student. 

AUDREY, the youngest: future Olympic swimming champion. 

And MIA, the mess in the middle. 

Mia is wild and daring, great with hair and selfies, and the undisputed leader of her friends – not attributes appreciated by her parents or teachers. 

When Grace makes a shock announcement, Mia hopes that her now-not-so-perfect sister will get into the trouble she deserves. 

But instead, it is Mia whose life spirals out of control – boozing, boys and bad behaviour – and she starts to realise that her attempts to make it All About Mia might put at risk the very things she loves the most.

By this point, anyone who has read almost any of my posts on this blog or who follows me on Twitter will know that I LOVED The Art of Being Normal. It was by far my favourite read of last year (and I'll literally yell about it at any given opportunity) so when I heard about All About Mia I was super duper excited and let me tell you Lisa Williamson did not fail to live up to my expectations!

I think what I loved so much about All About Mia is that it is so honest, there's no shit here, Mia isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. She makes a lot of mistakes, she chooses to do things and you're yelling at the pages like "Noooo don't do that you plonker it's a bad idea!!" but she is so real. Everything she does in this book I experienced (mostly through other people) when I was a sixteen year old. I've watched people make exactly the same choices that she makes and her motivation for doing so is heartbreakingly accurate for so many teens.

The amount of pressure that Mia is under from school and the expectation she feels she must live up to within her family is arguably the reason for the way that she acts. Despite being only sixteen she's forced to consider her options for the future, it reminded me of how difficult I found it at that time to try and make decisions which everyone told you were life-changing, when you had no idea which direction you wanted to go in. All About Mia gives such an accurate representation of what life really is like when you're going through these things and I loved that about it!

Mia also has a friendship group that is very similar to the group that I found myself in at that age (although we drank less!), each one of the characters she's friends with I could relate to someone I know which I really enjoyed.

It seems to me that All About Mia is just an all-round truthful book. It demonstrates a great family dynamic and what seems to me (an only child with no experience) to show the sibling rivalries, but also the real love that they have for each other deep down. There are moments (I'll keep it vague to avoid spoilers!) when you see that, although all told from Mia's point of view, each of the three sisters envies the other for something and they really do rely on each other throughout the book. There are some really great moments between Mia and Audrey where she gives her younger sister advice about certain things and it just made my heart melt, because despite her own problems she's almost always willing to help out her little sister.

Overall, All About Mia is a beautiful book about the difficulties faced by a teen who feels that she isn't living up to anyone's expectations. It demonstrates wonderfully the value of friendships and the ups and downs of sibling relationships. I truly adored this and no doubt I shall be yelling about it for a long while.

Gilded Cage by Vic James

Rating: 7/10
Published: 26/01/17
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Pages: 405
Synopsis from Goodreads: NOT ALL ARE FREE. NOT ALL ARE EQUAL. NOT ALL WILL BE SAVED. 

Our world belongs to the Equals—aristocrats with magical gifts—and all commoners must serve them for ten years. But behind the gates of England's grandest estate lies a power that could break the world. 

A girl thirsts for love and knowledge.

Abi is a servant to England's most powerful family, but her spirit is free. So when she falls for one of the noble-born sons, Abi faces a terrible choice. Uncovering the family's secrets might win her liberty, but will her heart pay the price? 

A boy dreams of revolution.

Abi's brother, Luke, is enslaved in a brutal factory town. Far from his family and cruelly oppressed, he makes friends whose ideals could cost him everything. Now Luke has discovered there may be a power even greater than magic: revolution. 

And an aristocrat will remake the world with his dark gifts.

He is a shadow in the glittering world of the Equals, with mysterious powers no one else understands. But will he liberate—or destroy?

Gilded Cage is the first book of the Dark Gifts trilogy.

I received a copy of this from my book club, which has in no way affected my review, these opinions are very much my own.

Set in modern day England in a world where Skilled Equals rule and force the common people to give away ten years of their life as slave, Gilded Cage focuses around the Hadley family as they serve their slave days under one of the most influential Equal families. This book is a really interesting twist on young adult fantasy, that in many ways seems very relevant to the modern world as we know it!

I feel as though I've read several books of a very similar style to this - Red Queen and The Hunger Games to name a couple. Gilded Cage has a really beautiful setting and is an original spin on the magical rich vs poor-style universe and I loved that it's set in modern day England rather than a fictional location. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of that kind of fantasy book as it's definitely not one to be missed! It has a lot of really interesting characters and some twists that will shock you - some of which I was speculating about thinking to myself "nah that won't happen" and they turned out to be true (always the best feeling, right?!).

Although I enjoyed this book a lot I struggled with the romance between Abi and Jenner, it seemed quite forced and felt like, in several instances, this bright and wonderful female character was reduced to just being in love with a boy. However I'm aware that as this is part of a series it may well develop a lot more in the following books. Abi's a really wonderful character and I hope that she'll be able to bloom in herself in the future and become the badass lady I know she could be.

The only other thing I wasn't sure about was the synopsis, which I found somewhat misleading. I don't feel that everything that was mentioned on the cover actually happened? Not to the extent to which it's described anyway, but maybe that's just me! That's not to say that you shouldn't pick it up though because I promise it's a good'un, I just feel as though Abi doesn't particularly face a "terrible choice", that I noticed at least.

Overall, Gilded Cage is a really interesting fantasy book with lots going on in a setting that seems very poignant in today's society. The ending left me with a lot of questions, and although it seemed a little bit rushed in some aspects it's definitely made me want to know more, so I'll almost certainly be picking up book two! I'll be interested to see where it all goes from here, Dark Gifts certainly has a lot of potential.

TBR - March 2017

This is my first ever TBR feature but I'd like to make it a regular thing, as we're already ploughing through March at an alarming speed I've only picked three books that I'd really like to get around to this month, but here's what they are and why I'd like to read them! 

All About Mia by Lisa Williamson
Well in case you haven't read my review of The Art of Being Normal I absolutely adored it, my favourite book of last year, if not ever! I just cannot wait to see what else Lisa Williamson can do. I've heard a lot of good things and I'm just all round super duper looking forward to it. I'm going to yell about it a lot I can already tell!

Ariadnis by Josh Martin
I picked this up out of sheer curiosity and I'm really intrigued as to what it's going to be like. It seems like it's going to feature some super strong females (it doesn't even mention a single guy in the synopsis so that's unusual!)
and maybe even some f/f romance, who knows?

Our Own Private Universe by Robin Talley
I'm super excited for this, it seems so rich in diversity and I've not yet read a book with a bisexual character (let alone two!) so I'm really looking forward to it. If it's anything like as good as Lies We Tell Ourselves then it won't disappoint!



What are you planning to read this month? Have you read any of these? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below!