Our Review

Overall Rating:

Sydney’s rating:

Becky’s rating:

Mental ill health doesn’t discriminate and can have an impact on a person’s life at any time even if from other people’s perspective you look like you have your life together. Sadie Valentine’s life begins to crumble around her.

• She has broken up with her fiancée,
• Lost the place she displays her artwork for sale,
• Her best friend Aldo decides he is moving out of Sadie’s apartment and in with his boyfriend,
• The image she created about her absentee father is shattered when she finds him,
• Unsympathetic friends
• Poor relationship with her mother

It all becomes too much for Sadie and she starts to experience anxiety that impacts every aspect of her life. As her world spirals, she is reluctant to seek help, keeping her mental health issues hidden even from Aldo. The book explores Sadie’s reluctance in detail and highlights the issues associated with being in denial and how the stigma surrounding mental health as not being a legitimate illness.

True to some of my own thoughts, I felt that the descriptions of anxiety, panic attacks and Sadie’s own internal monologue was realistic and people who have experienced anxiety can relate to the things she is feeling.

The ending of the book felt a little too perfect, and the time frame that these changes occur is very quick. By the end of the book, Sadie feels like she has overcome anxiety and is completely back to normal but the impacts of anxiety can be longer lasting and really can change later behaviour.

This book is a quick “beach read” but has an important message, that anyone can be impacted by mental health issues.

Find our full review at:
Mental Health Book Club Podcast Episode 2