Also Posted on For The Love of Fictional Worlds

Disclaimer: A physical copy was provided via UsBorne YA in exchange for an honest review. The Thoughts, opinions & feelings expressed in the review are therefore, my own.

Beautiful, gut wrenching and aptly representation of mental health in the best way possible in recent times – Pieces of Ourselves is emotional, full of growth and hope that, as a reader you think would know the way it would take, but even if you think you do, reading this beauty would leave you with a feeling of hope and optimism!

Flora, our protagonist, doesn’t do change or even people ever since the “incident” during her yearly exams – when her brain went into overdrive and she had a meltdown right in front of her classmates. Now, with her diagnosis of a Bipolar Disorder and a schedule that she adheres to while working at the only hotel in town – the Hopwood Hotel. She keeps her head down, living with her brother and his partner, because of her mom left – so keeps to herself, her brother & his partner and her best friend. No changes, nothing that will excite her, or bring on another episode.


So she is in a fix, when her boss asks her to help an important guest, Hal, with his research into the history of a WWII soldier who served in Vietnam – a soldier whose life he has heard about from his own grandfather, a man he is closer to than his own father.

Before Hal and his history project, Flora didn’t realise how absolutely lonely she was; and the toll the fear and anxiety of her diagnosis and mental illness had taken on her; not just her life in particular but also her own ambitions and interests.

The author has done an amazing job of putting across the reality of the effect a mental illness diagnosis beyond what actually the mental health is about – the loneliness, the fear of social rejection, the stigma of what the diagnosis represents – the author has remarkably put across a message of hope, faith and growth in view of what seems to be a life changing diagnosis!



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