[I don’t feel it’s appropriate to give this book a rating]

“light and darkness are part of the same thing… I want to be the kind of person who can walk inside the vast darkness and find the one fragment of sunlight I can linger in for a long time.” ✨

it feels hard to review a book like this, with its vivid, honest account of the author’s mental health - and knowing that she sadly died at aged 35 just a month ago.

I wasn’t sure what I expected from this memoir but it’s simply ordinary in an extraordinary way - the inner workings of her mind as she works through pain, and how she interacts with her therapist throughout.

to be honest, I found the therapist’s remarks quite surprising - when compared to my own experiences of therapy in the past, this was definitely quite different. the therapist in the book is quick to resort to medication and pills, which is a shame when there is so much we can do for our mental health that doesn’t involve consuming anything. and her remarks were not particularly helpful in a lot of cases - getting too involved rather than letting her patient self-reflect and come to her own conclusion.

I bought this book before I’d heard of the author’s death, and reading it now knowing of this made it all the more sadder. but to end on a positive, it’s been said that her donated organs have saved 5 lives and I think that is wonderful ❤️

beautifully written with so much character and warmth 🧡 I flew through this one - I just couldn’t put it down

‘celestial lights’ is about childhood friends who reunite and a marriage torn apart by a ten-year space mission. what it means to leave your family behind whilst searching for answers about this world.

it’s about how ambition and family collide and how seeking externally for a greater purpose sometimes means you forget all the wonderful things that lie right in front of you - something universally profound.

it’s one of those books that’s quite hard to put into words, but it’s like a slow tear to the heart - knowing that the magic of space is never going to be enough, and the magic was on earth all along 😥💔

who knew you could feel so much empathy towards a monster 😭 and it really does amaze me how Shelley wrote something with so much depth that 100s years later it still resonates so much with what it means to be human in this world.

we still find ourselves in a world where those who are different are shunned, where those who are isolated suffer to the brink of violence and crime, and where we try and see people beyond their appearance and yet we still have many people feeling as desolate as the monster feels in this novel.

mary shelley wrote something that truly stands the test of time and challenges us even now to question our morality and the way we treat others, and for that it is an incredible novel 🙌🏻

Okay so disclaimer: I’m not usually a thriller fan 👀

Also disclaimer: books like these are the reason why I don’t read thrillers 😂😂

Some are good but I need character driven, psychological narratives to really feel INVESTED in what’s happening, and I just did not feel it with this one 🥲

the writing style drove me insane - there was just no depth and feeling to it. the classic “telling not showing”. it was easy to get into and read and the fast paced nature helped me get into it, but I had a very surface level relationship with it 😅

don’t get me started on the twists… one of them was good and I did step back like woah okay, but the LAST twist?! so far fetched 😂 it just didn’t work for me at all

I read this for book club and I feel like I’m going to be the only one ready to rant about it 👀

what was the last book you read that disappointed you?

a dark, twisted tale about the distorted versions of love 🐑

this book ended up being more heart-breaking than I anticipated 💔

a young girl trapped by the insanity of her mother - grown up to succumb to a downright murderous way of life. you can’t help but feel her pain as she navigates what is right and wrong, love or hate, true or untrue, real or unreal in this world.

the perfect october read - but only if you’re ready to be shocked, disturbed and everything in between. it’s not an easy read for the most part (in the sense that it climbs insides you and makes you question what you’re reading), but it’s beautifully (albeit disturbingly) written with some quotes that hit deep.

I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s certainly a book that will stick with me…

if you’ve read it too… I want to know what you think of the ending 😳🖤