Under Rose Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 368

Publisher: Chicken House Books

Released: 7th of July 2016 

Agoraphobia confines Norah to the house she shares with her mother.

For her, the outside is sky glimpsed through glass, or a gauntlet to run between home and car. But a chance encounter on the doorstep changes everything: Luke, her new neighbour. Norah is determined to be the girl she thinks Luke deserves: a ‘normal’ girl, her skies unfiltered by the lens of mental illness. Instead, her love and bravery opens a window to unexpected truths …

TRIGGERS FOR: Anxiety 

What I Have to Say 

This book was a very accurate portrayal of OCD and agoraphobia. It dealt very well with the way that people with OCD get stuck on a certain thought and can't get away from it. Even though a lot of Norah's OCD symptoms were very different, I could relate to it so much. So much that it was really hard for me to read without getting really anxious because my mind was picking up on the fast thought pattern that was shown in the book. 

I found this a little bit with Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne, but not nearly so much, because Norah is so much in the heart of her illness and everything is very intense for her. I wouldn't say this is a bad thing at all, because it shows a really accurate account of exactly how people with anxiety and OCD think, but I would warn those who suffer with anxiety to be careful and step away from the book when they need to. 

I was worried for quite a lot of the book that it would be one of those stories where a boy gets together with a girl suffering from anxiety and his love manages to fix her. Luckily it wasn't. While Luke does have an influence on Norah, her progress during the book is only affected by Luke in the way that he gives her an extra reason to face her disability and push to improve. 

This is definitely a really accurate portrayal of mental illness, that really gets to the heart off the issue and shows how hard and debilitating it can be. 

My thanks go to Chicken House and Nina Douglas for providing me with this copy for review.