Book Review: Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall

Title: Under Rose-Tainted Skies
Author: Louise Gornall
Genre: Contemporary YA
Format: E-Book
Length: 341 pages
Publisher: Clarion Books
Publication Date: 7th July 2016

My Rating: ★★★★★ (5 stars)

Goodreads | Storygraph

Synopsis:

Norah has agoraphobia and OCD. When groceries are left on the porch, she can’t step out to get them. Struggling to snag the bags with a stick, she meets Luke. He’s sweet and funny, and he just caught her fishing for groceries. Because of course he did.

Norah can’t leave the house, but can she let someone in? As their friendship grows deeper, Norah realizes Luke deserves a normal girl. One who can lie on the front lawn and look up at the stars. One who isn’t so screwed up.

Readers themselves will fall in love with Norah in this poignant, humorous, and deeply engaging portrait of a teen struggling to find the strength to face her demons.

My Review:

TW: OCD, anxiety, agoraphobia, self-harm.

Under Rose-Tainted Skies is one of those books that I added to my TBR list years ago but never got around to reading (sensing a theme here with most of my reads this year).

It follows the story of Norah, a girl living with Agoraphobia and OCD. This story follows Norah’s life in it’s entirety and its from her point of view and it this novel gives a realistic depiction of the two disorders. This book discusses the prejudice of mental health, and how if you don’t fit someone’s image of ‘mental illness’ then clearly you aren’t ill enough.

The relationship between Norah and Luke was lovely and I really liked how they found other ways to communicate when Norah didn’t feel up to talking, i.e. messages on windows. The other part I liked was that Luke didn’t try to “fix” Norah, he was supportive and complimentary. This story was about Norah’s journey to overcome her fears, and control things she always felt had controlled her.

I really enjoyed the narrative of this novel; the descriptions were snappy and humorous. However, despite the snappy humour this story shows you the reality of mental illness and shows you what it’s really like. Gornall poured her heart and soul into this book, and it is a fantastic novel. I’m just sad that it took me as long as it did to read it.