K.'s Reviews > Under Rose-Tainted Skies

Trigger warning: mental health, self harm, hospitalisation of a parent, (view spoiler)[home invasion (hide spoiler)].

20/7/2020
On reread, I'm bumping this down to 4 stars. Not because there's anything wrong with it, just because the pacing felt...a little wonky. There's a lot of build up at the start and then the middle just kind of plods along setting up Luke as a character and their developing friendship. And then the end is ALL ACTION ALL THE TIME and it was a little abrupt for my liking. But it's still a solid Own Voices read!

14/2/2017
4.5 stars.

Norah has severe anxiety, OCD and agoraphobia, to the point where she basically only leaves the house to see her psychologist. Then Luke moves in next door and Norah's mother ends up in hospital, leaving her alone in the house and her mental health starts to deteriorate.

This book reminded me of Everything, Everything in a lot of ways. Except better, because a) Norah is actually sick and b) it's Own Voices.

I had a lot of feelings for Norah. She's got so much personality, she feels trapped by her mental health, she mourns the life she used to have, she has dreams for the future, she wants to be with Luke but has no idea how to go about it or if her anxiety and OCD will let her.

Luke was adorable. He understands that Norah's mental illness isn't something that she can just get over, and he respects the boundaries she puts in place. And the one time he DOESN'T respect those boundaries? He goes off and does research and apologises repeatedly for his actions, and it's great.

Basically, the representation was A+, the characters were delightful, there was a parent who was SUPER supportive of her daughter, the dynamic between Norah and Luke was adorable and fabulous, and while I saw the ending coming a mile away, I didn't really care because it was so stinking cute and heartbreaking and just flat out wonderful.