We get labeled "over-sensitive" and "touchy" for wanting our illnesses to be left alone, for them to be used right and with respect. It reminds me of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls, which also pulls no punches, and also features the protagonist’s younger sister finally seeing the true injuries of a mental illness. Holly Bourne did an excellent job of creating a character who is dealing with OCD, whilst desperately trying to live a normal, teenage life. Yes, women are more than just lovers, mothers or wives, but it doesn’t give anyone the right to shade someone else for liking another person or even dating.

She meets her therapist once a week, finally cuts her worries list down to a single page, and is lowering her medication for OCD and anxiety. There's dating, relationships, friendships, Evie's relationship with her family, particularly her sister, drugs, alcohol, feminism, all on top of Evie and her OCD, the main focus of the book.Holly started her writing career as a news journalist, where she was nominated for Best Print Journalist of the Year.

She's losing her best friend Jane to her boyfriend Joel, who plays in a terrible heavy rock band, and goes on a string of terrible dates with Ethan, Oli, and Guy, whilst her therapist warns her about the complex difficulties that dating will bring to her life.As for OCD, I won't state an opinion simply because I don't have much knowledge of it besides the generally known concepts of it. As they kept talking about feminism, it has been said a lot that only women had their periods and that it’s what makes them women.

Questions over questions fall down on her and while she is struggeling to hide her OCD her demons begin to conquer her yet again.Bournes writing style is completely gripping and the story flips between current events and looking back at how things were when she was very ill, before she was ‘normal’. Bourne deals with many important topics within mental illness, such as how we speak about it and how people suffering with mental illness are treated, in a way that really makes you consider your own life. Holly Bourne tackles the big issues that teenage girls face daily: feminism, mental health, friendship and boy drama and shows how these themes are intertwined and affect one another making life as a teenage girl treacherous to navigate. The inclusion in the book of Olly, a male character who also has a mental health problem, shows that the illness has no gender.