Overview
It took me just one evening and a lazy Sunday to read all 275 pages of Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall and fall in love with the characters.

The book is based around teenager Norah who has Agoraphobia which pretty much leaves her housebound. Norah illness leaves her afraid of the world, desperate to stay safe, and controlled by OCD.

I love the writing style of this book. Norah's mental health illnesses become almost relatable and understand by poetically written descriptions. It also makes it very clear that, although Norah is still suffering, she is still very much an ordinary teenage girl, as a reader, I never felt her character was defined by her mental health problems.

Of course, there is a boy (isn't there always?) New neighbour Luke moves in next door and becomes curious about Norah. From the fate of her shooing away a bird, at the timing of him sneaking a look at her, leaves him confusing it for a flirt wave, and makes attempts to get to know her. He soon pieces together that she doesn't go to school like she told him, and tries desperately to understand her illness. I found Lukes character to be very charmingly ordinary. Together the characters seemed to fit.

The characters in this story, grow both individually and together as they try to understand each other, despite leading quite different lives. 

There is also a slight twist towards the end, which means Norah is pushed outside of her tiny comfort zone which she has created for herself. 


Some Quotes I liked...


See, anxiety doesn’t just stop. You can have nice moments, minutes where it shrinks, but it doesn’t leave. It lurks in the background like a shadow, like that important assignment you have to do but keep putting off or the dull ache that follows a three-day migraine. The best you can hope for is to contain it, make it as small as possible so it stops being intrusive. Am I coping? Yes, but it’s taking a monumental amount of effort to keep the dynamite inside my stomach from exploding."



Perfection is a feeling; you’ll know it if you’ve ever questioned the competency of your penmanship before writing on the first page of a new notebook.” 




“I just want to have proof that I can think straight, that I am more than the girl who believes that odd numbers will cause a catastrophe.”

Star Rating:
★★★★ out of ★★★★★

If you have given this a read, I'd love to hear your thoughts, I personally really enjoyed this book!



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