Lana Grace Riva asked me if I’d like to read her new book, The Existence of Amy and I was instantly intrigued. Here are the details of the book followed by my personal review.
The Existence of Amy
ISBN-10 : 1086835816
ISBN-13 : 978-1086835816
Product Dimensions : 12.7 x 1.8 x 20.32 cm
Publisher : Independently published (2 Aug. 2019)
Language: : English
The Blurb
Amy has a normal life. That is, if you were to go by a definition of ‘no obvious indicators of peculiarity’, and you didn’t know her very well. She has good friends, a good job, a nice enough home. This normality, however, is precariously plastered on top of a different life. A life that is Amy’s real life. The only one her brain will let her lead. A fictional story that depicts the reality of mental illness behind a perception of normality.
My Review of the Existence of Amy
I read the book on my kindle and it was a fairly quick read especially as I was in hospital at the time and had plenty of time on my hands. Saying that, it was also difficult to put down and I felt that I needed to know what was going to happen next.
We live in a society where a lot of people with a mental illness carry on relatively normal lives. On the outside you may not even know they have a problem, but inside things are very different. This book gives you a brief look on what kind of things are happening on the inside. It can make you think twice about that friend or work colleague who keeps disappearing for days and doesn’t turn up to events they are invited to.
Amy, the main character, suffers from a mental illness that crept up suddenly and changed her outlook on life completely. Thankfully, she has some really great friends, who internally she just sees as work colleagues. She learns that one has suffered from mental illness in the past and another has a crush on her. Connections are made and when Amy hits an all time low, it’s one of her friends that lifts her back up again.
The main reason behind the book is to give the reader an insight to mental illness and I think it does this well. However, it is also a work of fiction so it has a storyline. It shows how having people who understand and care can help so much, if only real life was more like that.
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