Think this book could’ve been great for some people but it was just quite triggering for me! Absolutely my own choice to step back from it.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me, but I'm sure others will love it.

Unfortunately I didn't finish this book, as I couldn't get into it - nothing against the author or book, just not to my personal taste. Thank you for the opportunity to read it.

I had a difficult time with this book. Maybe it's because it was an advanced copy, but in several places (pretty much every page) there were words that weren't fully written, letters missing out, which made it really hard to read.
Putting that aside, I felt the book lacked the length and depth to really get you invested in the characters and tell the story well enough. The ending especially felt hugely rushed and that kind of quick pacing left the entire story feeling underdeveloped. So, whilst I loved the premise, the execution just wasn't a hit for me.

<b>L I K E S</b>
• <b>Dani’s anorexia was portrayed very thoroughly</b>! I do not know if this book is ownvoices, but from what I have gathered the anorexia was portrayed in a thorough, accurate way. We see Dani describe her eating disorder as The Thinness and also involved the Alien, another figure she imagined. It was also interesting to see how she developed these strategies to feel good about herself, which involved not eating to become more lovable. In the end, we also saw where her eating disorder came from as she slowly unraveled a childhood trauma, that she had repressed for years. This was done with the concept of the Empty Room, where her past lay and which she visited again and again to remember what had happened back then. It did help her recover, though, as she finally got to know what she had repressed all these years.

• <b>Flechter was a really likable character</b>. I had to say that I really respected him, because he put up with all of Dani's treatment of everybody, even though he did not have to. He truly was a good recovery buddy for her, but I really think that Dani did not appreciate him enough, because she was so self-obsessed. In general, I felt really sad for Flechter, because he had to go through some horrible child abuse at the hands of his emotionally & physically abusive alcoholic mother. Reading about her made me really angry, because she’s the reason he felt worthless and escaped into drugs in the first place. Later he even ends up at a lower place, while of course Dani loses nothing, which also made me feel affronted in his place,. because it was rarely unfair. He certainly deserved better.

• <b>The pacing and writing style made it very easy to get through the book</b>! I have to say that this is one of the most positive aspects of the novel, because I flew through it. The writing style is very easy to get through and the pacing flows really nicely, so I never had trouble getting through the book. I actually also never got bored, because the suspense was build up very nicely and I really wanted to know how things continued with the characters!

<b>D I S L I K E S</b>
• <b>Dani was one of the most unlikable characters that I’ve encountered</b>. I got that she dealt with an eating disorder but that did not give her a free pass to go around being mean to people. The worst thing about her was how horribly self absorbed and selfish she was, because everything always had to be about her. She did not care about the other kids recovering, because Dani was always thinking how she’s the only one allowed to hurt, because she has it worst of all. Dani also thinks she’s the most important one that needs to be saved. It always has to be all about her, which got on my nerves pretty quickly, because she never thought about others, only about herself. She’s also super unkind and cruel towards the others, always looking down on them, because she is on her high horse. I did not get what her problem with the other kids was. Not to mention how she kept talking about Carmen’s suicide in the beginning - uuugh. She was also so dismissive of Flechters story, not wanting to hear it because she wants to talk only about herself and does not care about what everyone else has been through. One time Dani literally says that she wished thing would be like before, when it was all about her. I did not have even a bit of sympathy for her.

• <b>The portrayal of the rehab center & psychologists was inaccurate & not really realistic</b>. Dani constantly mocked their recovering techniques because according to her everything they ever did was useless, which is funny since she did not study Psychology, but always knows best *sarcasm*. In general psychologists were portrayed as arrogant snobs who did not know what they were doing & never helped anyone. (I do know that not every center/psychologist is competent, there are certainly exceptions) No one actually recovered & many techniques like one to one therapy were not even done. Furthermore, the center did not seem to care that nobody was recovering either. Dani was very weak and could barely walk anymore, but no one did anything to help her. She literally skipped meals and did not eat for days - normally she would have to have bed rest & be monitored & if things got rough force fed. I just hated how the entire rehab system was portrayed as flawed and useless, because while it won’t work for everybody, these people have studied years and gotten their degree, so stop acting like everyone has no idea what they are doing and is just an arrogant snob thinking they’re better than anyone else.

• <b>Dani and Flechter’s relationship was not healthy</b>. There was lots of Co-dependency, between them, which is not really healthy in any case, but especially not with two recovering people. There’s a reason relationships are forbidden in the rehab center, because as much as support helps, romantic relationships can get really messy and can easily make things worse. I disliked how Flechter thought he could just force Dani to eat again, which surely is not how eating disorders work. I also disliked how Dani was always like “I need you to this and that for me - ugh I want to go back to the times when it was all about me” and got so annoyed when Flechter told his story. In general, the entire ‘if you don’t recover I won’t come to circle time’ emotional blackmail bothered me to no ends.

• <b>What the hell was up with this Kerstin?</b> She was the caricature of the dumb neurotypical I got that, but she was getting on my nerves. And where did she even come from? How does she know Dani? No one knows because she just turns up & later disappears again. I really disliked her and had no ides why she even had to be in the book, because she did not bring anything to the story, she was just there to be annoying.

• <b>The ending was kind of very abrupt</b>. It felt like we were in a middle of a scene and then suddenly the book was finished. I would have liked to at least wrap things up a bit more and was startled when I figured out that there was nothing more to read. After all this buildup the ending scene was way too short.

<b>IN CONCLUSION</b>: Room Empty was a very interesting book about eating disorders, addiction and trauma, but sadly had a very unlikable main character as well as a not really realistic portrayal of the health system.

I have heard so many wonderful things about Sarah Mussi's works, so when I saw this one I was intrigued, not only by the author, but by the story as well. I knew it wasn't going to be a light read, and I prepared myself as much as I could.

Sadly, I'm not sure I really enjoyed this book. Of course, given the subject matter, it is not necessarily a book that one can really say they "enjoyed" - but as a book in general, it didn't give me a lot of reasons to want to keep reading it. Yes, the subject matter was hard, and they are important topics to address, but beyond that I just couldn't bring myself to connect with the main character. And there were times where the book dragged a bit and I found myself losing concentration and interest. This saddened me a bit, because I do think that the topics addressed in the book are important and should be talked about more - it is still something that affects so many children (and adults), and having stories like these are important to keep these issues talked about, and hopefully addressed.

I really wanted to like this book, and I am disappointed that I couldn't give it more stars.

Sometimes subjects like anorexia can be confronting, but it is a disorder that is living in many of our young people today. It’s an isolating disorder that attacks the mind which then attacks the body, and Sarah Mussi has bought this subject to life in her new novel Room Empty.
Room empty is about two young people Dani and Fletcher who meet in rehab, they are struggling with their problems and have shut themselves off from everybody. It is not until they meet each other that their lives begin to change, that they begin to open up and take the “monsters” that live within them and chose to begin helping themselves and each other, and begin living.
This book certainly isn’t for everyone, the themes are quite strong and might be confronting for a lot of teen readers. It is the type of book that some parents, teacher, psychologist or other adult may wish to discuss with their teens, keeping the lines of communication open.

Room Empty was a heart-breaking and raw novel which hit me hard. It is about the journeys of Dani, who is suffering from anorexia, and her support buddy Fletcher, who is battling a drug addiction. Both of their stories are emotional, and important to read about. However, I did have a couple of issues. First, the writing style was difficult to get my head around, and seemed clunky and disjointed, as it was meant to represent Dani's stream of consciousness. Throughout the book, I struggled to gel with it, although I can understand why Mussi decided this would be an effective way to tell Dani's story.
Also, I'm not sure how accurate everything was in terms of the support Dani was getting from the rehab centre she was staying in. I get that it isn't a hospital (although I think she may have needed to be in one) but the people there didn't seem to care if Dani skipped meals, or sat at the table with everyone with an empty plate. She is supposed to battling the anorexia, with the help of the people there, not continuing it. Without more support, it would have been hard for Dani to recover.
Overall, I did really enjoy Room Empty as I thought for the most part it was a fantastic story. Besides a couple of issues, the novel was very good.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

*TRIGGER WARNING FOR ANOREXIA, SUBSTANCE ABUSE, SUICIDE, CHILD ABUSE*

"Fletcher and Dani are fighting their own inner demons just to stay alive. Dani is ravaged by anorexia and hasn’t eaten for days. Fletcher is fighting to stay off the streets and to stay off drugs. Will their attraction to each other save or destroy them?

Both patients at the Daisy Bank Rehab Centre, Fletcher wants to help Dani find out about the Room Empty at the heart of her pain: What happened to Dani in that room when she was four? Whose is the dead body that lies across the door? Why won’t her mind let her remember?
As Dani and Fletcher begin to learn how to love, Sarah Mussi weaves an intoxicating story of pain, fear and redemption."

As someone who has spent a lot of years in psychiatric hospitals, fighting anorexia, I thought this book would be something that I could relate to and enjoy. But I was left quite disappointed with this one.

I'm not sure how much hospital admissions differ from rehab centres but I felt very disconnected with Dani's treatment plan. I felt very frustrated that there was no support offered to her. Why was she allowed to sit at the table with an empty plate? Why was she allowed to walk around the centre when she was so thin and close to death? Why did no staff members try to intervene? It just didn't make sense to me.

I should have also been able to connect with Dani as a character because I have been in her position many times, but I couldn't. Many authors fall into the trap of focusing on numbers when they write about eating disorders, so I would like to thank for Mussi for not doing so. However, she does focus heavily on physical symptoms of being emaciated. This is very triggering. I would like to see more 'pschological symptoms' than there was. I also thought the ending, when Dani decided she wanted to recover, was unrealistic and a bit stupid. If you have spent that long battling an eating disorder, there is no way you'll be able to pile your plate and eat the lot with no support. I felt that this scene downplayed the mental torture of an ED sufferer at mealtimes.

In regards to the other characters, I like Fletcher. He was kind, supportive, loving. But Mussi has also fallen into the trap of 'love can save me', which is a trope that I cannot stand. We never get to see what happens to the couple as the book ends quite abruptly but I can only imagine that Fletcher sacrifices his own recovery to save Dani.
Now that I have finished this book, I'm left wondering what the purpose of Carmen's character was. It all seems a bit redundant.

Overall, Room Empty was okay. It was well written but I have a lot of issues with it. Maybe I wouldn't have critiqued it so harshly if I hadn't been so invested in the story, but I feel this book had so much more potential. 3/5*

I’m going to preface this review by saying that I’m not qualified to comment on or assess the representation of the eating disorder in this book.

This felt a lot like a “love cures all” kind of story disguised as a mystery. I enjoyed it, but it comes with a big trigger warning (see above). This book is definitely very heavy for a YA contemporary – it’s filled with self-hate and I wouldn’t recommend reading it unless you are in a healthy state of mind.

My favourite aspect of the book was how Dani visualised her illness as the Alien, however she still feels like her illness personified, there’s not much else to her character. The relationship between Dani and Fletcher is harmful and unhealthy. Most of the characters are caricatures of real life people, especially Kerstin. The only character who vaguely resembled a real person was Tony, whom I really liked and would have liked to know more about his story.

Full review available on my blog and on Goodreads (linked below).

Not Sarah Mussi's usual subject matter, but a fantastic insight into addiction and eating disorders in particular. Hard reading but well worth the outcome. As always her style captivates and engages. I was not disappointed.

I got about 170 pages into Room Empty before I realised the writing style was just leaving me cold, and a story about anorexia, addiction, child abuse, and suicide, should not leave someone without feeling. Although I genuinely feel for people who go through those terrible ordeals in real life, in this story I felt nothing – the writing is so disjointed and jumpy (which I’m sure has been done purposely to reflect Dani’s mindset) that I found I didn’t really care what happened to the characters and just wanted to get it out of the way so that I could move onto a different book. The premise of the book is fairly interesting, though, with Dani suddenly remembering parts of a horrific repressed childhood memory, and her rehab 'buddy' Fletcher becoming determined to solve the mystery of it.

Good stuff:
- Realistic depiction of addiction and mental illness. Even though I found the characters largely unlikeable I think Mussi did a good job in showing how illness and addiction can change a person – the patients appear selfish and uncaring but that can happen when you’re struggling against your own mind. I really didn't like Dani but I can appreciate that she had lived a traumatic life and was incredibly damaged and ill; it's not an excuse but it certainly helps you understand why she is so unpleasant.

Bad stuff:
- The writing. It’s not badly written, it’s just a style that didn’t work me this time. It is written in a stream-of-consciousness style, which I usually love, but I didn’t like being stuck in Dani’s head at all.
- It’s set in a rehab centre yet it seems that Dani needs to be in hospital; she’s dying rather than struggling and the centre seems to be doing very little to help other than ‘circle time’ group therapy. I'm not sure how realistic that is, having never been in any kind of rehabilitation centre, but I can't imagine that somewhere like that would allow patients to die rather than trying to help them.
- A lot of the focus seems to be on Dani and Fletcher, and their developing relationship…and I just didn’t care. I wanted a focus on illness and addiction and the fight to overcome it, not a fleeting relationship between an anorexic and an addict.

I didn't finish the book. Way too triggering for me. The scene with the person hanging in full detail was too much for me

This book was quite a difficult read. It was probably the heaviest book I read about mental illness so far.

The book touches subjects like abuse, drugs, anorexia and suicide. And it takes them from the perspective of an anorectic girl named Dani at a Rehab Center. Dani and Fletcher, a drug addict, are recover buddies, and they help each other through their recovery process.

At the beginning, I wasn’t really enjoying the book. Mainly because Dani is way drowned in her illness, and it was very difficult to relate to her. Her problems made her very negative, self-absorbed and sometimes even mean. So I do have to say that the author made an incredibly good job on showing how deep can something affect us! My heart was jumping by the end of the book.

We see Dani go through a lot both in the present and in the past. She revisits her past in order to understand why she is the way she is. What made her become so ill. And the same with Fletcher, he shows us his past and all the bad moments he had. But although their problems are very different, one of the biggest difference is that he knows them and Dani has yet to discover them deep inside her memories.

We see a lot of good and bad moments. We go through denial to friendship, to understatement, to acceptance. We see the characters change and evolve and battle their inner demons.

I really liked how the book was arranged in steps and it had some incredible twists and a lot of emotion! But I had a lot of problems about how the rehab worked…

This is the type of book I can’t really recommend to persons that suffered or still suffer from any of the problems previously mentioned, as it can be a trigger. The book takes a lot of mental strength to get through, but the end made it worth it.

I think this book has a lot of potential however it fell short in a lot of ways for me. The writing in this is actually really great and flows easily, but some of the issue I have is with the plot itself. I don't want to spoil anything but I think if you are happy to pick up a YA book that isn't light and fluffy, then this will be right up your alley.

TW: anorexia, addiction, abuse and more.

So, I was fairly excited to read this because I've been trying to read more books featuring mental illness, as it is something I feel passionate about, eating disorders especially. And I was weary when starting this book that this book might feature love 'fixing' the characters' problems, although I was hoping that this wouldn't be the case. But that wasn't what frustrated me whilst reading this book.

Just a bit of a disclaimer: A lot of this review is focused on Dani and the treatment of her eating disorder because that's something I know a fair amount about (and it's also mostly what the book focuses on). I don't know as much about drug addiction, which Fletcher the main male character is dealing with, so I haven't commented as much on the treatment of it.

This novel is told from the eyes of Dani, a patient at the Daisy Bank Rehab Centre, who's been suffering with anorexia for most of her life. The portrayal of Dani's eating disorder itself was fairly accurate, such as her setting herself strict rules to follow concerning what and when she could eat as well as comparing what she eats to what everyone else is eating. These things are typical of someone suffering from anorexia however what I couldn't understand about this story was the treatment of Dani's illness at the rehab centre. I'm not completely sure how rehab centres would differ from hospitals when it comes to treating anorexia. And I also understand that the rehab centre featured in this story isn't supposed to be the best centre ever but, still, Dani recieved little-to-no support for her illness and this really frustrated me.

Multiple times in this book Dani mentions how she feels faint after walking up the stairs, how she can feel how irregular her heartbeat is and how she is so close to dying. And I just couldn't stop thinking why isn't Dani in a hospital? If Dani is so thin and close to death, she shouldn't be allowed to walk around the centre, she should be on bed rest connected to a cardiac monitor with regular doctor/nurse visits. I disliked how this book talked about the implications to Dani's physical health as a result of starving herself yet took no precautions against it. I can't believe that no staff member at the rehab centre recognised that Dani was dangerously thin and needed medical attention. And, seeing as this book is set in the UK, medical help shouldn't have been impossible for Dani to access.

I also can't believe that no staff seemed to make an effort to support Dani's recovery outside of compulsory group therapy sessions. Group therapy can only help so much and there was no mentions of one-to-one therapy, which is just as important. Dani was allowed to go days without eating and the only person who seemed to care about this was Fletcher, her newly assigned recovery buddy.

In this rehab centre drugs are banned, which you'd expect, to deter those who misuse drugs from continuing to do so. But how come Dani is allowed to sit at lunch with an empty plate and continue her addiction?

This plot of this story is centered around everyone having a 'room' in their mind where difficult emotions and experiences are kept hidden. Fletcher, Dani's recovery buddy and love interest, is determined to find out what is in Dani's 'room' and help her overcome it. I liked Fletcher's character, he was caring and honest and determined to help Dani, although all of this seemed to be in an attempt to cover up his own problems.

But, I disliked how quickly Dani and Fletcher became close and how they needed to save each other from their addictions, as if it was only their love which could tackle their problems. Friendship and love can be extremely helpful when helping an individual recover from a mental illness but they aren't a be all and end all of the recovery process. In all fairness, this book did touch on the character's battling their problems individually but this didn't seem to be it's main focus.

There are some other things which frustrated me about this story but I don't want go into them too much because spoilers. But there were things I liked about this book, such as the controlling and toxicity of Dani's thoughts about food and herself. The writing was also engaging and easy to read. However, these things didn't make up for the things which I didn't like about this book.

A part of me wonders whether I'm overthinking what happened in this story or I'm missing something or I'm taking this story too personally or literally. And I hate being so negative but I wanted to share all these thoughts anyway.

This author is known for young adult/teen fiction so I am presuming that this title is also meant for that audience. However that was not explicit.
We meet Dani 17 year old anorexic who is attending the Daisy Bank Rehab Centre. Dani is getting to know the small group of addicts at the centre and the staff. The descriptions of the therapy are a theme of the novel - particularly the 12 step programme which is well used in such treatments. The description of Judith, one of the therapists who practises the school of psychodynamic counselling and a lot of the comments are quite amusing about the 'psycho babble'. However through the group sessions Dani is led to reliving past childhood memories which led to a traumatic recollection of an incident with her mother.
Dani also befriends drug addict Fletcher who becomes intrigued by Dani's revelations and wants to help her to investigate the truth to why she has no memory of her mother or her early childhood.
If this is aimed at the teen market it is very explicit in both addiction and sexual references. However although Dani's anorexia is outlined and we probably understand the cause, her physical condition and resolution are not wholly believable. I am not sure that this would make young adults more vulnerable to experimentation rather than understanding the consequences of such actions.
The plot is fast paced and the dialogue between both Dani and Fletcher realistic for such troubled individuals.
The whole aspect of rehab/therapy has a dilemma in that Dani's rejection of it finally leads her to recovery.
This would not be book I could wholeheartedly recommend to young adults although within a school/college setting discussing the issues it might be more helpful.

What a stunning book this has been to read.
Personally, as a sufferer of issues of many kinds, I can relate to many points in this book.

The story is set in a mostly government funded treatment center in Berkshire. The resident we focus around is Dani who seventeen, lived in care all her life and whom is anorexic. She has just found her friend, Carmen, dead by suicide and she found her. Her other friend, Fletcher is a drug addict and insists on being there for Dani and wants her to be there for him through his stay too.

She also has the alien, who insists on supporting her which is inside her head and is the more irrational, impulsive, emotional side of her. This side of her comes to light most often after she starts to remember being locked in a room with the dead body.

There is a great mystery to be solved within this novel as well as the turbulent yet loving relationship that builds and grows between Fletcher and Dani. I have to say as Dani's memories start to come back stronger in flashbacks to her, the fast paced and emotional ending to the book leaves me full of hope for Dani and Fletch.

I really recommend this book, thanks to the publishers allowing me to review Sarah's new book and make sure you read this one. A top pick of mine for 2017!