I really enjoyed this book and was involved from the very first page.
Mercy Blain is an unusual heroine, presenting as a muddled anxious woman in her mid thirties with secrets to hide. She finds herself flung out into harsh reality but rises to the occasion to triumph over the odds.

Accompanied by her faithful friend Wasabi, Mercy meets a cast of characters along the way.
The description of grey nomad behaviour and outback Australia is apt and there are a couple of mysteries to unravel along the way.
I loved the way the ending came together very neatly.

I'll certainly be investigating more of Kim Locks literary offerings in the future.
Thanks to Harlequin and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review this book

Kim Lock The Other Side of Beautiful, HQ Fiction, an imprint of Harlequin Enterprises, Australia, 2021.
Thank you to NetGalley for the uncorrected reading copy for review.

The preface to Kim Lock’s novel explains her preference for the term ‘nervous breakdown’ to describe depression in a way that anticipates the sufferer’s capacity to achieve a positive outcome: a ‘break through’. Mercy Blain accomplishes this in The Other Side of Beautiful, but not before the debilitating descriptions of her affliction become real, frightening, understandable and poignant to the reader. The journey to Mercy’s break though is undertaken from Adelaide to Darwin in a small vintage caravan with her dachshund, Wasabi.

My penchant for dachshunds enticed me to this book. Wasabi in The Other Side of Beautiful is special: firstly, because of his charm in introducing me to this engrossing novel, secondly his delightful presence throughout Mercy’s journey and thirdly – just because he is. He wriggles on the page; his short legs create humour; and his loyalty is just what Mercy needs.

Mercy’s life as an obstetrician and marriage to Eugene has been shattered. Most recently her home has burnt to the ground, her flight to refuge with the estranged Eugene has been truncated by his new partner’s coldness, and the miasma of worry and misery which has engulfed Mercy’s attempt to live normally is amplified. Until the house became inhabitable, Mercy barely left its security. Now she must. The refuge Mercy seeks in the familiarity of Eugene’s world is an illusion, magnifying the misery of her life in Adelaide. The vintage caravan for sale on a neighbour’s verge offers an alternative, and Mercy begins her journey north from Adelaide in a confusion of fear, resentment, bravado, and despair. One ambition becomes the focus – Mercy must leave. She must accomplish seemingly insurmountable tasks in doing so and travel far away from the swamp of her current world.

Ordinary responsibilities such as shopping, stopping for petrol or a pee, acknowledging the bonhomie of other people in caravans on the road, overnight stops or just a short time in a layby are, when lived through Mercy’s eyes, excruciating experiences. Lock does a marvellous job of making Mercy’s world, cluttered with fear and distress, our own. However, for the reader, at the same time as the friendliness of other caravanners becomes the strangling experience Mercy feels, the depiction of these ‘typical Australians’ is a joy. Although over time Mercy manages to accommodate their varying personalities, including that of Andrew McCauley, a Scottish traveller who recognises her need for space and privacy, the reader can always enjoy them to the full. One character’s grating intervention in the less stressful world Mercy is attempting to establish provides some of the background story to her breakdown. The ashes of an unknown character, reposing in a box in the caravan, provide Mercy with an incentive to continue her journey to the end when her responsibilities in Adelaide threaten to interrupt.

The journey from Adelaide to Darwin is an environmental adventure. Sunrise at Marla, a tiny township, merges into roadhouses and roadside stops with their simple amenities blocks, familiar foliage is followed by kilometres with no vegetation, the quiet of an early morning is sullied by recall of the huge road trains that pass with their alarmingly numerous wheels, large towns such as Alice Springs and Darwin with their own charm and unconventionalities contrast with the quiet of the bush. In this environment is Mercy, at times showered, too often dirty, smelly, and greasy haired.

Lock writes a story that combines strong characterisation; a storyline that has elements of complexity along with the simple one of driving away from trouble, accomplishing a ‘break through’ and moving forward; and an openness about the future possibilities Mercy has won through her travel. Mercy, Wasabi and the people they meet on the road are characters that not only live but thrive because of their travel. Mercy’s journey brings her into contact with people whose lives at a superficial sighting appear to be smoothly running, based only around their comfortable retirement. Their large shiny caravans compare dramatically with Mercy’s small, old fashioned van, but the picture of these ‘grey nomads’ travelling around Australia, adding an extra loop of road, treeless vistas and indifferent roadhouses and amenities to achieve yet another adventure is poignant in its own way.

Returning to dachshunds, I am grateful to Wasabi for introducing me to Kim Lock’s novel, and I look forward to reading more - even without a dachshund. The positive responses to Lock’s writing which establishes the dramatic contrasts of the Australian landscape, and her ability to depict a flawed character with sensitivity and warmth so Mercy never becomes a cliché or too painful to know, are worth recapturing. As if that is not enough, the illustrated maps of Mercy’s journey and Wasabi’s pawprints on the occasional page add to the charm of this novel.

There's been quite a few books about quirky characters going on a quirky journey for a purpose to rediscover themselves or solve some personnel problems. Mercy Blain is one of these characters but in her case she has to carry her problem of panic disorder with her. The author has experienced this disease and so poor old Mercy's emotions are coming from real experiences which frankly are hard to understand unless you do have this disease.
The book also features a cast of retirees driving caravans around Australia, the Grey Nomads, which I am part of at the moment so these people and their behaviours are both quirky and true.
The writing flows, Mercy finds ways to cope and by the end I wanted to get back on the road again and experience the open roads.

What a beautifully written, descriptive book, leaving us in no doubt how the power of a panic attack can bring you down and leave you feeling emotionally wrung out.
Mercy tried to hide, and successfully did for two years before events out of her control yet again, forced her to runaway to try and hide. Instead, she has a whirlwind of a road trip, finding who she is again, and comes to terms with herself and the past.

A poignant story of fear, anxiety, care and love all bundled up into a beautifully and sensitively written book.

Such a heartwarming, lovely book! I loved following Mercy on her journey from Adelaide to Darwin in a lemon of a van with her sausage dog, Wasabi. Also....I need to know what happened to Andy!

Absolutely enthralled by the story, I enjoyed how the writer unfolded the extreme anxiety, via the road trip.
Anxiety does horrible things to us, I could equate with the heroine in this story. The writer had her come out the other side a whole person again.
Loved the story loved the odd mix of characters along the way, some laughing and crying great book

I’m calling it now, in March. The Other Side of Beautiful is going to be this year’s standout novel. I’ll be hard pressed to find something better to read! I can almost feel the red dust under my fingernails from the drive to Darwin.

Dr Mercy Blain has panic disorder. She’s spent the last 2 years inside her own home, but that has just burnt down. She momentarily moves in with her sort-of-ex-husband, but that arrangement isn’t tenable. Next thing we know, Mercy is driving north from Adelaide in a tiny Daihatsu Hijet, with her sausage dog and a box of ashes. As she runs away from everything, can she actually find herself and the strength she needs to face things that need facing?

This novel has been at least in part influenced by Kim Lock’s own “nervous breakdown”, as she puts it, and you can feel it in the descriptions of Mercy’s thoughts and feelings - this character has been created from a place of understanding.

5 stars from me. A must-read. Thank you you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Mercy Blain's house burns down the day before her 36th birthday, leaving her with nothing but the clothes she's wearing, her phone and her sausage dog Wasabi. This is complicated by the fact she's agoraphobic and hasn't left that house in two years. After spending the night at her ex-husbands house she spontaneously buys a dinged up Daihatsu van and embarks on a tragicomic vanlife road trip from Adelaide to Darwin.

Well written, for fans of Eleanor Oliphant, Arthur Pepper or Harold Fry. The protagonist is quirky, mentally unhealthy and embarks on a journey. Fun!