Officially finished my first 2023 release, and if this is any indication of the quality of 2023 releases, we're in for a treat.

This was my first time reading from Amber McBride, though I do have Me Moth on my physical TBR. I had pretty high expectations for this, because I love verse novels and I had a feeling that this would be a particularly good one, but I was still blown away by how good this actually was. It's for sure one of my all time favourite verse novels.

It's a little hard to describe this book, as it just feels super unique, but it deals with a Black teenage girl with clinical depression, who's had some bad things happen in her past that she might not fully remember. It also deals with magic and a haunted forest, and while the setting is contemporary, it's a very fairytale-like story.

The writing is absolutely stunning and infused with so much meaning that it would be an amazing book to analyze in school or uni. I feel like I could read this several times and still not get everything out of it. At the same time though, it's not at all a hard story to follow, which is really such an impressive balance to strike.

Okay, WOW. This story told in poignant verse is a fairy tale as well as a vibrant healing journey through loss and depression. The imagery, the atmosphere, the unfolding of the plot...just truly phenomenal. I literally didn't even read the description of this book I just thought the cover was goregeous. So, I was not prepared for how good this was. Whimsy meets Faery in a mental facility and they develop a friendship after he moves into a house in her neighborhood shortly after their release. Their bond is strengthened once school is back in session since they are two of very few black students. They both have been impacted by the traumatic loss of a sibling in a haunted forest but they are connected deeper than they first realize. This is a tale of overcoming despair and the power of facing both real and imagined monsters. i absolutely cannot reccomend this enough! Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

Beautiful poetry. Well written. Evoked so many deep feelings and just loved reading
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own

This absolutely stunning novel in verse uses fairytales to explore what living with depression is like. As someone who has struggled with depression, this book was something that I didn't know I needed but I am so glad that I've found. Whimsey, the main character, is hardly perfect but is perfectly written. I'll be recommending this book to a number of friends and well as my social media channels.

The perfect book. Amazing fairytale stories tell of the truth and struggle of clinical depression. Accompanying the tales are a soulful author’s note, descriptions of the fairytale characters, references for those experiencing depression, and a note to the reader. I was mesmerized by this verse novel and fell fully into the lush world created by the author’s descriptive text. AND…the cover is beautiful!

Wow! Wow! Wow! I loved this book! I love how Amber McBride used fairytales, stories, and folklore to tell this story about trauma, mental illness, and depression. Everything tied together perfectly. This book kind of felt like reading a fairytale. I loved that Amber included a glossary of the fairytales, stories, and folklore at the end of the book. I will definitely check out some of the fairytales that were referenced in the book because there were a few that I've heard about but haven't read yet. I also love that she included a playlist as well.

This book is so stunningly beautiful, raw, and imaginative. I’m blown away by how this story came together. Amber so beautifully weaved in whimsy and fairytales to tell a story about clinical depression. It’s so interesting how she uses fairytales, stories, and folklore to craft her own sort of whimsical tale filled with magic and sorrow. This book is phenomenal!

I like the idea of exploring past trauma and mental illness through a journey through fairytales, and I liked the magical realism element that was built in. I wasn’t a fan of how, for lack of a better word, “whimsical” it was. But I can see how this would be very appealing to some people, especially fans of Francesca Lia Block. I was meh about it for the same reason I don’t care for Block’s books, the insertion of a random words that are supposed to sound creative or poetic, but end up sounding like a sentence made of bad Scrabble draws. At one point she describes I think it was “lemon drop fingers” (I no longer have the book to verify, but it’s something like that). The hell does that even mean? You can be metaphorical, but they should at least make sense. I just couldn’t get into the language in this book. But at least it’s another book about mental illness, and we can always use more of those.