Every Colour of You by Amelia Mandeville
| Every Colour of You by Amelia Mandeville | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Zoe Morris
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| Summary: A boy with a dark heart meets a girl who sings the rainbow in a wry story that reminds you to accept the things you cannot change. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 384 | Date: November 2018 |
| Publisher: Sphere | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0751571691 | |
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Zoe believes in adding life to years as well as years to life. Her world, like her name, is bursting with life and colour. She is the sort of girl who would sing a rainbow if she could. Tristan (or Tree as she calls him) is the opposite. Fresh out of hospital following a prolonged stay in a psychiatric unit, he sees a world as a grey place.
This is a book of opposites: the light and the dark; the upbeat and the downtrodden; the optimistic girl with everything to live for and the boy who has no reason to carry on. Until, that is, he meets Zoe. A number of circumstances conspire to bring them together, and that's important because probably they would never have met otherwise. Zoe is determined to make Tree see how good life can be, but it reminds you of the old joke:
How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but the lightbulb has to really want to change.
Will she succeed in brightening his outlook, or does she need to accept that there are things (and people) you cannot change, and that some breaks cannot be mended?
Lots of books are told from multiple points of view, that's nothing new. What makes this book special is the emotion that comes through from the alternating characters. The story moves on (though occasionally we repeat the same incident from both perspectives) as we flit from Zoe to Tree and back again, but the mood genuinely soars and plummets depending on who is in charge. The interesting thing is that of course all is not as it seems, and Zoe's opinion of herself isn't exactly how Tree sees her, and vice versa. Maybe the grass isn't always greener. Maybe the ending isn't exactly what you expect. Maybe you, like these two, need to have a change of heart as you start to understand both their lives.
As a debut novel, this one is fab. It's not short, but it keeps your attention throughout and there is so much humour of all kinds – obvious, subtle, dry and…well, whatever the opposite of dry is (Wet? Clammy? MOIST?). The writing is clever without being annoyingly literary. This is meant as a compliment. I read this book while sailing in Greece, and flew through the Every Colour of You by Amelia Mandevilles much faster than the boat flew through the water in those light, Ionian winds.
I work in mental health and am increasingly finding books which touch on this theme. With growing awareness comes growing exposure but, inevitably, varied execution. This book handles the subject sensitively but realistically. It takes more than a good attitude and a pep talk to change someone's brain functioning, so I was relieved to see Zoe struggle (in the nicest way, of course). Sometimes friendship may mean accepting people as they are, no matter how well-meaning your attempts to improve their life may be.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending us a copy to review. It was a very enjoyable read. If you, like the Zoe in the book and the Zoe writing this, like uplifting stories, then we'd also recommend The One We Fell In Love With by Paige Toon.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Every Colour of You by Amelia Mandeville at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Every Colour of You by Amelia Mandeville at Amazon.com.
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