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A review by patchworkbunny
When We Collided by Emery Lord
4.0
One thing I realised when reading When We Collided is how rare it is to have a confident main character. Vivi’s confidence isn’t absolute, as we soon learn, but it made me think how we probably warm a lot quicker to characters with obvious flaws. I might have been annoyed at Vivi but the tells are there that her exuberance may be a symptom; from the start, she is throwing her pills off a cliff.
It looks at depression from different angle. Jonah’s mum displays what most people would think of when talking about clinical depression, she barely leaves her room and isn’t there mentally for her family. Jonah is grieving too, but he is holding things together, taking on the responsibility of a parent. People, on the whole, are more forgiving of depression triggered by grief but there is still the desire to hide it from other people.
Vivi doesn’t have an “excuse” and I think that is a good point to make. Jonah’s family can understandably be broken; people expect something to have caused depression, helps them to understand it. But Vivi doesn’t have a reason, she is just ill. As you might guess from her personality, she suffers from bipolar disorder, previously referred to as manic depression. Her moods go from extremes from the numbness of depression to her high energy manic periods.
This book gets really good when things start going wrong. Vivi sweeping in and mending Jonah’s broken heart seems too good to be true, and it is. Jonah is under a lot of strain and Vivi is on a collision course with the slightest upset ready to send her hurtling into an episode. There is some powerful writing as emotions are stretched and the truths come out.
Jonah’s side of the story also portrays the amount young carers take on and the strain they are under. There are teens out there looking after their siblings or parents, for whatever reason, and it’s a hell of a lot of responsibility at a time in their lives when they should be having fun.
It looks at depression from different angle. Jonah’s mum displays what most people would think of when talking about clinical depression, she barely leaves her room and isn’t there mentally for her family. Jonah is grieving too, but he is holding things together, taking on the responsibility of a parent. People, on the whole, are more forgiving of depression triggered by grief but there is still the desire to hide it from other people.
Vivi doesn’t have an “excuse” and I think that is a good point to make. Jonah’s family can understandably be broken; people expect something to have caused depression, helps them to understand it. But Vivi doesn’t have a reason, she is just ill. As you might guess from her personality, she suffers from bipolar disorder, previously referred to as manic depression. Her moods go from extremes from the numbness of depression to her high energy manic periods.
This book gets really good when things start going wrong. Vivi sweeping in and mending Jonah’s broken heart seems too good to be true, and it is. Jonah is under a lot of strain and Vivi is on a collision course with the slightest upset ready to send her hurtling into an episode. There is some powerful writing as emotions are stretched and the truths come out.
Jonah’s side of the story also portrays the amount young carers take on and the strain they are under. There are teens out there looking after their siblings or parents, for whatever reason, and it’s a hell of a lot of responsibility at a time in their lives when they should be having fun.