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A review by earlgreybooks
Avalanche: A Love Story by Julia Leigh
4.0
Originally reviewed at Tea & Titles
And so begins my quest to read through the Stella Prize 2017 longlist.
If you haven’t already, I suggest going over to look at my pre-reading thoughts post so you can learn more about the prize, and my thoughts, obviously.
I mentioned in that post that I don’t know a whole lot about IVF. I’m only 21 right now, and my goals for the next 5 or so years don’t include children at all. I don’t know anyone who went through IVF, or read anything about it at all. It’s just one of those areas that I am completely unknowledgeable about. I knew it was a difficult process and taxing on the body and mind, but I didn’t realise how much it really took until I read this.
Avalanche is the story of Julia Leigh’s own experience with IVF treatment. She tells the story with honesty, and I could feel my heart breaking for her with every page. There were so many times I wished that everything would go right for her, and every time it didn’t I felt her pain. The fact Julia Leigh managed that when I have absolutely no similar experience should clue you in as to how heartbreaking this book is. I’m not a big memoir fan, but the Stella Prize always makes me feel like I should be.
One thing I did really connect to was when Julia had to start injecting herself. She only had to do it once a day, but her description of attaching the needle to the pen, injecting herself in her stomach and putting the needle into the sharps container is the closest I’ve been so far to seeing myself in a book. I inject four times a day with my diabetes, but I go through the same process. Maybe it’s a little strange, but that really helped me connect to this book.
All in all, I would definitely recommend Avalanche and I’m eager to see whether this makes the shortlist or not. Remember to keep checking back for more reviews of the Stella Prize longlist books!
And so begins my quest to read through the Stella Prize 2017 longlist.
If you haven’t already, I suggest going over to look at my pre-reading thoughts post so you can learn more about the prize, and my thoughts, obviously.
I mentioned in that post that I don’t know a whole lot about IVF. I’m only 21 right now, and my goals for the next 5 or so years don’t include children at all. I don’t know anyone who went through IVF, or read anything about it at all. It’s just one of those areas that I am completely unknowledgeable about. I knew it was a difficult process and taxing on the body and mind, but I didn’t realise how much it really took until I read this.
Avalanche is the story of Julia Leigh’s own experience with IVF treatment. She tells the story with honesty, and I could feel my heart breaking for her with every page. There were so many times I wished that everything would go right for her, and every time it didn’t I felt her pain. The fact Julia Leigh managed that when I have absolutely no similar experience should clue you in as to how heartbreaking this book is. I’m not a big memoir fan, but the Stella Prize always makes me feel like I should be.
One thing I did really connect to was when Julia had to start injecting herself. She only had to do it once a day, but her description of attaching the needle to the pen, injecting herself in her stomach and putting the needle into the sharps container is the closest I’ve been so far to seeing myself in a book. I inject four times a day with my diabetes, but I go through the same process. Maybe it’s a little strange, but that really helped me connect to this book.
All in all, I would definitely recommend Avalanche and I’m eager to see whether this makes the shortlist or not. Remember to keep checking back for more reviews of the Stella Prize longlist books!