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A review by graceburts
OCD Love Story by Corey Ann Haydu
3.0
Good mental health books are very hard to come by, in my experience, they’re practically non-existent. OCD Love Story was 100% not perfect but it was good and with the lack of mental health books that aren’t complete trash out there, I’m satisfied with it being just good.
This book like every other book has its problem’s but I think it accomplished what it set out to do. OCD Love Story reads in a way that can only be described as uncomfortable, in the best way. While reading it, it is almost as if Bea’s anxiety slips off the page right unto you, unpleasant, leaving no room for romanization.
It is a slippery slope when it comes to mental health in the media, it is so easy to cross the line from respect to romanization, and this book maintains the perfect distance away from that dreaded line while still including a romantic storyline. The unavoidable ugliness that comes along with mental illness is not avoided or glossed over but also not glorified. In this book, Bea's compulsive tendencies are identified as what they are, unpleasant side effects of a sickness. It isn’t seen as something to long for but it isn’t a revolting trait Bea or her love interest have either. They both have their tendencies but that doesn’t make them unlovable. Their relationship is flawed and neither of them claims or try to fix the other, in fact, Bea as a character is extremely flawed, outside of her mental illness which is something else that is rare.
Bea is selfish and arrogant, reading in her point of view is unpleasant at best and offensive at worst, she is not a nice person. While reading quite a few of the passages in the novel I couldn’t help but feel unsettled. I became uncomfortable (in a bad way), but I can’t get mad at the book, Bea is supposed to be this way. She has terrible thoughts, like everyone else. Bea isn’t likeable, she is however well written. An example of this is when we first meet the other teens in her therapy group. She has the oh so familiar mentality, that she is above the “crazy” people she is in therapy with, she thinks of them as gross because unlike her their mental illness is more visible and while Bea’s internal monologue is realistically offensive that doesn’t take away from the fact that it is offensive. I can only imagine how someone looking for rep in this book would feel to have their own tendencies shit on by the main character. – This is just one example of Bea being terrible (believe me there are others) and I can understand why someone would rule out this book altogether because of it but I don’t think Corey Ann Haydu is trying to say this mentality is okay, she isn’t excusing it, Bea is in fact proven wrong, as her mental state diminishes and she realizes that she is not better than any of the people she deems lesser.
At the end of the book, Bea isn’t cured, but she is on the road to recovery, which I appreciate. Mental illness is such a long-standing bullshit ride that it can’t possibly be cured in one novel, not even if said novel was 30,000 pages. Too many YA books like this end in unrealistic happy rainbows or suicide, while I’ll take the rainbows over the suicide neither is all that hopeful. Seeing someone recover without any actual recovery involved is aggravating and nonsensical in the best of situations, so the positive realism is greatly appreciated.
OCD Love story is an uncomfortable and unpleasant book, full of unlikeable characters and offensive internal monologues and somehow I don’t hate it.
*I do not have OCD so I can’t speak for the rep in this book. *
**I do however have anxiety and write this review from the point of view of someone who has struggled with mental illness for a long ass time. When I read a book like this I hope to find reassurance, not a carbon copy of my experience’s. **
This book like every other book has its problem’s but I think it accomplished what it set out to do. OCD Love Story reads in a way that can only be described as uncomfortable, in the best way. While reading it, it is almost as if Bea’s anxiety slips off the page right unto you, unpleasant, leaving no room for romanization.
It is a slippery slope when it comes to mental health in the media, it is so easy to cross the line from respect to romanization, and this book maintains the perfect distance away from that dreaded line while still including a romantic storyline. The unavoidable ugliness that comes along with mental illness is not avoided or glossed over but also not glorified. In this book, Bea's compulsive tendencies are identified as what they are, unpleasant side effects of a sickness. It isn’t seen as something to long for but it isn’t a revolting trait Bea or her love interest have either. They both have their tendencies but that doesn’t make them unlovable. Their relationship is flawed and neither of them claims or try to fix the other, in fact, Bea as a character is extremely flawed, outside of her mental illness which is something else that is rare.
Bea is selfish and arrogant, reading in her point of view is unpleasant at best and offensive at worst, she is not a nice person. While reading quite a few of the passages in the novel I couldn’t help but feel unsettled. I became uncomfortable (in a bad way), but I can’t get mad at the book, Bea is supposed to be this way. She has terrible thoughts, like everyone else. Bea isn’t likeable, she is however well written. An example of this is when we first meet the other teens in her therapy group. She has the oh so familiar mentality, that she is above the “crazy” people she is in therapy with, she thinks of them as gross because unlike her their mental illness is more visible and while Bea’s internal monologue is realistically offensive that doesn’t take away from the fact that it is offensive. I can only imagine how someone looking for rep in this book would feel to have their own tendencies shit on by the main character. – This is just one example of Bea being terrible (believe me there are others) and I can understand why someone would rule out this book altogether because of it but I don’t think Corey Ann Haydu is trying to say this mentality is okay, she isn’t excusing it, Bea is in fact proven wrong, as her mental state diminishes and she realizes that she is not better than any of the people she deems lesser.
At the end of the book, Bea isn’t cured, but she is on the road to recovery, which I appreciate. Mental illness is such a long-standing bullshit ride that it can’t possibly be cured in one novel, not even if said novel was 30,000 pages. Too many YA books like this end in unrealistic happy rainbows or suicide, while I’ll take the rainbows over the suicide neither is all that hopeful. Seeing someone recover without any actual recovery involved is aggravating and nonsensical in the best of situations, so the positive realism is greatly appreciated.
OCD Love story is an uncomfortable and unpleasant book, full of unlikeable characters and offensive internal monologues and somehow I don’t hate it.
*I do not have OCD so I can’t speak for the rep in this book. *
**I do however have anxiety and write this review from the point of view of someone who has struggled with mental illness for a long ass time. When I read a book like this I hope to find reassurance, not a carbon copy of my experience’s. **