Jude Sierra

After moving to Key Largo to to make a fresh start, Reid Watsford meets Joaquim, an intern at the dive shop who is looking for adventure. As their relationship deepens, they both must learn how to navigate Reid's cyclothemia, and a past Reid can't quite escape.

A Tiny Piece of Something Greater

(actual rating: 4.5)

I admit, a certain someone over at From Top To Bottom Reviews had me really (and I mean REALLY) hyped for this book.

What can I say? Annie does rec the best books.

So why do I love A Tiny Piece of Something Greater? It is rather difficult to explain without spoilering, but I'll manage:

 * the title. I love its ambiguousness
 * content warnings. Fuck yeah!
 * the realness of its portrayal of mental illness
 * and to me it's not even triggering
 * People with BPD are not portrayed as the most-deserving-to-die-humans-there'll-ever-be. FUCK YEAH!

Let's take a better look at the last bullet point, shall we?

I'm pretty sure you've gathered that I'm mentally ill and if you've read reviews of mine about books that feature mentally ill characters you know how important this portrayal is to me and how often it's done horribly wrong. I wasn't afraid of this here because it's #ownvoices.

But I not only got a not ableist book, I got a wonderful book that's full of pain and memories and all the little things that you may live with if you've got certain mental illnesses. But most of all I got hope.

This is not a story about a mentally ill character, this is a story with a mentally ill character and I like this approach way better than the first option.

I may enjoy a different thing even more though: Joaquim isn't a means for Reid to heal. There is no magic-love-cure. Instead Joaquim is a person of his own, with his own thoughts, feelings, fears and dreams.

So why am I rating it 4.5 instead of 5 stars? The reason is rather small and it may have to do a little bit with the book's formatting. There are at times very unexpected jumps that left me sort of confused until I found into the new scene. And sometimes the story felt somewhat rushed for me. This ties perfectly to my last words, because more (in-detail?) story means more to read. Now I'm gonna go back to nursing my book hangover because I really don't want A Tiny Piece of Something Greater to end.

Last Words: No really, why did it have to end?