Janice Galloway

From the corner of a darkened room Joy Stone watches herself. As memories of the deaths of her lover and mother surface unbidden, life for Joy narrows âe" to negotiating each day, each encounter, each second; to finding the trick to keep living. Told with shattering clarity and wry wit, this is a Scottish classic fit for our time.

The Trick is to Keep Breathing

'An account from the inside of a mind cracking up. . . its writing is as taut as a bowstring. From brilliant title to closing injunction, it hums with intelligence, clarity, wit; and, its heroine's struggle for order and meaning seduces our minds, exposes how close we all of us are to insanity. Joy, as Galloway's heroine reluctantly lets us know that she's called, is simply that dangerous step or two nearer the edge' LISTENER.

Rose Stanley

** spoiler alert **
           OK this review is SPOILERIFIC but I feel like people should know a bit more about what they're getting into before picking this one up, because it's a hell of a ride.

So, the two stars are because I'm reviewing this subjectively, not objectively...I can't say I liked this and I certainly won't be rereading it. However, I can't fault it objectively speaking - it's well written enough (I think it does get inside the main character's head quite well, for example). 

It's just...relentless misery. A heady cocktail of depression, nihilism and suicidal thoughts, with a side order of bulimia, triggered by the sudden death of the main character's married lover while the pair of them are on holiday (this is revealed early on and then expanded upon in a series of flashbacks throughout the book, which I felt captured the ebb and flow of the grieving process quite well). There's very little of the hopefulness that you get in, for example, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, and as a result I found this an emotionally draining read, and not in a cathartic way.

Still, as you can see, I powered through it in less than a day, thanks to: 
(i) the relatively short pagecount; 
(ii) the lack of chapter headings;
(iii) the knowledge that once I'd finished it, I could cast it aside and pick up something less bleak instead.

PS: Ironically, the main character's name is Joy.

Joy Stone, a drama teacher, struggles with a depression that causes her to blame herself for all her problems and to find each day more and more difficult to survive

The Trick is to Keep Breathing

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