sarah's Reviews > Between the Bliss and Me

Between the Bliss and Me is an ambitious young adult contemporary novel that tackles heavy subject matter while maintaining the conventions of its age range. It makes topics like mental health, substance abuse and schizophrenia accessible for a younger audience, something I think is incredibly important. My main issue was simply that I didn't connect with the characters, romance or plot- which is an entirely subjective thing.

Let my make one thing clear, it was by no means bad. The writing was polished and I didn't have major issues with the structure or setup. I think it is more a personal problem of my recent pickiness when it comes to YA contemporaries. Unless I feel an intense personal or emotional connection with the book and its characters- I cannot bring myself to care.

While I found the discussion of schizophrenia to be interesting and important, it didn't single handedly make me love the book. If I wanted solely to be informed about issues, I would read a non-fiction book on the topic or listen to a podcast. The reason I love fiction is because it allows me to live thousands of different lives and experience different perspectives. Unfortunately, the actual story of Between the Bliss and Me wasn't interesting to me.

I also really wasn't a fan of the romance. The love interest was already in a relationship when our main character started falling for them, which always makes me a bit icky. Putting that aside, I found it just simply didn't add much to the story and didn't have much chemistry- but again, a totally personal preference.

★★☆☆☆.5 stars

Thank you to Soho Press for this ARC

Release Date: 7 April 2021