Review of 'Doing It!' by Hannah Witton

This is my first (and I think only?) non-fiction read of 2019 so far. Hannah's a Youtuber that I've been following for quite a few years now, and when she released her first book I knew I wanted to get my hands on it. Her Youtube channel focuses on breaking down taboos and talking about sex in a positive and inclusive way, which is pretty much what the book covers too.

The book isn't really what I'd expected, though I don't think that's a bad thing. Every couple of pages includes bold designs to break up the text so that visually, the book doesn't end up being a whole mass of text and information. Working in publishing makes me wonder though whether this was done more to bring the book up to the length of a full book, rather than it being a bit on the short side. Sceptics aside, it's a nice touch for teens who might feel overwhelmed reading masses of small text on a topic they may be struggling to completely come to terms to.

I really feel as though the book is aimed at teens rather than being young adult or adult fiction. Though this meant that it erred on feeling a bit too 'young' for me, you'd also hope that by my mid-twenties I'd have most period/sex ed things figured out by now. I do think it's better that it's aimed at a younger audience, as it includes a lot of topics not covered by most sex-ed curricula (and 100% definitely not covered by the one I experienced at a Catholic school). It's important that it is written in an accessible style for teens, so whilst it wasn't something that I completely enjoyed, I feel as though that sort of made it better.

My favourite thing about the book is how inclusive it is. Hannah uses inclusive language in terms of gender and sex, as well as information on LGBTQA+ relationships and safe sex. The book features chapters from others (including Juno Dawson who is just FAB) on topics that Hannah wouldn't necessarily know about, including what it's like to be a man with a porn addiction, and being uncomfortable in your sex during puberty. I think it's so important that she's decided to have these chapters in the book written by people who have experienced things that she could only talk about in a more abstract way.

I'm giving this 3 stars, because although I think it would be a great book for teens, I found myself skipping through a few bits, and found the format with all of the bold patterns separating things a little jarring.

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Review of 'This is Going to Hurt' by Adam Kay

This was the first book I finished in 2019, and 16 or so books later (I'm absolutely that behind on reviews), it's still the best book I've read this year. I saw so many people recommending it all over my twitter feed and Instagram, and now I'm one of the people that just will not shut up about it.

Adam Kay is an ex-junior doctor turned author. Seven years after he quit working for the NHS, he's published a collection of diary entries that he found from when he was working in the gynaecology department. These are elaborated on for the book and definitely don't fit the whole 'I got up and ate breakfast at 7am' style.

The book tracks a number of stories that really expose what it's like to be a junior doctor for the NHS. Kay writes about the pressures of the job, the long hours and the absolutely unimaginable strain it puts on you. He talks about how he's expected to perform surgery 10 hours into a shift, but gets pulled over by the police on his way home because he's so exhausted he's not really fit to drive. 

There are some incredible funny anecdotes in the book too. The most memorable one for me is a story about him helping a woman to give birth. As the head comes out the father shouts 'oh my GOD OUR BABY HAS NO FACE'. The mother freaks out, the baby shoots out and she's torn in a whole manner of ways. Kay then lets the father know that most babies are born face down and he was only looking at the back of its head...

The book really exposes what a wonderful thing our NHS is, and why we should do everything we can to save it. I think we all should give this book a read because it personalises the statistics we see about our struggling health service, and really shows how important it is to keep.

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Review of 'Sex, Suicide and Serotonin' by Debbie Hampton

This really has been a year for mental health reading for me, and I've loved delving into non-fiction for pleasure for the first time in my life. Sex, Suicide and Serotonin has been one of the most eye-opening books of 2018 for me. It's filled with a whole plethora of information on how the brain functions, as well as an insight into what it's like to be someone who has survived a suicide attempt.

The book starts with Debbie's attempted suicide. After swallowing a concoction of alcohol and pills, Debbie was found by her teenage son and brought to the hospital. Unable to ascertain exactly what had been consumed, the doctors were unable to pump Debbie's stomach and she experienced severe brain injury as a result of her actions, but survived. The story tells the tale of Debbie's recovery from someone who is unable to speak, walk or eat without assistance, to someone who's written her own book and leads an independent life.

The thing that most interested me was the sheer range of techniques that Debbie tried to help her in her recovery, both mentally and physically. Not satisfied with traditional medicine, Debbie finds additional therapies to help nudge her along to health.

This book was such a powerful read for me, especially as you really don't hear much about adult suicide attempts in the media. As someone with a parent who's struggled with this, I found it an incredibly insightful read, and one that I would recommend.

Have you read it, or anything similar?

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Review of 'Shiny Happy Person' by Terri Cox

It's rare that I read a non-fiction book, or at least that used to be the case. I've recently finished number 5 of 2018 and that definitely holds some 'you're so far out of your comfort zone now boo' record. 

Shiny Happy Person is a book all about one woman's personal struggle with depression over many years. Her time as a teen was tough: after growing up as one-third of a set of triplets, Terri begins to find her own way through life without the back-up of her sisters. School was rife with bullying, but after spending a year abroad at uni to study languages was when Terri really found it hard to fit in to her 'shiny happy' persona.

Suddenly Terri found herself lost, a shell of her former self. It's something that became more and more apparent as she spent time with the people she loved until she reached breaking point. Everything stopped. Terri's love life had hit a wall and she was single again. With a strong support network however, she worked her way back up from the ground again.

The story is a tale of recovery and how things can get so low you need to recover. It's a story all about how mental health issues don't need to be caused by a massive trauma or specific incident, but how they grow and manifest, and are set off by a final straw. I absolutely blazed through it and found it so easy to connect with Terri. I loved that she didn't gloss over how hard recovery can be, and that she spoke about the things that helped her, and the bits that weren't so great.

It's an honest novel that tells the truth about what it's like to suffer with depression, and I would recommend giving it a read.

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