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Yours Half-Heartedly
S. Arista Bluebell
“Everyone’s running from something, but they wear better shoes.”
If you tried to read The Silent Patient because of the premise but found the execution quite lacking, Yours Half-heartedly by S. Arista Bluebell might be the book for you.
Bluebell beautifully puts into words the reality of mental health challenges, distrust in the medical system, reluctance to heal, and a therapist with good intentions who finds he’s a bit too flawed.
I have very minimal qualms with this book. The images painted are vivid; Bluebell’s writing is ultimately real and raw, beautiful and amusing.
Her characters are complex, leaving me wanting to understand them better and dig deeper to learn their pasts.
I do think there were a few relationships left vague. For the life of me, I’m not sure how Sera became housemates with the sister of a woman she was institutionalized with. There were many intentionally vague relationships in this book for the sake of the plot, which I fully understand, but I may have missed something with Rebecca/Sera/Theresa.
It’s hard to pin an exact genre for this book. It’s part mystery, part character portrait, part thriller, part relationship drama. Think Girl, Interrupted meets The Silent Patient meets Alias Grace in a feminist revenge plot.
‼️‼️Spoiler spoiler spoiler ‼️‼️
I did not like when Eamon denied Sera an ambulance. As a psychiatrist, he most definitely should have known better. I think returning to a hospital may have been beneficial for Sera, but at this point his patient/Dr relationship was so skewed and blurred already, I think he had a severe lapse in judgment.
‼️End spoiler‼️
I appreciated Eamon’s noble efforts in the end, and the supportive friendships from our side characters throughout the story.
I also appreciated that the author actually wrote about a field they are clearly familiar with in some form – mental health is often demonized, institutions written poorly, and stigmas abound. Bluebell doesn’t fall into these tropes just for a plot device. (Unlike The Silent Patient.)
(I promise, this isn’t a Silent Patient hate piece. It just bears mentioning.)
Ultimately a solid read with two very flawed protagonists who share a justified anger.
“They say mental illness is an individual crisis. But half the time, it’s merely the body’s rational response to an irrational world.”
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Yours Half-heartedly is available on Kindle Unlimited or to purchase here
The Midnight Review 