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the_milanherczeg7's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
neenor's review
4.0
Usually when I go to write my review, I have an idea of what I am going to rate it. But not with this book. Suzuma is definitely one of my favourite authors, and what I mostly love about her books is that she somehow manages to really capture the essence of what its like to be a teenager in these complicated situations, and I honestly felt myself cringing at parts of this book because I could relate so much to them. I guess that's really what makes me want to rate it a 9 - not because I didn't think it was excellent, but because the emotions shown were so raw and so real that it literally made me want to put the book down and turn away, or skip to the next chapter. But apart from that, I really enjoyed it. Compared to her others books, it wasn't as good, but I think that's what happens when you are dealing with topics that don't usually get written about. Throughout the story, Flynn's emotions become more clear and more raw, and I didn't know whether I wanted to hug him or slap him at some parts. Because on one hand, his bipolar is horrible for him, and you just want him to be okay again - but then he can just be a prick to Harry, Rami and Jennah, which is partly due to his bipolar, but he doesn't make things any easier for himself. However, its hard not to love Flynn all the same. All in all, I really enjoyed the book, and I am currently reading the sequel to this, A Voice In The Distance. I hope it will live up to the standards this book has set.
cewhisenant's review
4.0
"I would give anything to escape myself, Flynn thought, just for a day, just for a minute even. Just to know what it was like to think differently, to feel differently, and to not be me.”
The wonders of Tabitha Suzuma’s writing have been sung by the choir of Goodreads for years. It was only natural that when I found this for a dollar at a used bookstore, I simply had to buy it. And all of her other books off of Thriftbooks. It was the only natural progression.
It took over a year for me to finally crack this book open. I fell in love with not only the book but the simplistic yet impactful way the author delivers her stories.
Around fifty pages in, I got sucked into the rabbit hole of college and was struggling to steal chapters between homework assignments and classes. It was pathetic how late I stayed up just for a single chapter. I would trudge through endless hours of homework with this book as my light at the end of the tunnel. It was that good.
"Anyway, what does mad mean exactly? Aren't we all a little mad? Don't we have to be somewhat mad just to go on living, to go on hoping?"
This little mighty book packs the emotional sucker punch of a novel twice it’s size and handles themes of mental illness with wonderful realism and accuracy. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the author doesn’t bother attempting to age or “YA wise-en” her characters. They’re young, they’re hurting, and they’re trying to figure out what to do in these situations that many adults haven’t truly figured out how to handle.
I not only felt for Flynn and friends, but I felt with them. Which is rare when all you read are books like these. You develop emotional calluses and stop caring as much. This book made me care.
"But whichever form it took it brought with it, in those moments of bitter anguish, such a desperate surge of hope that it was almost untouchable, and flitted away like a golden butterfly into the bright blue sky - beautiful, unreachable and completely transient."
I’m eagerly awaiting the opportunity to read the sequel to this, A Voice in the Distance. As I type this, it stares down at me from the small nook on my bookshelf I carved out for my personal fiction. I’d love to pick it up right now and devour it whole, but I guess I’ll just have to wait for a free weekend to curl up with another one of Tabitha Suzuma’s heartbreaking yet hopeful tales.
If you haven’t had the motivation or the chance to pick up one of her novels, do yourself a favor and give this one a try. Not only will it be worth your time but it’ll give you a chance to read one of the best British voices in YA right now and a damn good time.
"Here’s to getting reacquainted with your own feelings. Here’s to being able to want, without being sure you’re going to get. To risk being hurt and to risk being rejected. Here’s to life.”
The wonders of Tabitha Suzuma’s writing have been sung by the choir of Goodreads for years. It was only natural that when I found this for a dollar at a used bookstore, I simply had to buy it. And all of her other books off of Thriftbooks. It was the only natural progression.
It took over a year for me to finally crack this book open. I fell in love with not only the book but the simplistic yet impactful way the author delivers her stories.
Around fifty pages in, I got sucked into the rabbit hole of college and was struggling to steal chapters between homework assignments and classes. It was pathetic how late I stayed up just for a single chapter. I would trudge through endless hours of homework with this book as my light at the end of the tunnel. It was that good.
"Anyway, what does mad mean exactly? Aren't we all a little mad? Don't we have to be somewhat mad just to go on living, to go on hoping?"
This little mighty book packs the emotional sucker punch of a novel twice it’s size and handles themes of mental illness with wonderful realism and accuracy. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the author doesn’t bother attempting to age or “YA wise-en” her characters. They’re young, they’re hurting, and they’re trying to figure out what to do in these situations that many adults haven’t truly figured out how to handle.
I not only felt for Flynn and friends, but I felt with them. Which is rare when all you read are books like these. You develop emotional calluses and stop caring as much. This book made me care.
"But whichever form it took it brought with it, in those moments of bitter anguish, such a desperate surge of hope that it was almost untouchable, and flitted away like a golden butterfly into the bright blue sky - beautiful, unreachable and completely transient."
I’m eagerly awaiting the opportunity to read the sequel to this, A Voice in the Distance. As I type this, it stares down at me from the small nook on my bookshelf I carved out for my personal fiction. I’d love to pick it up right now and devour it whole, but I guess I’ll just have to wait for a free weekend to curl up with another one of Tabitha Suzuma’s heartbreaking yet hopeful tales.
If you haven’t had the motivation or the chance to pick up one of her novels, do yourself a favor and give this one a try. Not only will it be worth your time but it’ll give you a chance to read one of the best British voices in YA right now and a damn good time.
"Here’s to getting reacquainted with your own feelings. Here’s to being able to want, without being sure you’re going to get. To risk being hurt and to risk being rejected. Here’s to life.”
buthainna's review
4.0
Tabitha does not disappoint.
Once again I find myself connecting to her characters to the point my daily life gets effected while I'm reading the book
She's very quickly becoming one of my absolute top favorite authors (if not the #1 favorite already)
I'm excited to get my hands on the rest of her books
Once again I find myself connecting to her characters to the point my daily life gets effected while I'm reading the book
She's very quickly becoming one of my absolute top favorite authors (if not the #1 favorite already)
I'm excited to get my hands on the rest of her books
owlwaysbookish's review
3.0
I really enjoyed this, as a psychology student this was a unique perspective into mental health and how other people see it and how it is dealt with. I always find it so interesting to get into the mind of someone dealing with things like this. I felt like I should have figured it out that he has bipolar 2 or manic depression as I was going through the book like okay he is definitely depressed then I thought he had anxiety as well but wow I should have predicted it, especially as I have read about this before and seen it in programmes.
Flynn was putting so much pressure on himself to do well, practice his music and succeed at being better than Andre. He worked himself up a lot to the point where he felt like he couldn't do anything but practice. He then sleep all the time and other times was on a high and wanted to write an opera. It was two extremes. His friends were confused and had no idea what was going on but once they knew he was ill they were straight at his side.
Flynn's brother Rami was a doctor and was always support, he got him to see a doctor and help with his medication and get him back at university.
I felt the love story part was pointless as there was really no need for it other than to add more drama. I didn't really feel the connection and thought it was just an add in.
The epilogue was nice showing Flynn is in control, he got to play his concert showing that just because you have a mental illness it doesn't stop you from doing things.
Flynn was putting so much pressure on himself to do well, practice his music and succeed at being better than Andre. He worked himself up a lot to the point where he felt like he couldn't do anything but practice. He then sleep all the time and other times was on a high and wanted to write an opera. It was two extremes. His friends were confused and had no idea what was going on but once they knew he was ill they were straight at his side.
Flynn's brother Rami was a doctor and was always support, he got him to see a doctor and help with his medication and get him back at university.
I felt the love story part was pointless as there was really no need for it other than to add more drama. I didn't really feel the connection and thought it was just an add in.
The epilogue was nice showing Flynn is in control, he got to play his concert showing that just because you have a mental illness it doesn't stop you from doing things.
shetellsastory2's review
5.0
This book...
This...
THIS. BOOK.
THIS FREAKING AWESOME PIECE OF WORK
Oh my god I'm utterly in awe with this book. Tabitha Suzuma really doesn't mess around. She knows how to make you F E E L something; and oh boy this book made me feel EVERYTHING.
I really, really, really don't know how to express my opinion on this one.
But I can tell you something : Please read it. Please. Flynn's story deserves to be heard and acknowledged. Yes, it's dark at times and it will make you feel like something is twisting your heart and shattering your soul but it's SO beautiful and emotion-filled and just ... brilliant !!
Please read it.
Now if you'll excuse me I'll go back to my rocking-back-and-forth-sobbing state.
This...
THIS. BOOK.
THIS FREAKING AWESOME PIECE OF WORK
Oh my god I'm utterly in awe with this book. Tabitha Suzuma really doesn't mess around. She knows how to make you F E E L something; and oh boy this book made me feel EVERYTHING.
I really, really, really don't know how to express my opinion on this one.
But I can tell you something : Please read it. Please. Flynn's story deserves to be heard and acknowledged. Yes, it's dark at times and it will make you feel like something is twisting your heart and shattering your soul but it's SO beautiful and emotion-filled and just ... brilliant !!
Please read it.
galaxies's review
2.0
A Note of Madness didn't turn out to be what I had originally expected.
The book tells us the story of Flynn, a music student and pianist at the Royal College of Music in London whose life spirals out of control as he develops a mental illness.
When I first read the summary I expected a story about someone with a deep depression and what I got was slightly and yet so much different.
I had quite a few problems with A Note of Madness. Because of those I continually checked how many pages I still had to go to the end of the chapter or sometimes even the end of a paragraph.
Main Character: I couldn't connect to the main character at all. Flynn seemed foreign and distant and I had a hard time feeling sympathy for him. It didn't feel like a guy was telling the story, it felt like a woman was trying to write from a guy's perspective (which is exactly what it was).
A lot of it had to do with the writing, which didn't appeal to me.
The Writing: It felt forced and muddled. When the author seemed to try to go poetic it didn't feel natural at all and it prevented the story to flow. Something that bugged me was the author's continuous use of "a silence". Isn't silence simply silence and not "a silence"? I would've understood the use of it more if it had an adjective attributed to it but there never was one.
Narration: Sometimes Tabitha Suzuma seemed to shift between 3rd person narrator and 1st person narrator. That certainly didn't help the confusion I already had while reading the book.
I can understand why people might like A Note of Madness. I, however, did not. I had planned on reading Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma but after reading this book I'm not sure if I still want to.
The book tells us the story of Flynn, a music student and pianist at the Royal College of Music in London whose life spirals out of control as he develops a mental illness.
When I first read the summary I expected a story about someone with a deep depression and what I got was slightly and yet so much different.
I had quite a few problems with A Note of Madness. Because of those I continually checked how many pages I still had to go to the end of the chapter or sometimes even the end of a paragraph.
Main Character: I couldn't connect to the main character at all. Flynn seemed foreign and distant and I had a hard time feeling sympathy for him. It didn't feel like a guy was telling the story, it felt like a woman was trying to write from a guy's perspective (which is exactly what it was).
A lot of it had to do with the writing, which didn't appeal to me.
The Writing: It felt forced and muddled. When the author seemed to try to go poetic it didn't feel natural at all and it prevented the story to flow. Something that bugged me was the author's continuous use of "a silence". Isn't silence simply silence and not "a silence"? I would've understood the use of it more if it had an adjective attributed to it but there never was one.
Narration: Sometimes Tabitha Suzuma seemed to shift between 3rd person narrator and 1st person narrator. That certainly didn't help the confusion I already had while reading the book.
I can understand why people might like A Note of Madness. I, however, did not. I had planned on reading Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma but after reading this book I'm not sure if I still want to.
bookmarked642's review
5.0
Tabitha Suzuma is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors.
I didn't realise this was the first of two books, but it reads fine as a standalone novel anyway. I hadn't intended to read on, but I just love Suzuma's writing too much. I've reserved the next novel at the library.
I found this quite similar to Hurt in a couple of ways; firstly, the protagonist is a young male who is experiencing something very unpleasant but important to talk about. Instead of rape, as in Hurt, this time the topic is mental health. Flynn's got the whole world at his feet, but suddenly he's up all night composing or drowning himself in alcohol and aspirin. Everything feels wrong and he doesn't know why. His flatmate, Harry, calls Flynn's brother in to help. He's a doctor and soon realises Flynn needs proper help. After one incorrect diagnosis and several relapses, Flynn finally feels the world go back to normal.
Although the ending is typically "hopeful" (which you can only expect, really - it's not gonna be very helpful for kids to read stories where you never recover from your mental illness) it still manages to be realistic rather than overly positive and optimistic. For example, Flynn is offered a couple of amazing experiences in this book, the first of which he is determined to take. But he doesn't, because his health declines so much. I can tell you how horrible it is when you have your heart set on something but your mental health holds you back... Sometimes you just can't do it. Flynn's health gets so bad that his brother takes him away on the eve of his big concert (he's a music uni student).
There's also a romance line through this, which I gather will be furthered in the next book. Flynn doesn't pay much attention to it - doesn't even notice it - due to his condition, until it's too late and he's messed it up. Jennah is an old crush of his, recently parted from her boyfriend for a mysterious "other guy". Flynn just doesn't put 2 and 2 together, though, and assumes she could never love him because he's so hopeless and talentless and depressed. Things really get bad when they argue about it during one of Flynn's relapses, and she goes missing for the night. I must admit that I immediately feared the worst after what happened in Hurt, but it was eventually resolved. I am very interested in reading how Flynn's mental illness impacts his relationship in the future.
This is a great topic to address, especially in males. The episodes may be a little exaggerated but then I suppose that is how some people experience it. It's different for everyone. I really appreciate the age chosen, too, because people often forget that mental illnesses don't only develop when you're twelve or thirteen. 5 stars; a fantastic book and a fantastic author.
I didn't realise this was the first of two books, but it reads fine as a standalone novel anyway. I hadn't intended to read on, but I just love Suzuma's writing too much. I've reserved the next novel at the library.
I found this quite similar to Hurt in a couple of ways; firstly, the protagonist is a young male who is experiencing something very unpleasant but important to talk about. Instead of rape, as in Hurt, this time the topic is mental health. Flynn's got the whole world at his feet, but suddenly he's up all night composing or drowning himself in alcohol and aspirin. Everything feels wrong and he doesn't know why. His flatmate, Harry, calls Flynn's brother in to help. He's a doctor and soon realises Flynn needs proper help. After one incorrect diagnosis and several relapses, Flynn finally feels the world go back to normal.
Although the ending is typically "hopeful" (which you can only expect, really - it's not gonna be very helpful for kids to read stories where you never recover from your mental illness) it still manages to be realistic rather than overly positive and optimistic. For example, Flynn is offered a couple of amazing experiences in this book, the first of which he is determined to take. But he doesn't, because his health declines so much. I can tell you how horrible it is when you have your heart set on something but your mental health holds you back... Sometimes you just can't do it. Flynn's health gets so bad that his brother takes him away on the eve of his big concert (he's a music uni student).
There's also a romance line through this, which I gather will be furthered in the next book. Flynn doesn't pay much attention to it - doesn't even notice it - due to his condition, until it's too late and he's messed it up. Jennah is an old crush of his, recently parted from her boyfriend for a mysterious "other guy". Flynn just doesn't put 2 and 2 together, though, and assumes she could never love him because he's so hopeless and talentless and depressed. Things really get bad when they argue about it during one of Flynn's relapses, and she goes missing for the night. I must admit that I immediately feared the worst after what happened in Hurt, but it was eventually resolved. I am very interested in reading how Flynn's mental illness impacts his relationship in the future.
This is a great topic to address, especially in males. The episodes may be a little exaggerated but then I suppose that is how some people experience it. It's different for everyone. I really appreciate the age chosen, too, because people often forget that mental illnesses don't only develop when you're twelve or thirteen. 5 stars; a fantastic book and a fantastic author.
emilyg's review
3.0
This was a powerful book, made more powerful but its uncomplicated writing. It did take me a little while to get started with this book but once I did it was very easy to read. For me this is important to the story because it shows how easily mental illness can become part of you life. Flynn was a perfectly happy and normal student who was hit out of nowhere with Bipolar. He goes from manic highs to immobilizing lows and his descriptions allow you to feel the emotional journey and how sudden it is. He tries really hard to continue his normal life as a music student and to socialize with his friends but all becomes to much. He is a really good pianist ask to perform at a the Royal Albert Hall but music becomes his obsession. Romance is out of the question for him as he cannot see himself as worthwhile and friendships break down around him. It isn’t a book with a massive plot and and a fast pace though, but that isn’t the point of the story. I think the message here is about mental illness and everyday life. how it really effects people and how we might be able to recognize it and help.