Recently Read – The Mirror World Of Melody Black by Gavin Extence

The Mirror World of Melody Black by Gavin Extence

Genre; Contemporary

It all starts, as these things sometimes do, with a dead man. He was a neighbour, not someone Abby knew well, but still, finding a body when you only came over to borrow a tin of tomatoes, that comes as a bit of a shock. At least, it should. And now she can’t shake the feeling that if she hadn’t gone into Simon’s flat, if she’d had her normal Wednesday night instead, then none of what happened next would have happened. And she would never have met Melody Black …Wild and witty, searing and true, THE MIRROR WORLD OF MELODY BLACK is about the fine line that separates normal from not – and how life can spin, very swiftly, out of control.

My thoughts;

I loved Extence’s debut novel, The Universe Versus Alex Woods so I was really looking forward to reading this book. And it didn’t disappoint. At one point I even took to Twitter to complain to the author that the book was not suitable for reading in public places due to the fact that it had the ability to make me snort (think – pig attempting to laugh) with laughter at certain sections.

Not a good look on me.

You might wonder how a book about Bipolar could have me laughing so hysterically, well, it’s not all bleak and doom and gloom. Yes, the subject matter is dealt with absolutely brilliantly, but, before we get near it, there are incidents to deal with and Extence has such a light touch of hand, dry sense of humour and keen insight into a female’s frame of mind in a relationship, it had me – snorting… out loud. Again, not pretty.

But, then Abby starts to spiral and it’s less funny. There’s a scene that brought me close to tears. Again I took to Twitter. A sign, when I need to tell the world about a book, I need to share what I’m reading, that it’s one of those books, a book that is going to stay with you. You want to shove it into everyone’s hands.

Extence is so insightful but he doesn’t glamourise, or over dramatise to make it an exciting read, he just writes and it’s beautiful.

But, then you read the bit after the book has finished, the personal bit at the end and you want to go back and start the book all over again.

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing it with the world Gavin Extence.