The Existence of Amy - Lana Grace Riva

Amy has a normal life. That is, if you were to go by a definition of 'no immediate obvious indicators of peculiarity', and you didn't know her very well. She has good friends, a good job, a nice enough home. This normality, however, is precariously plastered on top of a different life. A life that is Amy's real life. The only one her brain will let her lead.

Blurb taken from Goodreads. 

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I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really intrigued to read this book, because it already had a lot of great reviews, and I thought the story sounded interesting. However, I think my expectations were a little too high as I didn't enjoy this as much as I was hoping to.

I found the writing a little simplistic and the story a little too 'surface-level' for my liking. I think the book would have benefitted from a little more depth all round. 

I think other readers would probably enjoy this one a little more than me. 

Rating: ✫✫

The Story

The heart of the story is the character of Amy, and it's immediately apparent that she is struggling with her mental health. I think it's fantastic that there are more new stories being published that talk openly about different mental health, and I think this is actually my first read that centred around Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. When I first started reading, I was really keen to learn more about this character's experiences living with it.

However, I found it very difficult to connect with Amy, as we don't really get enough depth to her thoughts. As the narrator, I would have expected to feel more connected to her than I did, and I think the problem was that the writing was quite simplistic. I imagine many other readers would find this quite an interesting way to read, but it just made me feel detached from the character from start to finish. I don't think it helped that there were limited additional characters, and those we do get to know were either very undeveloped or were made to be quite unlikeable. 

I also had a bit of a problem with the actual story, because it felt like very little actually happened. I could see that there was some attempt at a continuous plot, but it didn't have a lot of depth. There were very few details to make the plot seem real and engaging, and I think there was so much room for more.

It's a shame, because I think some of the themes discussed in this book were very powerful, and I really hoped they would be done justice.

The Verdict

Overall, I have to say that I'm a little bit disappointed by The Existence of Amy. It had so much potential, but I think it missed the mark in a few areas. I think the writing needed to be a little more sophisticated to make the story a bit more engaging, and I would have liked to have seen some more substance to the story and characters. However, I do think it addressed some important themes, which can never be a bad thing.