Me, Myself and Them
Winner of the 2016 Luke Bitmead Bursary
‘I've never quite read anything like it... funny, moving and terrifying all at once.’ Rick O’Shea
'Remarkable, fascinating and unnerving’ Annie West
Struggling to cope with a tragic loss, Denis Murphy has learned to live a bit differently. Both his friends are used to it - the only problem is his monstrous housemates.
When his enigmatic ex-girlfriend comes back into his life, she threatens to shatter the finely crafted world around him.
As Denis begins to re-emerge from his sheltered existence and rediscover the person he used to be, things turn nasty, and he is forced to confront the demons that share not only his house, but also his head.
Dan Mooney took age old themes from the mental health spectrum and the stages of grief then turned them into his own unique story with a splash of heart and humor so you don’t get bogged down in an emotional quagmire. Mooney really captured the realism of the struggles involved when your mental health is being held together with scotch tape in his character Denis who is trying to live his life as predictable and ordinary as possible.
When that sense of order starts spinning out into chaos and his carefully crafted bandaid on his mental health starts to fall off you are treated to an intricate description of how he has to learn to deal with the world at large, people and facing his fears. He must learn to confront what he once he ran away from and Mooney handled this part of the character development and plot in a believable style.
With the issues of mental health becoming more on the forefront of modern society this book squarely places itself at the heart of that fight and deserves to be a part of the conversation.
Thank you to Netgalley and Legend Press for allowing me to review this book.
*synopsis and pic from netgalley.com