First off, I had A Note of Madness by Tabitha Suzuma. She wrote a book I previously reviewed, Forbidden, and I was intrigued to check out her other stuff. I also liked the fact that she’s a British writer (they seem increasingly hard to find) and she was writing about a musician battling with depression. It seemed like an fascinating idea.

I found the book interesting, but unfortunately did not feel quite as compelled as during my reading of Forbidden. Flynn was the perfect character and although I liked him, I couldn’t feel much for the other people in the book. Their characterisation was difficult; Flynn kept revealing distant memories about the other characters and I felt confused that I hadn’t known about them earlier. It was good to read about a condition I know little about and I found the prospect of so many different drug concoctions mind boggling, as did Flynn.
I have since looked into more of Suzuma’s work and I was startled to find every novel she has written focuses around some form of mental health issue. Going through the same thing in her own life, I can understand her fixation on the subject and the catharsis it brings writing about it. However, although her other books do sound interesting I think I may have to give them a miss. Too much writing by one author on the same subject and I find the stories tend to blend together, till each one sounds the same. It’s very similar to reading Jodi Picoult.