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.
Our main character, Flynn, is a student at the Royal College of Music, preparing for an important concert. He begins to experience mad flashes of inspiration, days when he can compose all night and study all day, followed by days when he can’t lift his head off the pillow. His friends and family are concerned, and as Flynn spirals deeper into a bad spell, can anything pull him out?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.
