I went into this book knowing as little as possible, because the synopsis intrigued me from the first few lines and I immediately grabbed the book. I was very pleasantly surprised, I wasn't expecting it to be that good and the OCD representation was pretty accurate!

Another thing I really liked, was the historical aspect of the novel, the story takes places in Malaysia during the 1969 riots between the Chinese and the Malays. Needless to say, I knew nothing about this but I did my research as soon as I finished the book, because I was so interested to know more.

Melati (our main character) is a girl I could very much empathize with, she's a very realistic character and anytime she would struggle with OCD, I could feel her pain and it was obvious to the reader that she couldn't escape her own mind. The only thing I didn't like and actually found unrealistic, was the fact that get mother (an educated woman and a nurse) instead of taking her daughter to a psychologist to help her figure out her condition, she took her to spiritual healers of all sorts! That sounded a bit ridiculous to me, she was a nurse for God's sake, how could she not treat this more seriously??

I also loved the Chinese family, Auntie Bee had my heart from the start with her gentle personality! Vince was another character I really liked and I was hoping for a bit of romance with Melati, because (at least in my eyes) they made a good pair!

All in all, I really liked this book! I would definitely recommend it to anyone wishing to read more about mental health because this novel, doesn't only focus on OCD, but also has a very intriguing historical side!