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samantha_randolph 's review for:
Girl Against the Universe
by Paula Stokes
Short and Sweet:
If you don’t want to read the part of my review that’s more personal, here’s the quick version of my thoughts on this book: Girl Against the Universe is a must-read for anyone who has ever needed healing, anyone who loves athletics and team friendships, and anyone who enjoys a slow and fiery burn romance. Recommend 10000 times over.
To Elaborate….
Maguire believes she is cursed with bad luck. Not bad luck like missing a bus or losing a shirt, but life and death bad luck where those around her have a tendency to get killed or hurt, starting with several members of her family dying in a car crash she walked away from unscathed. When she meets Jordy, a fellow therapy-goer and tennis star, they decide to help each other with a few challenges, but Maguire is all too aware of how dangerous things can happen when people get close to her.
Maguire deals with PTSD, panic attacks, and other related mental illnesses, and a good portion of her story revolves around going to therapy and doing personal challenges to help her heal. I deal with severe depression and anxiety, and I’ve been to therapy many times, so I immediately felt a close connection to Maguire. What I didn’t expect was the way her healing and her mindset mirrors my own in many ways. Maguire is very self aware, often recognizing when her thoughts or thought patterns aren’t healthy, but still believing them on a level that strongly effects her. She feels an intense desire to control the space around her, which is horribly difficult because no one can control the Universe.
One of the ways Maguire’s story is so special is because of her willpower. There are many times she feels weak and scared, and there are many times she responds to those emotions in a negative way. However, she challenges herself to keep going. A method of therapy used in this book (which rings extremely true, as I’ve used similar techniques) involves setting a big goal and creating several steps (or even mini-goals) to work yourself up to being ready for the big one. This of course doesn’t mean that the accomplishment of the Big Goal will solve everything, and that there will be no more panic attacks or rough times. A prominent message for anyone with mental illness is that there will be good and bad days no matter what. Therapy can accomplish many things, one of which is restructuring your thought process and coping methods so that the bad days can be handled in a healthy manner.
As I’m still going through my own healing process, I had a resounding thought while reading Maguire’s story: This is it. This is what I want my own healing to look like. Healing is different for everyone, but what I find so meaningful in Maguire’s is the way she starts to work with her fear and slowly, very slowly, accepts both that she cannot control the Universe but also that the Universe can’t control her. Some days, I feel as powerful as Maguire is, ready to choose happiness and lean on my support system when necessary. Other days, I am Maguire hiding in her room, under the blankets with a book, knowing that one room absent of other people is far easier to control than the rest of the world. Either way, Maguire has without a doubt become a character that feels like a friend, one I will likely find myself turning to again and again when I need to.
Moving away from the mental health part of the story, and on a much lighter note, this book has one of the best romances I’ve read in a long time. Both Jordy and Maguire are working through their own issues, and they never let the state of their mental health rely solely on the other person. They support each other and encourage each other, but neither uses the other as a distraction or puts the weight on their happiness on him/her. Their flirting is adorable and goofy, and I officially declare Jordy as my Personal Book Boyfriend™. Maguire’s family is also a lovely part of the story, and her discussions with her stepdad are some of my favorite in the book.
Overall, Paula Stokes writes a forceful, compassionate, and hopeful story about a young woman who learns to meet the Universe on her own terms, as best she can.
Originally posted at The Forest of Words and Pages: http://www.forestofwordsandpages.com/2016/06/review-girl-universe-paula-stokes/
If you don’t want to read the part of my review that’s more personal, here’s the quick version of my thoughts on this book: Girl Against the Universe is a must-read for anyone who has ever needed healing, anyone who loves athletics and team friendships, and anyone who enjoys a slow and fiery burn romance. Recommend 10000 times over.
To Elaborate….
Maguire believes she is cursed with bad luck. Not bad luck like missing a bus or losing a shirt, but life and death bad luck where those around her have a tendency to get killed or hurt, starting with several members of her family dying in a car crash she walked away from unscathed. When she meets Jordy, a fellow therapy-goer and tennis star, they decide to help each other with a few challenges, but Maguire is all too aware of how dangerous things can happen when people get close to her.
Maguire deals with PTSD, panic attacks, and other related mental illnesses, and a good portion of her story revolves around going to therapy and doing personal challenges to help her heal. I deal with severe depression and anxiety, and I’ve been to therapy many times, so I immediately felt a close connection to Maguire. What I didn’t expect was the way her healing and her mindset mirrors my own in many ways. Maguire is very self aware, often recognizing when her thoughts or thought patterns aren’t healthy, but still believing them on a level that strongly effects her. She feels an intense desire to control the space around her, which is horribly difficult because no one can control the Universe.
One of the ways Maguire’s story is so special is because of her willpower. There are many times she feels weak and scared, and there are many times she responds to those emotions in a negative way. However, she challenges herself to keep going. A method of therapy used in this book (which rings extremely true, as I’ve used similar techniques) involves setting a big goal and creating several steps (or even mini-goals) to work yourself up to being ready for the big one. This of course doesn’t mean that the accomplishment of the Big Goal will solve everything, and that there will be no more panic attacks or rough times. A prominent message for anyone with mental illness is that there will be good and bad days no matter what. Therapy can accomplish many things, one of which is restructuring your thought process and coping methods so that the bad days can be handled in a healthy manner.
As I’m still going through my own healing process, I had a resounding thought while reading Maguire’s story: This is it. This is what I want my own healing to look like. Healing is different for everyone, but what I find so meaningful in Maguire’s is the way she starts to work with her fear and slowly, very slowly, accepts both that she cannot control the Universe but also that the Universe can’t control her. Some days, I feel as powerful as Maguire is, ready to choose happiness and lean on my support system when necessary. Other days, I am Maguire hiding in her room, under the blankets with a book, knowing that one room absent of other people is far easier to control than the rest of the world. Either way, Maguire has without a doubt become a character that feels like a friend, one I will likely find myself turning to again and again when I need to.
Moving away from the mental health part of the story, and on a much lighter note, this book has one of the best romances I’ve read in a long time. Both Jordy and Maguire are working through their own issues, and they never let the state of their mental health rely solely on the other person. They support each other and encourage each other, but neither uses the other as a distraction or puts the weight on their happiness on him/her. Their flirting is adorable and goofy, and I officially declare Jordy as my Personal Book Boyfriend™. Maguire’s family is also a lovely part of the story, and her discussions with her stepdad are some of my favorite in the book.
Overall, Paula Stokes writes a forceful, compassionate, and hopeful story about a young woman who learns to meet the Universe on her own terms, as best she can.
Originally posted at The Forest of Words and Pages: http://www.forestofwordsandpages.com/2016/06/review-girl-universe-paula-stokes/