Thank you Usborn Publishing for this book in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis:

Welcome to Camp Reset, a summer camp with a difference. A place offering a shot at “normality” for Olive, a girl on the edge, and for the new friends she never expected to make – who each have their own reasons for being there. Luckily Olive has a plan to solve all their problems. But how do you fix the world when you can’t fix yourself?

Review:

I have to admit I had never heard of Holly Bourne and I am a little disappointed in myself. After receiving this book for review I was beyond excited and I officially jumped on the Holly Bourne bandwagon.

Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes was a fun, bright and had a little bit of sass to it as well, which makes the dark topic of mental illness easier to read. And I believe more relatable for those that don’t have a mental illness due to the fact that I forgot the topic of the book half the time, because I was engrossed in the friendship, the fun and the mission.

This book is based around a teenager called Olive who has a hard time coping with the world and would spend days and weeks hiding away from it. You get an insight to Olive’s mind and the pressure of what it is to be normal as well as her thoughts on her dark days. With her Doctor suggesting a visit to Camp Reset, to give Olive a chance to relax and reset her mind, Olive takes it.

I loved Olive! I loved her humour. Her wit. Her awkwardness. I loved her and I found her really relatable, mostly on the awkwardness and sassy humour but she was brilliant and the only character with mental illness that I enjoyed reading about! Usually mental illness characters start to irritate me half way through the book. I find them repetitive, bland and to an extent unbearable and that is simply because the characters lose their personality as the author dives head first into the illness and struggles to focus on anything else. Bourne not only lets her characters have a personality and maintenance it through the dark days but she also creates such bright and delightful characters that it keeps you engaged in reading. At no point did I want to stop reading this book and that rarely happens.

I never included snippets from the book but to sum the above paragraph about how amazing Olive is, I just had to.

Mum looks sad for a moment. “Oh, Olive, you’re not mad. You’re just…..”
“Happiness challenged”
“no…”
“Coming down with a touch of insanity?”
“No…”
“Mentally high maintenance”
She laughs at that one. “Just open the door already”

See what I mean. Funny!! Another part of the book I absolutely adored was the alpaca scene. It would have to be my favourite and no I’m not ruining it for you. You will have to read it and see for yourself how amazingly hilarious it is!

One of my other favourite parts of Are we all Lemmings or Snowflakes is that the main theme of kindness and that this message of kindness is throughout the whole book and in fact it’s their mission. And I am completed for this! I think it should be everyone’s mission to be kinder to one another because “#KindnessIsContagious”

Overall, I am obsessed with this book. I couldn’t fault anything about it, even if you tried to force me. The writing was superb, delightful and witty. The characters were amazing, realistic and relatable. And the message is loud and clear. This powerful book is such a must read for all YA lovers, and I would highly recommend this delightful book. And I swear it’s not because I am suddenly obsessed with Holly Boure and have added all her books to my wishlist…..

” Together snowflakes can form avalanches”

Rating: 5/5

ISBN: 9781474933612

Publisher: Usborne Books