{"id":5009,"date":"2025-01-08T21:49:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T21:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/all-the-invisible-things-by-orlagh-collins-bookshine-and-readbows\/"},"modified":"2025-01-08T21:49:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T21:49:25","slug":"all-the-invisible-things-by-orlagh-collins-bookshine-and-readbows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=5009","title":{"rendered":"All the Invisible Things by Orlagh Collins \u2013 Bookshine And Readbows"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Welcome to the twelth of my \u2018Reading the Rainbow\u2019 posts and the final for this year, in which I take the books I received in my 2023 book advent \u2013 each cover representing a different colour \u2013 and review them for you!<\/strong><\/p>\n
December is RAINBOW and the book is All the Invisible Things<\/em> by Orlagh Collins. <\/strong><\/p>\n
Read on to find out more\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n
Blurb:<\/em>\u2002A warm, witty, important story about being a young woman today, and what it\u2019s like to find a real connection amid all the noise. Perfect for fans of Holly Bourne and Laura Steven\u2019s\u00a0The Exact Opposite of Okay<\/em>.<\/strong><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n
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With Pez, the days felt endless \u2013 cycling, climbing trees, sucking sour sweets till our tongues burned. I\u2019d give anything to be that girl again.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n
For four years Vetty Lake has been keeping her heart in hiding. Since her mum died and her family moved out of London it\u2019s felt so much safer not to tell people how she really feels. She\u2019s never even told anyone she\u2019s attracted to girls as well as boys.<\/em><\/p>\n
But now Vetty\u2019s seventeen and coming back to London she\u2019s determined to start living out loud. She\u2019s convinced that reconnecting with her childhood best friend Pez is the key. She was always fearless around him.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n
But when she sees Pez again, he\u2019s different. Guarded. It\u2019s like their special connection never existed. And suddenly Vetty\u2019s sure he\u2019s been hiding too.<\/em><\/p>\n
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Review:\u2002Anyone who has ever masked all or parts of themself in order to simply survive their teenage years will strongly relate to Vetty\u2019s struggle in this story. She thought returning to her childhood home and childhood best friend would also return her to her childhood state of innocent, self-accepting comfort and is dramatically horrified to discover that she carries her identity issues with her.<\/p>\n
And dramatic is certainly the word! I am an overthinker myself and tend to painstakingly analyse every social interaction but Vetty takes it to another level. Her self-analysis is so minute and painfully critical that I spent most of the book worried she would disappear in a flush of confused shame. I didn\u2019t enjoy living that experience in my teens and Orlagh Collins accurate insight into the trauma of feeling different from your peers brought it all flooding back to me.<\/p>\n
The story doesn\u2019t only cover Vetty\u2019s struggle to understand her bi-sexuality, but also touches on the difficulty of parenting a peri-puberty sibling and the dangers of porn addiction in an era when it is more accessible than ever before.<\/p>\n
But the true heart of this book is Vetty\u2019s journey to self-understanding and acceptance and her friendship with Pez \u2013 one of those true friendships where each person can be their unmasked, authentic self. I have been lucky to have experienced FOUR of those friendships in the course of my life so far (Clare, Aidan, Emily and Caroline) and so have personal experience of just how important and life-changing they can be.<\/p>\n
I hope any young overthinkers struggling with their identity who pick up this book follow Vetty\u2019s lead and come to value themselves exactly as they are, and also to treasure any true friends they make along the way.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I was just settling in, already the new girl with the dead mum and the funny name, who lives with her gay aunts. I didn\u2019t need another thing singling me out. I learned quickly to keep some stuff back, but there are times when it\u2019s as though I watched those friends from behind glass, observing them from the lens of my iPhone. Times I\u2019ve wanted to explain that what they see isn\u2019t all of me. Times I\u2019ve wondered if they\u2019ll ever know about the rest, the me that could at any point explode or take off like a rocket. Guess I never felt like explaining. I never had to explain anything to Pez. But maybe that was then, and this is now. Soon I\u2019ll be back in London anyway. Soon I\u2019ll be back to me.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Orlagh Collins, All the Invisible Things<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
About the author:<\/strong><\/p>\n
Orlagh is a screenwriter and producer from Dublin.<\/p>\n
She graduated from Dublin City University, BA (Hons) Communication Studies.<\/p>\n
After many years in feature film production she pivoted to writing. Her debut novel, No Filter<\/em> was published by Bloomsbury in 2017.<\/p>\n
All the Invisible Things<\/em>, published by Bloomsbury in 2019, was nominated for the 2020 CILIP Carnegie Medal and Shortlisted for the 2019 Irish Book Awards.<\/p>\n
She is represented by Marianne Gunn O\u2019Connor and Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks<\/p>\n
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