REVIEW: Perfectly Damaged - E.L. Montes

***** 5 STARS

“The sadness will last forever” Vincent Van Gogh

“How can you fix me when I can’t even fix myself?”

“Live for today, push for tomorrow”

What a book. I’m just wiping my nose and drying my face from all the tears, my head hurts from all the sobbing, and my heart swells with emotion. The good and the not so good.

This books talks about mental disease, schizophrenia and depression to be exact. The first one is really hard to get and I can’t even begin to comprehend what it means to have to live with it. And my heart, thoughts, good vibes and the little strength I have, goes to those who suffer from this condition. However, I do know about depression, I’d live on and off with it for the last, give or take, 7 years of my life, not in big levels, but this past few years it’s been harder with all the grown up stuff that we have to deal with. Anyway, this book, touch me deeply and like very few. In no way I’ve had it as bad as Jenna, the leading female of this book, but still somehow I could relate in some levels.

In no way is a light book, it wasn’t for me, I started crying in page 11 I think, but don’t distress, I laugh and smile and even feel some butterflies throughout the book as well. But if I’m being honest, some of the scenes were really hard to read, they were harsh, but unfortunately they were real.

It reflects with such reality, still having in consideration that is a work of fiction, the struggle of people who suffers from mental illness or conditions. In both ways, internally and socially, it goes through the relationships between a patient and its family, friends and lovers and it makes you realize how hard we are with those who we think aren’t normal only because we think or see them as different from us and from what is the socially accepted as normal. But it’s also a book that shows that however we are, there’s always a light to reach, there’s always the possibility of getting better still having at account that life is not perfect and that some days are much better than others. It shows that we can still found love however we are, on family, friends, and even in hot boys, or just good (for us) boys for that matter. But that all of this is especially true if we first learn to accept ourselves the way we are and to love ourselves with the good, the bad and the gray. Nothing is truly fine until we realize that, and especially when we agree to ourselves more than to anyone that with our wills and some help (medicine, psychotherapy, art, friends, family, meditation, sports, etc.), that we can be better and live step by step, day by day.