A review by coffeebreakwithrachel
Meredith, Alone by Claire Alexander
4.0
Meredith hasn't left her home in 1214 days. She shops online, gets her groceries delivered, and works a remote job. Her cat, Fred, keeps her company and she spends her free time either reading, baking, or working on jigsaw puzzles. Meredith interacts online with an online social group and slowly starts becoming closer to one of the woman on the forum, Celeste.
Meredith only interacts physically with a select few people - the grocery delivery man, her best friend Sadie, Celeste, a 10-year-old neighbor (Jacob), and Tom, a member of an organization that comes to keep her company and makes sure she is doing okay. She has family near by but it is complicated.
Meredith was not always like this, but traumatic events in her life changed her completely. Now, even the thought of leaving her safe haven, her home, makes her anxiety sky rocket and even triggers panic attacks. We follow Meredith's journey through dealing with depression, trauma, and anxiety.
This book was beautiful. Meredith is a sweet and likable woman. The dual timeline allows us to really get to know all that she has been through and get a sense of the kind of person she is. I love how we progressively start seeing how Meredith allows new people to enter her life and open up to them. The side characters are just amazing and so supportive, which is exactly what someone with depression needs.
The pace of this novel is on the slower side but it is appreciated because anything else would've been too rushed. The author did an amazing job covering sensitive topics like mental health, sexual assault, the life-long affect's of verbal abuse and neglect on a child, and domestic violence. If you need a book that will touch your heart and have you cheering for a fictional characters growth and healing journey, pick this one up.
Thank you so much Netgalley, Grand Central Publishing, and the author for this ARC.
Meredith only interacts physically with a select few people - the grocery delivery man, her best friend Sadie, Celeste, a 10-year-old neighbor (Jacob), and Tom, a member of an organization that comes to keep her company and makes sure she is doing okay. She has family near by but it is complicated.
Meredith was not always like this, but traumatic events in her life changed her completely. Now, even the thought of leaving her safe haven, her home, makes her anxiety sky rocket and even triggers panic attacks. We follow Meredith's journey through dealing with depression, trauma, and anxiety.
This book was beautiful. Meredith is a sweet and likable woman. The dual timeline allows us to really get to know all that she has been through and get a sense of the kind of person she is. I love how we progressively start seeing how Meredith allows new people to enter her life and open up to them. The side characters are just amazing and so supportive, which is exactly what someone with depression needs.
The pace of this novel is on the slower side but it is appreciated because anything else would've been too rushed. The author did an amazing job covering sensitive topics like mental health, sexual assault, the life-long affect's of verbal abuse and neglect on a child, and domestic violence. If you need a book that will touch your heart and have you cheering for a fictional characters growth and healing journey, pick this one up.
Thank you so much Netgalley, Grand Central Publishing, and the author for this ARC.