Boy Between

I have previously read three of Amanda Prowse's fictional novels, but knew nothing of her real life so was amazed to discover, on being offered a review copy of The Boy Between for this tour, that her family was so impacted by the effects of her son's depression. Throughout this superb memoir Mandy and her son Josh take alternating chapters to recount their lives from her joy at his birth and through his childhood to the overwhelming darkness of his years of extreme depression. Each speaks honestly and candidly in their distinct voices of the true reality of depression. I found The Boy Between to be such an emotionally difficult book just to read that it frequently nearly had me in tears. I am in awe of Mandy and Josh's bravery in even beginning to write their story, let alone seeing it all the way through to publication, revisiting the hell of that experience especially when Josh's depression can never said to be absolutely cured.

The Boy Between is such a powerful and insightful memoir that I believe it should be obligatory reading for everyone, everywhere, if we are serious as a society about destroying the taboos surrounding mental health. There are so many occasions within this memoir when even a basic understanding of depression on the part of not only Josh and his family, but also the people surrounding them from friends to healthcare professionals, could have made a significance difference. Instead I found Mandy's discussion of how people have reached out to her with their own experiences, but only in response to her own openness, to be particularly poignant. To read Josh's eloquent descriptions of the reality of being locked inside a depressive existence - I don't see how it can be called life - is heartbreaking. To then calculate his statistics on the prevalence of this condition across Britain into actual people and families, and to realise that many will be hiding their illnesses simply for shame, is horrific.

I hope that The Boy Between will become widely read and will give people opportunities to open many conversations around depression and mental health generally. I bit my tongue spotting ways in which my past ignorant responses were undoubtedly unhelpful. I now have a much better idea of constructive language to use and a greater awareness of potential red flags. Josh and Mandy believe that sharing their experience will help other people to avoid the same dark places and I truly think that can. Please read The Boy Between.