Many thanks, RaRaResources for inviting me to take part in Jo Johnson’s blog tour for ‘Surviving Me’, and for the ARC. Here is my review:
Deceit has a certain allure when your life doesn t match up to the ideal.
Tom has decided he doesn’t want to live. Adam wishes he had a choice.
Tom’s lost his job and now he’s been labelled ‘spermless’. He doesn’t exactly feel like a modern man, although his double life helps. Yet when his secret identity threatens to unravel, he starts to lose the plot and comes perilously close to the edge.
All the while Adam has his own duplicity, albeit for very different reasons, reasons which will blow the family’s future out of the water.
If they can’t be honest with themselves, and everyone else, then things are going to get a whole lot more complicated.
What does TWG think?
If you’re ever feeling a little tipsy and are needing to sober up pretty quickly, ‘Surviving Me’ will be the perfect thing to do just that. This book really opened my eyes to Huntington’s disease, something which isnt spoken about often. Unfortunately I, like many others, have been affected by suicide in one form of another, and Jo Johnson has incorporated that topic into the storyline via a male protagonist. According to various statistics, suicide amongst males is one of the biggest killers, so I was very impressed by the way in which the author gave that topic the spotlight it needed. Whether you’re male, female, animal; it’s okay to be sad, its okay to ask for help.
The relationship dynamics in the storyline were quite unique and astounding at the same time. Tom and Siri seemed to have issues with communication, with Siri herself being good at belittling her husband. Adam and Heather had issues with a belittling spouse as well, yet there seemed to be a lot more to their relationship than the readers were aware of.
I found the belittling spouses quite unsettling to read as, from someone being on the outside looking in, I didnt think it was right of them to do that. I loved Harry though, he was such a consistent character who definitely had his priorities straight.
I said at the start of this review that the storyline was very sobering, and what I meant by that was the way in which the story held it’s own with its poignancy and emotive topics.
Despite the seriousness of the book, I really enjoyed following the lives of four different people, and I ended up being completely blindsided by the revelations I came across – an all round, heartwarming and powerful read that will make you sit up and take notice.
The Writing Garnet 