Review - Arabelle's Shadow by Fleur Gaskin

Release Date: November 25th 2012

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Format: eBook

Buy it: Amazon

Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Everything in Arabelle's life is coming together. She has confidence, great friends, she's even dating Naak, a wealthy Thai socialite. But there are too many models in Bangkok. Arabelle’s broke, she can’t find an agent in New York, and Naak isn’t as wonderful as he first appears. Slowly the Shadows creep back into Arabelle’s mind, bringing with them thoughts of hopelessness and despair. The vile Shadows know something Arabelle’s refusing to remember and, if she’s not careful, they’ll use it to destroy her. Based on a true story, Arabelle’s Shadows takes us on a journey through the struggles of growing up, not quite making it as an international model, and attempting to overcome a crushing depression.

My review: I received a copy of Arabelle's Shadow to review.

Arabelle's Shadow is based on a true story and is written in diary form. The story takes the reader through what Arabelle was going through during her dark time with depression.

The story shows the ups and downs and it seems that when something is going right for Arabelle something then goes wrong and she would fall back into depression again.

The book was written to give a great message, the message I got was to always look for the positive in life no matter how down and depressed you are feeling. I can sort of relate to this at the moment with university and after finishing the book I decided to look to the positive about my course instead of focusing on the negatives all the time.

Arabelle sometimes annoyed me at points in the book but only because she would keep making the same mistakes over and over again. The book also sends the message to people who want to be a model that it isn't as easy as they think and that message was delivered really well.

Even though the book is in diary form it doesn't mean that the story is in order. The chapters are about things that happen during Arabelle's life so they flick back and fourth throughout the book which was confusing sometimes as I had to try to remember if it was a past memory, a present memory or a dream.

Just because someone tells you that you cannot do something that doesn't mean that you cannot do something else that relates to that type of job. For example someone who wants to be a teacher but does not have the credits to get onto the right course at university to do teaching, it does not mean that they cannot work in a school doing something else like being a Learning Support Assistant or a Teachers Assistant instead.

Overall I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who likes to read diaries and coming of age stories.

Currently Reading: Perfect Scoundrel by Ally Carter
Currently Reading: Undiscovered by Jessica Brody

Read in 2014: 5/40