Everything Here is Beautiful

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free finished copy. All opinions are my own.

This book is just so gorgeous – the cover and the story!

Empathy: because the commonality among human beings is emotion, and the only way we can bridge our vast discrepancies in experience is through what we feel. Let us be humbled in the knowledge that one may never fully understand the interior lives of others – but let us continue to care. (From the dedication page)

An in-depth look at mental illness, it breaks your heart into a million little pieces and then puts it back together into a fractured, wounded whole again.

It alternates between various viewpoints, but it’s main focus is a sisterly relationship of two Chinese-American women, one who suffers from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. When Lucia on her meds, everything is fine, but when she stops taking them, everything falls apart. Miranda, living half a world away, is always the one to try to fix the problem.

In addition to the mental illness, there are underlying themes of love, exploration, and a deep sense of always being unsettled.