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The Half Life of Molly Pierce eBook Katrina Leno

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The Half Life of Molly Pierce eBook Katrina Leno

(Trigger warning for depression and suicide. Also, this review is of an ARC. Any mistakes are mine and not the author’s or publisher’s.)

Seventeen-year-old Molly Pierce is blacking out. Losing time. Sometimes it’s just a few minutes; other times, hours or even most of a day passes before she comes to. One afternoon, the Massachusetts native was halfway to New York before she woke up behind the wheel of her car.

Though this has been going on for a year, Molly can’t tell anyone: Not her parents, who already walk on eggshells around her as it is; not her sister Hazel or brother Clancy; not her best friends Erie and Luka; not even her psychiatrist Alex. She’s too afraid of what might happen. She’ll be labeled “crazy,” shipped off to a “loony bin,” perhaps. Plus, talking about it? Giving voice to her problems? Makes them real. If she can just pretend to be normal, maybe she will be. Eventually.

Plagued by chronic, crippling depression, Molly created a second personality – an alter named Mabel – to help shield her from the worst of it. Calm, collected, and capable, Mabel is everything that Molly is not – or rather, everything that Molly doesn’t recognize she is. While Mabel is content to exist in Molly’s shadow, a near brush with death brings her to the fore. And after Molly witnesses the accidental death of Mabel’s best friend, Mabel decides that she can no longer keep her existence a secret.

THE HALF LIFE OF MOLLY PIERCE begins in an almost confessional/stream of consciousness manner that pulls you right in. As the story progresses, it has a weird sort of Groundhog Day vibe that’s actually quite suspenseful. Though you’ve got the gist of the plot going in – Molly has dissociative identity disorder, like a teenage Sybil (albeit it slightly lighter and less over-the-top) – there still exist enough twists to keep you guessing ’til the end. Speaking of which, it’s wonderfully bittersweet and melancholy. I didn’t expect this book to make me cry, but it did. It got me right in the feels.

Leno does a lovely job of encapsulating the lows and low-ers of depression. As someone who’s struggled with anxiety and depression my entire life (and I mean entire; some of my earliest childhood memories are of self-harm), it was almost painful how well I could relate to Molly. Which isn’t altogether surprising, considering that Leno has been there herself.

Take, for example, this early passage:

And it’s not like…

I don’t want to kill myself.

It’s just that sometimes it feels like the whole weight of the universe settles itself on my shoulders and I can’t see the reason for anything. I don’t want to die, really, but I don’t particularly want to live.

Sometimes I wish I could slip away while I sleep. Wake up someplace better. Someplace quieter.

###

For me, it’s more like I wish I’d never been born. Just…nothing. Eternal oblivion. Not the same, but close enough.

To return to Sybil (which is given a bit of a hat tip in an oddly humorous scene) for a moment, I was expecting a slightly younger version in The Half Life of Molly Pierce. What I got was much less sensationalist look at depression, with multiple personality disorder as a sort of window into Molly’s fractured psyche.

And oh yeah, there’s a love triangle too. Ostensibly it forms the backbone of the story, but I rarely felt like it was intrusive or overbearing. Even the term “love triangle” is a bit misleading, as only one apex thinks of it as such. I’m not usually big on romance, but the telling of Mabel’s relationship with Sayer in reverse proved strangely charming and unconventional.

And the ending? Bring Kleenex. At least a box. Probably this is more of a 4 to 4.5-star read, but the ending was so moving that I nudged it up a bit. Even though my bookshelves are crammed to overflowing, I think I’ll keep THE HALF LIFE OF MOLLY PIERCE on hand for multiple reads. I liked it that much.


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The Half Life of Molly Pierce eBook Katrina Leno Reviews

I saw this on the reading list of a young woman of whom I think very highly, and who is the same age as my teenage son. Read it in a single sitting, and found myself absorbed by Molly's world from the first sentence. The writing is accessible without being patronizing; this would be a brilliant book for use with youth groups and other organizations centered around young adults, from middle school through college age, to encourage meaningful dialogue about mental illness. I would recommend it to adult friends as well, particularly parents and others who work with young adults. Very thought provoking, and left me with no choice but to seek more information and better educate myself about the issues it raises.
I'm not sure where to start with this one, because I have so many positive things to say about it. First off, the story itself is very smartly delivered to the reader and keeps you engaged throughout the process. It does one of my favorite things that a book can do Pull you along through a story arc, but leave you plenty of breadcrumbs that you can use to hypothesize what could happen next. It leaves you guessing but gives you enough space to have a little fun of your own and still be surprised at the outcome.

Second, it's a very brave book. While the author has created a very compelling story and mystery, she has also used a very realistic landscape. The reader views all of this through the eyes of a girl who is struggling with some heavy depression and mental illness, but at the same time, it's very relatable. I think many of us can remember difficult times we've had in our youth, or are having currently, and the humanizing element to the characters helps bring us in closer to the story. I really loved that aspect of it, it's very powerful.

Lastly, the writing itself is just beautiful. Very elegant prose that dances off the page and keeps you moving right along. The author has a unique voice, which in itself is worth the read, and I found myself reading some of the lines out loud simply because of how well crafted it was.

I can't recommend this book enough!
3.5 stars

I really liked this book. Even though I only gave it 3.5 stars I do strongly recommend it! This review will have no spoilers, but I'll probably be a little vague because personally I think it'd be best to go into this not knowing a whole lot.

The best way to describe this book is that it's a little like We Were Liars and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. They remind me of each other because they all have a kind of unreliable narrator. Our main character, Molly, is having these blackouts, where for various amounts of time she won't remember anything.

This book was paced really well. I never wanted to put it down! It was hard for me to relate to the characters and I was lacking a connection with them. I still was really intrigued by this book, though. Overall I thought the author did a fantastic job writing this and recommend if it interests you. Although it's only around 230 pages, I thought the author crafted a great, mysterious read.
(Trigger warning for depression and suicide. Also, this review is of an ARC. Any mistakes are mine and not the author’s or publisher’s.)

Seventeen-year-old Molly Pierce is blacking out. Losing time. Sometimes it’s just a few minutes; other times, hours or even most of a day passes before she comes to. One afternoon, the Massachusetts native was halfway to New York before she woke up behind the wheel of her car.

Though this has been going on for a year, Molly can’t tell anyone Not her parents, who already walk on eggshells around her as it is; not her sister Hazel or brother Clancy; not her best friends Erie and Luka; not even her psychiatrist Alex. She’s too afraid of what might happen. She’ll be labeled “crazy,” shipped off to a “loony bin,” perhaps. Plus, talking about it? Giving voice to her problems? Makes them real. If she can just pretend to be normal, maybe she will be. Eventually.

Plagued by chronic, crippling depression, Molly created a second personality – an alter named Mabel – to help shield her from the worst of it. Calm, collected, and capable, Mabel is everything that Molly is not – or rather, everything that Molly doesn’t recognize she is. While Mabel is content to exist in Molly’s shadow, a near brush with death brings her to the fore. And after Molly witnesses the accidental death of Mabel’s best friend, Mabel decides that she can no longer keep her existence a secret.

THE HALF LIFE OF MOLLY PIERCE begins in an almost confessional/stream of consciousness manner that pulls you right in. As the story progresses, it has a weird sort of Groundhog Day vibe that’s actually quite suspenseful. Though you’ve got the gist of the plot going in – Molly has dissociative identity disorder, like a teenage Sybil (albeit it slightly lighter and less over-the-top) – there still exist enough twists to keep you guessing ’til the end. Speaking of which, it’s wonderfully bittersweet and melancholy. I didn’t expect this book to make me cry, but it did. It got me right in the feels.

Leno does a lovely job of encapsulating the lows and low-ers of depression. As someone who’s struggled with anxiety and depression my entire life (and I mean entire; some of my earliest childhood memories are of self-harm), it was almost painful how well I could relate to Molly. Which isn’t altogether surprising, considering that Leno has been there herself.

Take, for example, this early passage

And it’s not like…

I don’t want to kill myself.

It’s just that sometimes it feels like the whole weight of the universe settles itself on my shoulders and I can’t see the reason for anything. I don’t want to die, really, but I don’t particularly want to live.

Sometimes I wish I could slip away while I sleep. Wake up someplace better. Someplace quieter.

###

For me, it’s more like I wish I’d never been born. Just…nothing. Eternal oblivion. Not the same, but close enough.

To return to Sybil (which is given a bit of a hat tip in an oddly humorous scene) for a moment, I was expecting a slightly younger version in The Half Life of Molly Pierce. What I got was much less sensationalist look at depression, with multiple personality disorder as a sort of window into Molly’s fractured psyche.

And oh yeah, there’s a love triangle too. Ostensibly it forms the backbone of the story, but I rarely felt like it was intrusive or overbearing. Even the term “love triangle” is a bit misleading, as only one apex thinks of it as such. I’m not usually big on romance, but the telling of Mabel’s relationship with Sayer in reverse proved strangely charming and unconventional.

And the ending? Bring Kleenex. At least a box. Probably this is more of a 4 to 4.5-star read, but the ending was so moving that I nudged it up a bit. Even though my bookshelves are crammed to overflowing, I think I’ll keep THE HALF LIFE OF MOLLY PIERCE on hand for multiple reads. I liked it that much.