‘The Other Place’ by Elizabeth Roderick
Book details:
Publication date: July 5th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult
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Synopsis:
Living in Justin Flaherty’s mind has never been easy. Unfortunately, things are about to get much worse…
At eighteen years old, most guys are chasing girls or dreams. Justin, on the other hand, wants to draw and be left alone. He’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but it’s more than that. He’s in tune with the Dark Energy that surrounds us all, and can see how it controls people’s actions. Sometimes, the Dark Energy will give him visions, to help him on the road to enlightenment.
When his mother hooks up with a Baptist preacher named David who believes Justin’s schizophrenia can be cured with prayer, Justin knows he has to get out—or risk involuntary commitment in a religious facility.
After a brush with incarceration, Justin takes off to San Francisco, where his drawings are not just noticed, but admired…
Justin’s bizarre and beautiful drawings create a stir in the art world. Meanwhile, he’s homeless, couch surfing, and trapped in a continuous battle with his mental illness. His salvation is a girl named Liria Czetski with a shady past. They’d met a year ago, and she’s appeared in his visions ever since. It turns out Liria has been sharing those visions, something that is a surprise to everyone but Justin…
When secrets surface, Justin is forced to realize that being a genius has a downside. Surrounded by people who want to exploit his talent, he must fight not only for his career and freedom, but perhaps for his life…
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14759014.Elizabeth_Roderick
Amazon UK:
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My Review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 out of 5 stars
When I first read about ‘The Other Place’ by Elizabeth Roderick I knew straight away that this book would be like nothing I read before. It is the second book in a series and I wasn’t aware of that when I signed up to this blog tour. Luckily it turned out that it is not necessary to have read the first one, but it would probably make this book even more complex because characters of the first book are being mentioned.
What caught my attention first is Elizabeth Roderick’s writing style. It is just beautiful how she captured Justin’s character and his struggles. My emotions were all over the place while reading this book, from being moved and amused to anxious and sad. It is just so complex! Especially after Justin runs into Liria, a girl he has met a year ago. It turns out that Justin and Liria are sharing visions and the whole story turns into roller coaster where it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between reality and dreams.
I would love to say so much more about this book, but this review would end up with lots of spoilers, but I highly recommend this book!
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AUTHOR BIO:
ELIZABETH RODERICK grew up as a barefoot ruffian on a fruit orchard near Yakima, in the eastern part of Washington State. After weathering the grunge revolution and devolution in Olympia, Washington, Portland, Oregon and Seattle, she recently moved to a small cluster of houses amidst the vineyards of California’s Central Coast.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and worked for many years as a paralegal and translator. She is a musician and songwriter, and has played in many bands, rocking some instruments she doesn’t even know the real names for, but mostly guitar, bass and keyboards.
Elizabeth writes novels for young adults and adults; short stories; and memoir which is way more interesting than it should be. Her stories are about love, death, gang warfare, and madness; her characters tend to be of the type that society generally shuns: addicts, convicts, and the mentally ill. She believes if people get to know these characters in stories and in real life, they’ll find them more likeable than they originally thought.
She applies Hunter S. Thompson’s Gonzo method to fiction writing. It often gets a little heavier than what she had in mind, but she chalks it up to forced consciousness expansion.
Author links:
http://talesfrompurgatory.com/
https://www.facebook.com/elizabethroderickauthor
https://twitter.com/lidsrodney
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Thank you to Xpresso Book Tours for letting me be part of this Blog Tour!
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Ela's Book Corner 
Great review, Ela! This sounds like a well written read! Glad you liked it! 🙂
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Thank you! I really enjoyed it. I’m going to get myself the first book now! 🙂
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The intersection between speculative fiction and mental illness is a fascinating place to center a plot. This sounds stunning, I’m going to have to go look up the first book in the series now and see if this might be worth shuffling onto my own TBR…
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