The Promise Between Us

Veins opened, story bled

There’s that famous quote attributed to Red Smith that says, “Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed.”

When I read Barbara Claypole White’s novels, I get the sense that’s exactly what she does, but especially in The Promise Between Us.

The veil between fiction and reality seems gossamer thin, with the smallest touch one could reach through the writing and catch amazing Maise’s tear on your finger.

And because the line between here and there is so transparent, it allows Claypole White to give her readers access to what life inside OCD is like. It grows compassion for a woman like Katie Mack who often lives in a one-sided, demonized half of a headline.

It is a hard read at times. All those anxieties that many of us have as tiny whispers in the back of our minds are amplified to a deafening volume and you long to turn it down for yourself and for these characters. But that’s what builds compassion and understanding for those living with mental illness in real life.

Claypole White has a way of writing that gives her characters such depth that you’d swear you knew them.

As heavy as mental illness can be to read about, there is joy and humor and hope in these pages, too. Enough to keep you going, enough to soften the hits to your emotional guts.

Sometimes I am wary of reading an author more than once. I worry that the new book won’t quite grab me as much as the other book I read and loved, but when I read two that I love... it’s magic. I’m looking forward to the next book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great description of mental heath issues

Wow. Mental heath is a subject matter that just isn’t talked about nearly enough. This book was sometimes hard to stomach but the way it portrayed mental heath issues was so spot on. I really felt for all the characters and their struggles. It really makes you remember everyone has their own demons that you may never know anything about. I think this is a really good book that really needs read by everyone. This is a book that is going to stick with me for a very long time.

Didn't want to stop listening

This story really sucked me in. I've been wanting to try a Barbara Claypole White book since my review Susan is always raving about them. I wasn't disappointed. I did think so many of the characters having mental health issues was a bit over the top. Even though the narrator added accents I sometimes had trouble telling the characters apart when they spoke.

3 stars

For me, this story had entirely too much dialog. The speed of audible was too fast and fake sounding for other characters besides Kate b

A heart warming story!!

I loved this book. The characters go stright to the heart. I understand OCD so much better now. My heart goes put to anyone suffering with it.

Educational. Tragic. Beautiful. Inspiring.

I had never heard of Harm OCD before, so this book was a definite eye-opener. It took me a while to figure out that it was the fear of something happening that caused it, not the desire to do it. And that is really what makes this condition so truly awful - an ordinary person being beset by all of their fears exponentially.

I myself have a mild touch of OCD. I was never officially diagnosed, but I have experienced some intensely stressful situations that I know that my brain, too, has a glitch. I have to sit from the left side of a chair. If I am turning around, sometimes the direction feels wrong, and I have to turn in the opposite direction. One day at work I was putting paper into the printer but no matter how many times I put it in, it didn’t feel right. So I had to take it up and do it again. And again. And again. And again. And all the while I was feeling a ball of stress and frustration getting increasingly tighter in my stomach, because I wanted to stop but couldn’t, because the stupid paper had to ‘feel right’ when I put it down. I was close to tears until I finally yanked myself off my seat and walked away. It. Was. Horrible. So I understand completely what Katie and Maisie were going through.

I unreservedly recommend this book to everyone, because we all need to understand the power and effects of OCD. Beautiful story.

Insightful

Their was so much detail in this story about OCD and how it effects your thought process. Grateful for that insight into a condition I knew little about.

OCD Understood

Fabulous story about OCD and how tough it is to live with this mental health disorder.

Thanks barbara

I really enjoyed them as my first e books i finished them both walking to library and back

Predictable and Boring

I have OCD and I understand there are all types. This book was annoying and predictable. There was nothing about this book that made me want to continue listening to it, although I did finish it. It was very hard to get through. Sorry, I would not recommend this book and I am normally not very picky about books but this one didn't do it for me in any way.