Book Review: Alter Ego by Helen Heckety
Alter Ego by Helen Heckety
Published: July 18th 2024 by Renegade Books/Dialogue
Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5 stars)
Genres: Adult // Contemporary, Feel-Good Literary
Quick Thoughts: Lionhearted in it’s exploration of disability and what it means to live with an indelible fate. Helen’s eloquent writing just hurts at times—but how it heals, too.
Reader Information:
Contains discussions of disability, mental health and on-page conversations of health and illness.
I was gifted this book via the Publisher. There was no obligation to post/give this book a certain rating. All views are my own. I remain entirely impartial.
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About This Book:
Sometimes you just need to get a little lost before you find your way back again…
Six months ago, something happened that changed everything for Hattie. The next morning, she came up with The Plan. It was time for a whole new life. That’s how Hattie ends up in a little cabin in the middle of nowhere, where the woodland stretches for miles and stars light up the night sky. Here, Hattie can be whoever she wants to be.
At two years old, Hattie was diagnosed with a condition that would alter the course of her life. Ever since then she’s had to constantly explain herself and pretend that the pitying looks don’t bother her.
If she wants The Plan to work, nobody back home can know why she really left, and nobody in her new life can know the truth about her.
But it’s not long before she’s caught in her lies – trapped between who she really is, and who she so desperately wants to be. When everything falls apart, can she piece herself back together?
If you’ve ever felt a little lost, wanted to hide, or struggled to accept yourself, you will see yourself in the pages of this book. Perfect for fans of Kirsty Capes and Daisy Buchanan, this unputdownable, hilarious and achingly relatable page-turner will break your heart, mend it anew and leave you with a smile on your face.
First Thoughts
When Dialogue Books (the Publisher) were looking for people that could relate to Alter Ego to review it, I put myself forward to be considered, almost instinctively. As my blog readers will know, I’ve had ME (a chronic, debilitating illness) for fourteen years, and so I knew I would relate to Helen’s book on a very deep level. When I was chosen, I really had to prepare myself to face a character that I’d see myself in, gathering strength to face that head-on. What I didn’t expect was for it to stitch up some wounds along the way.
My Review
Hattie has a plan. It wasn’t an overnight, rushed sort of plan either. It was meticulous, and just might work. Right? It all started after a traumatic incidence of misguided clarity months previously, when afterward she came up with a convincing plan to start a whole new life so that she didn’t have to face that kind of strife ever again. Making up a new roommate, a fake address and tangle of lies in her path, Hattie severs the tie to London for the open road toward Wales. Goodbye to her friends that, although love her deeply, treat her like she’s fragile. And most of all, farewell to Disabled Hattie.
As soon as she leaves in the car, the entirety packed with her whole belongings, New Hattie’s life begins. And New Hattie can be whoever she wants to be without people knowing her history—without knowing that, since she was diagnosed at two, she has had a disability that can affect her differently depending on the circumstances, including weakness and being fall-prone. Settling into a remote location where no one knows Old Hattie, New Hattie begins the reinvention process. Of course, she has to balance some of the tethers to her old life, writing to her friends with upbeat lies about her life and work whilst trying to play it unsuspectingly. But when her old life is clawing to hang on and interfere with her plan, Hattie finds that letting go of who you are isn’t as simple as trying to start over. Lost and not where she dreamed her new lease of life would lead her, Hattie comes to the realisation that to face the future, she needs to accept the past. But if accepting who she is should be simple, why does it feel so hard?
Overall, Alter Ego was lionhearted in it’s exploration of disability and what it means to live with an indelible fate. Helen weaves Hattie’s life with the kind of tapestry that any disabled and chronically ill person can see flickers of themselves in, and her way of eloquently writing just hurts at times—but how it heals, too. I saw my younger self in Hattie’s stubbornness to not be labelled as “disabled”, a response that is something unique to every person who falls under that category. Although I wasn’t a fan of some of Hattie’s old friends back home (regrettably seeing some of my old friends in their actions of covert ableism or just plain ignorance) someone I was a fan of was Hattie. Her heart, her will and want to live without chains to any sort of label or box. She was courageous in her search for a normal life, and although it wasn’t quite the right way to go about it in the end, I loved how her story wrapped up. A seriously uplifting, funny and heartwarming book. I can’t wait to read more from Helen.
RATING:
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Happy Reading!
