This Bright Beauty

As the friend of several successful, stable bipolar friends, and an associate of more, I am finding this book has a bitterly negative underlying assumption. Yes--there are bipolar people who have bad reactions to meds, or who refuse to cooperate with treatment and take those meds. Others are not simply "unable or unwilling to accept treatment," they are DENIED treatment by our current medical coverage problems, whether they want treatment or not.That said, many gain treatment and proceed to live successful lives, have successful careers, are good spouses, employees, and parents, contributing like any other person to the world and the community. The underlying assumption that Charlotte could not ever be trusted, or allowed to care for her own daughter, or trusted to take her meds, or that the meds would be anything but misery for her? I find myself thinking of all my friends who take their meds, live their lives, obey the law, and endanger no one, and I am ready to scream in anger at the whispered slander.This book does not succeed in setting this up as a very specific failure of a specific person--it comes across as a more general proof that no bipolar patient can ever really be trusted: that the homeless, destitute, and impoverished, living in filth on the streets, are made up of Those Sick People who won't allow themselves to get well. If the author had succeeded at communicating the first, I would be impressed with this novel. Instead I am inclined to think she's feeding the bias our culture already demonstrates, with an added smug moral gloss as Charlotte proves more and more selfish and incapable of rational choice or self-control.

This was a very good book. It had me interested from the beginning. It is about twin sisters. One twin,Lottie is injured and the other twin, Franci flies across the country to help take of her. This occurred after a phone call from a neighbor telling Franci that Lottie has a baby that is in her care until family can get there. Franci was confused as she had been out to see her sister 7months before that and Lottie never mentioned being pregnant. This story continues to unfold and Franci learns that Lotti has kept a dark secret about their mother's death. Lotti is also suffering from some mental health issues that requires the use of medication that she doesn't always take. The ending was kind of a surprise for me. This is a good read.

This Bright BeautyEmily CavanaughNarrated by Cristina PanfilioCavanaugh’s poignant family drama highlights love and loss, the bond of sisters, of twins, the tragedy of mental illness and the heartbreak of its heredity. Hidden in the pages of this fantastic fictional novel are frighteningly real mental illness details, the white and black of bipolar disorder, the bleakness of depression the limitlessness of loved ones reaching out a helping hand and the sometimes powerlessness of the victim to accept the help. The author’s using only first names somehow makes the characters more intimate, her portrayal of Lotty’s mania is hauntingly genuine while her portrayal of Francie is grounding. The story moves quickly via a fluent powerful narrative that’s both hopeful and helpless both full of joy and full of sadness that will pull on reader’s heartstrings with an ending that will break reader’s hearts but with a clear message to never give up.The narration of Cristina Panfilio is amazing, articulate and emotion filled. Her voices of Francie and Lotty are fantastic and her men’s voices are good too, but when it comes to the voices of the children characters this narrator rocks!Summary:Identical twins Charlotte (Lotty) and Francie spent the early years inseparable where older by minutes Lotty always took care of her younger more fragile sister. But when they lose their mother at seventeen to a terrible accident the roles reverse when Lotty is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and Francie suddenly becomes the stronger twin. Life changes again when Francie moves across the country to begin a life without her sister yet knowing she’s leaving Lotty in the capable hands of her longtime boyfriend, Whit. When Lotty has an accident and needs help, even though they’ve been estranged for the past year or so, Francie wastes no time leaving behind her own twins and husband in Boston to head to California to once again care for her sister. When she arrives she’s gobsmacked by how Lotty’s life has changed since they last spoke and the surprises just keep on coming.

This was a fairly good book, but I thought it started stronger than it finished. I felt a big disconnect with the premise; there were so many references to the closeness of identical twins, yet I didn't feel as though these girls liked or loved one another much at all. Much time was devoted to describing their conflicts and differences, but no time was devoted to helping the reader understand their special bond. They didn't seem to have one. And this made so much of the story unbelievable. I thought the ending was especially unbelievable, because these twins definitely did not seem to have enough of a bond for one twin to have a sixth sense about anything happening with the other one.

This Bright Beauty is a moving and heart-wrenching tale of the complicated relationship between twin sisters Franci and Lottie. Franci has always been the stable of the two, while Lottie has battled with mental illness for most of her life. After a months-long estrangement between the sisters, Franci discovers that Lottie has made a life decision that will change the trajectory of their relationship and their family forever. Beautiful writing and captivating, authentic characters make this a must read!

Emotional and heart wrenching!! Great characters and well written, I love how the twins are connected in so many ways throughout their lives. This book will stay with you long after the last page is turned. I highly recommend this book!

This is a novel about contrasts - black or white, head or heart, health or sickness, even life or death,and about priorities - putting your sister first or you children, protect yourself or others, do what is expected or what you feel is right for you - all with a mental health theme, since one of the identical twin protagonists is bipolar.The twins, Franci and Lottie, act as narrators, allowing the reader to get to know them as individuals and appreciate their often diametrically opposed points of view. I have read some other novels focusing on mental health issues recently (try 'My Sister and Other Liars' by Ruth Dugdall for an amazing first person portrayal of anorexia and Han Kang's poetic description of the fragmentation of a mind in 'The Vegetarian') and found it satisfying and interesting to learn more about mental conditions. This book, perhaps to a slightly lesser extent, engenders an understanding of bipolarity (as well as the complexities of being a twin) through the two well-drawn and utterly believable protagonists.Lottie describes the highs and lows of bipolarity as White and Black, giving Emily Cavanagh the opportunity to use a whole rainbow of colour-related imagery in Lottie's thoughts: 'A black anger at myself. A jagged red streak of love. The gleaming silver of guilt. The pink hope of possibility. All tinged by the yellow pallor of fear.' I could pick out more examples of Cavanagh's beautiful writing - her similes and metaphors are a particular strength, but it would make the review unnecessarily long. Suffice it to say that it is s book that will stay with me for a long time for both its content and its style.

This story is about family, mental health and the ties that not only bind us to each other but ensnare those around us in our perceptions of the world. It's quite easy reading - I had a little over four hours on a return train journey yesterday so I finished it in a day - yet the story has a depth I didn't expect. Cavanagh writes vividly from the perspectives of both Franci and her bipolar twin Lottie, illustrating the complete ineptness of 'black and white' answers when dealing with mental health. Unfortunately the too-neat ending was something of a let-down so overall, only an okay 3-star rating from me.

This is a well written story of twin sisters, one of them having bipolar. An interesting insight to living with the condition, the effects it can have on family members, about being responsible for a sufferer and an explanation of why some sufferers go off their meds (with predictable consequences). Would love to read more from this author.

I loved the concept of this book - twin stories always fascinated me - and the “taking turns” narrative was appealing. While the ‘reveals in the plot was somewhat predictable, given the nature of the mental illness depicted it was realistic. Written with empathy and insight, from both characters viewpoints, there was a sad inevitability to the conclusion. My only criticism is that I feel the last chapter was overly long or even superfluous.

Compelling story built around the points of view of twin sisters; taking the quote that there are two sides to every story to its absolute elastic limit. The two main characters are well drawn however some of the more minor characters remain a little shadowy. The plot races along nicely with the past used to colour in the lines and round things out. Again though some of it is skimmed over a bit and I feel that although the central characters were well realised more subtlety could have used in demonstrating the differences between them.