Author: Shaun David Hutchinson
Genre: Young-Adult
Series: N/A
Hardcover, 368 pages
Publication: May 21, 2019 by Simon Pulse
Source: I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.
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“I wasn’t depressed because I was gay. I was depressed and gay.”
Shaun David Hutchinson was nineteen. Confused. Struggling to find the vocabulary to understand and accept who he was and how he fit into a community in which he couldn’t see himself. The voice of depression told him that he would never be loved or wanted, while powerful and hurtful messages from society told him that being gay meant love and happiness weren’t for him.
A million moments large and small over the years all came together to convince Shaun that he couldn’t keep going, that he had no future. And so he followed through on trying to make that a reality.
Thankfully Shaun survived, and over time, came to embrace how grateful he is and how to find self-acceptance. In this courageous and deeply honest memoir, Shaun takes readers through the journey of what brought him to the edge, and what has helped him truly believe that it does get better.
I’ve never been a fan of non-fiction, and a lesser fan of biographies. But my goal this year was to expand my reading and read books out of my comfort zone. So, when Brave Face was offered for review, I thought, what perfect timing! Brave Face is a memoir written by popular Young Adult author, Shawn Hutchinson who mainly pens contemporaries. Those of which I haven’t had the pleasure of reading…yet. While Hutchinson touches on similar issues in his other novels, Brave Face is his personal story, giving readers an in-depth look at the author’s life growing up in the 80’s and 90’s battling severe depression while figuring out who he was and what he wanted to be.
In Brave Face, Hutchinson covers a multitude of sensitive and triggering topics such as sex, identity, suicide, depression and drugs. Hutchinson effectively puts his life on display in a way that captures the reader like any good story but is also educational on the above mention topics in a way that’s relatable; something that cannot be taught in school or by parents/families. He tells it like it is and doesn’t sugarcoat anything for the audience. It was personal, real and raw. I appreciated every word of it.
I personally connected with Hutchinson on what it was like being an adolescent (pre, in the 90's) and dealing with depression. The angst was real back then and literally every minuscule thing or incident felt like the end of the world! But on a whole, I think this will resonate with many, if not all teens on self-discovery and identity. At one point in all our lives, we’ve questioned ourselves and I’m sure wore a ton of different masks to try to fit in and be accepted by our peers and then society. Depression was a big theme in this book and it is no joke, I’ve been there as well, and it let me just say, it will eat you from the inside out if you let the voices in your head consume you. Hutchinson’s descriptions about depression was scary accurate from the onset of it to the aftermath; showing us that it doesn’t only hurt the one depressed but goes beyond that to friends and families.
Brave Face is more relevant than ever, especially with today’s societal climate. I think it’s mainly billed towards the LGBT community, but this book was so, so much more than that. It’s a book about life and growing up. There were two beautiful nuggets of wisdom that I took from Hutchinson’s memoir, first is that, life is hard and it’s okay NOT to be okay sometimes. Everything takes time and every moment of our lives is a work-in-progress. Go at your own pace. And secondly, don’t ever feel afraid or ashamed to ask for help. We all feel lonely sometimes, but we’re never really alone.
All in all, I very much enjoyed Brave Face and am not ashamed to say that I totally ugly cried multiple times in the book. It was all sorts of beautiful, melancholic, humorous and heart-wrenching in your face awesomeness…and I was hooked from the very first page. And now, I must go and add Hutchinson’s back-list to my ever-growing TBR pile.
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