Our latest charity book : Making Lemonade

 Trigger warning: this story refers to a suicide 

They knew something was wrong. But no one spoke up.

When something terrible happens to fourteen-year-old Joanne Wilson, it shatters the heart of an ordinary street in an ordinary town. During the following twelve months, the residents of Station Square have their own stories and secrets to tell. Did tea-leaf-reading mystic, Maisie, see it coming? What about Joanne’s close friend, Adrian? Or her family friend, Elizabeth? Each of them faces an excruciating question: Could they have prevented this tragedy?

Making Lemonade is a poignant exploration of community, loss, and the cost of silence.

All profits will be donated to the charity PAPYRUS.

 

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This is one of the most extraordinary books I have read because of both its unique style and the involvement and empathy created with a young teenager, her tragic decision and the impact on all her neighbours. Each character in the story is written by a different member of the Canvey Writers group but these all connect in one satisfying sense of one novel. Debz Hobbs Wyatt has brought all her own short story, novel writing and editor skills to inspire and make this happen.
All the characters live on a fictional square and each story explores their connection to this young daughter of a neighbouring family. From the ‘good’ doctor to Piper an alcoholic actress with her own suffering and guilt all the characters reflect on the impact of a young neighbour taking her own life. What could each one have done to help? Why did no one notice the way Joanne was feeling?
Although the subject matter is harrowing the book explores this through different viewpoints and grips the reader to know more about all these different neighbours as each one has their own story to tell, idiosyncrasies and challenges. There is a connection to Joanne and her diary at the beginning of each chapter with a quote from the book she never finished ‘ Catcher in the Rye’ and a short sentence or two from her diary. There is a very powerful twist to these words at the end of the book. Certainly a book to talk and discuss with young people and show there can be ways to help or find help or another way forward when feeling so desperate.