I’ve had this proof copy of in a thousand different ways by Cecelia Ahern on my shelf for a couple of years. Her novel published in April 2023 and the paperback edition now has a really lovely cover of a heart shaped cloud with a rainbow running across it.

After I finished reading Devil’s Day, I wanted a genre shift and it prompted me to revisit the cover blurb.

Alice sees the best in people. She also sees the worst. She sees a thousand different emotions and knows exactly what everyone around her is feeling. Every. Single. Day. But it’s the dark thoughts. The sadness. The rage. These are the things she can’t get out of her head. The things that overwhelm her. Where will the journey to find herself begin?

Synesthesia

Upon starting the book, I realised quickly that Alice has synesthesia because I’ve heard about it before. Synesthesia is a cognitive ability to make sensory connections such as tasting emotions or seeing feelings as colours. The latter is what Alice has.

We learn about Alice’s synesthesia along with her. From eight years old, she doesn’t fully understand what the colours mean or why she sees them. She is overwhelmed by seeing colours everywhere, suffers from severe headaches and has to wear sunglasses to dull the symptoms.

We grow up with Alice, her siblings Hugh and Ollie, and mother Lily. They all have a very difficult childhood living with Lily who has a mental illness. On her bad days, she is smothered in negative blues or angry reds. Her neglect sends each of the children on different pathways. As Alice struggles to live with her condition, her behaviour is deemed challenging and she is sent away to an academy.

I don’t want to spoil the rest of the plot, but we continue through Alice’s life and her coping mechanisms for her condition. What she finds a curse, others see as a gift.

Cecelia Ahern

I’ve not read any of Cecelia Ahern’s previous novels (yes, that includes PS, I Love You. I must have been living under a rock.). I really enjoyed reading in a thousand different ways. It’s the first book of this year that kept me up late at night to finish it. I was interested in all the characters, and I loved the sibling relationships. Their difficult childhood felt realistic from some of the memoirs I’ve read with similar circumstances. I could understand the different roads that Hugh, Alice and Ollie each took. Their pain, anger, frustration and fears are so understandable.

I read the book quickly over one weekend. Her writing style is easy to read, and I surprised myself at how quickly I was absorbing the book. I would definitely read more of Cecelia Ahern. Given she’s a multi-million copy bestselling author, I suspect I’ll have some good fortune finding titles in the library when I next visit. I also felt I could recommend this book to my mum and friends and that they would enjoy it too.